THE FORTUNE SOCIETY ISSUES STATEMENT ON A “A PATHWAY TO ENDING MASS INCARCERATION IN NYC”

The Fortune Society CEO and President JoAnne Page issued the following statement today in response to a series of proposals, “A Pathway to Ending Mass Incarceration in NYC”, announced by New York City Councilmembers Lincoln Restler and Kevin Riley.

“The Fortune Society applauds “A Pathway to Ending Mass Incarceration in NYC” released today by Councilmembers Restler and Riley. This bold and common sense plan provides a comprehensive roadmap to safely lowering the number of people in our city jails by expanding access to housing across a continuum of needs; reinvesting in robust, community-based programs and services; and ensuring that cases can be resolved expeditiously.

It now costs well over half a million dollars annually to hold a single person on Rikers Island. That stunning figure does not include the myriad of unquantifiable costs to them and their families in terms of their lost wages and lost housing; the substance use disorder and mental health conditions from which they may relapse – or even develop – while detained; or their physical health conditions that may be exacerbated due to lack of adequate medical care.

In addition, far too many people cycle between our jails and our over-stretched homeless shelters due to inadequately resourced and hard-to-access supportive housing. But there are proven alternatives. For example, providing adequate funding to the existing Justice Involved Supportive Housing initiative, and expanding the number of beds available, would allow experienced providers like Fortune and our sister agencies to pay fair market rent without doubling people up and provide robust, wraparound supportive services.

Increasing funding for the Rapid Reentry Housing contracts for emergency transitional housing would allow more people leaving our jails to be safely housed with on-site access to services. Supporting Just Home would provide appropriate supportive housing for medically complex people who would otherwise be homeless upon release and whose needs exceed what our city shelters can provide.

All of these initiatives would help break the shelter-to-jail cycle that traps some of our most vulnerable fellow New Yorkers while draining our public resources.

We could also further alleviate the pressure on our over-burdened shelters, and our scarce housing resources for people with criminal legal system involvement, by passing the Fair Chance for Housing Act which would prohibit housing discrimination against people based solely on their conviction histories.

Since January of 2022, 20 people have died after being held in our jails. Many of them had documented mental health diagnoses that went untreated. Many died by overdose. We do not need to warehouse vulnerable people in our jails to keep our city safe, and our jails are increasingly brutal environments for the people held in custody as well as the people who work there.

We know what works to keep people safely in the community, with a greater long-term likelihood of them not returning to our jails. The Fortune Society stands ready to partner with the City Council on refining and hopefully implementing this pathway to most effectively prevent people from being detained, and to most effectively support them upon their release.