Testimony of The Fortune Society on The New York City Council Committees on Criminal Justice and Hospitals

Thank you Chairs Rivera and Narcisse and members of the Committees on Criminal Justice and Hospitals for the opportunity to provide testimony. My name is Andre Ward and I am the Associate Vice President of The Fortune Society’s David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy.

The Fortune Society is a 55-year-old organization that supports successful reentry from incarceration and promotes alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities. We do this by believing in the power of people to change; building lives through service programs shaped by the experiences of our participants; and changing minds through education and advocacy to promote the creation of a fair, humane, and truly rehabilitative justice system. Unfortunately, in New York City, we are currently light years away from demonstrating fairness and humanity, and respect for basic human dignity, in how we treat people with serious medical needs who are involved in the criminal legal system.

In New York City, there are tremendous rates of inequity across the intersection of health, race, poverty, and incarceration. These inequities create what is called concentrated disadvantage in some of our most historically underserved neighborhoods – creating intergenerational cycles of poverty, poor health outcomes, and incarceration – all of which is compounded by the trauma of contact with the criminal legal system.1 And this trauma, in turn, is correlated with greater risk of many potentially life-threatening physical health conditions including cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as mental health issues and the reliance on substances for coping and self-medication.2 Because these communities of concentrated disadvantage are home to high numbers of people impacted by the criminal legal system, it is sadly not surprising that people in our jails suffer from disproportionate rates of chronic and acute diseases.3 Therefore, given the demographics of our communities of concentrated disadvantage, and the demographics of the people in our city jails, we must look at this issue of outposted therapeutic housing units through the lens of inequity and the systemic, historical neglect of our Black and brown communities.

We must also view this issue in the context of the continued crisis of mismanagement and dysfunction that pervades the operation of our city jails which has manifested in yet another death, the ninth so far this year that we know of. On October 5, 27-year-old Manesh Kunwar, who struggled with substance use disorder and mental health issues – recently spending five months in a psychiatric facility – died after only one week on Rikers Island.4 Notably, Department of Correction staff have reportedly already been suspended, which suggests that once again staff either failed to perform their duties or left posts unstaffed.5 Mr. Kunwar thus appears to be one of countless people who might still be alive were he in a different setting and provided the care he needed and, as a human being, deserved.

Last year, a judge ordered the City pay $200,000 in fines to incarcerated people who have been denied access to medical treatment.6 In June of 2023, just a single month, people held in our jails missed over 11,000 medical appointments.7 That is an increase of 21% from the previous year.8 These 11,000 appointments were missed in the context of a situation where nearly 50% of the people in our city jails have been identified as struggling with mental illness9 and 20% of people in our city jails have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.10

Furthermore, instead of spending over half a million dollars annually into holding a single person on Rikers, we should be investing in the kinds of supports and services that keep people safely in the community. The City must invest more in current JISH providers – Fortune, Urban Pathways and CAMBA – and must create more JISH units to enhance our ability to provide the kind of robust services a great number of people need when they leave our jails, and that can break the cycle of hospitalization, homelessness, and arrest.

Just last week, the federal judge overseeing the Nunez matter ordered DOC to provide her with a plan “’that can be implemented immediately to ameliorate the unacceptable levels of harm””11 to people in our jails. We cannot continue to delay the move towards closure of Rikers Island in the face of “unacceptable levels of harm” to our fellow New Yorkers. The urgent need for outposted therapeutic housing units is clear. We are nearly one year behind on opening 104 units in Bellevue Hospital.12 Our primary concern must be this: lives are at stake, and endangered, every day that we delay in moving with full speed ahead towards the lawfully mandated closure of Rikers Island.