The Fortune Society Testifies At New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice Oversight Hearing on the FY 2023 Preliminary Budget 

The Fortune Society Testifies At New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice Oversight Hearing on the FY 2023 Preliminary Budget 

(March 23, 2022 – New York, NY) – Andre Ward, Associate Vice President at the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy at The Fortune Society (Fortune), testified before the New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice at an oversight hearing on the Fiscal Year 2023 Fiscal Budget on March 23, 2022. 

Good afternoon, Council Committee Chair Rivera and Members of the Committee: 

My name is Andre Ward and I am the Associate Vice President of The David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy at the Fortune Society. The Fortune Society is a 54-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 correctional system. 

I am a formerly incarcerated Black man who spent three and a half years on Rikers Island, from 1988 to 1992, as both an adolescent and adult. During this period, I experienced and witnessed countless episodes of abuse and neglect, including frequent medical and mental health neglect, and the inadequacy of programming which properly prepares those detained for community reentry. Investing in public safety must include supports for those reentering our communities, such as behavioral health services, substance use treatment, medical care, and employment support and, equally as important, discrimination-free housing to prevent homelessness and the damaging prison-to-shelter pipeline.

2022 marks 30 years since I was at Rikers, yet according to research and the experiences of the people we serve, Rikers Island continues to perpetuate the deplorable conditions of the past, including inadequate support for those with mental health needs.th More than 40% of its population have a mental health diagnosis. The 18 people who have died on Rikers since January 2021 reminds me of what I, myself, witnessed as a young man: The death of fellow detainees, both as a result of those incarcerated harming one another as well as correctional officers abusing detainees. It is important to note that 85% of people incarcerated at Rikers are awaiting trial and are presumed innocent, and none of them deserves a death sentence, which we outlawed in 2007. 

It is also important to note that the court-appointed Nunez monitor issued a special report just one week ago on March 16 – outside of the normal reporting schedule – because conditions have become so dire that the Monitor considers reform to be impossible until certain foundational issues are addressed.  Chief among those issues, and the first listed, is “(1) ineffective staff management, supervision, and deployment.” The issue of staff not being at their posts has not improved, contrary to DOC claims.    

There has been little to no improvement in numbers of staff available to work with people in custody.  As of January 26, 2022, 30% of staff are either not reporting to work and/or are not available to work directly with people in custody.  That sets the stage for a rise in violent incidents – by people in custody against each other, against staff, and for staff use of force against people in custody.  Three people have died at Rikers so far this year, the most recent of whom, Herman Diaz, died choking on an orange while no staff came to his aid – because no staff was present.  And countless violent incidents resulting in serious physical injury have occurred because posts have not been filled with uniformed officers as required.

Also disturbing are these two quotes from the Special Report: First – “the Monitoring Team’s staffing analysis which found that the Department cannot accurately identify where staff are assigned or their status at any given time.”  And second – “the dysfunction is so profound and pervasive that even a basic post analysis identifying where staff should be and when is impossible to conduct at this time.” Furthermore, on the Department at least temporarily stopped providing staffing information to the Nunez monitor, and we hope they will resume providing that data as promised this month. 

I bring all of this to your attention because uncovered posts are costing lives.  I hope the City Council and the Board of Correction will demand, receive, and analyze weekly reports of the number and percentage of shifts that have gone uncovered or have experienced gaps in coverage. 

I am encouraged by Governor Hochul’s expressed interest in improving the legal system. I was also encouraged to learn from Mayor Adams’s Financial Plan Summary for this year that New York City has the largest reserves in city history, and that the mayor is committed to investing in longer-term crime prevention in the interest of public safety, like fixing broken schools. As part of that prevention strategy, we implore the Council to: 

• Take the recommendations of the Commission on Community Reinvestment and invest in the communities most impacted by mass incarceration.
• Take immediate steps to aid people who are expecting release to remove the obstacles impeding successful reentry back into the community. This can be accomplished by funding programs which begin before release including continuous medical and mental healthcare, substance use treatment, entitlements and benefits, employment, education—and housing that is free from discrimination. These investments are not only humane and common sense, but are genuinely within the interest of public safety. Having these types of programs in place have been proven, time and time again, to greatly curb recidivism,13 which means reduced crime and improved community safety. We cannot expect reduced recidivism unless we take bold steps toward making successful reentry within reach. 

 In 2021, New York City spent nearly 3 times more for each incarcerated individual than the second most expensive jail system in the country, which translates to almost half a million dollars per person, per year. The spending is increasing steadily, even as the numbers of those incarcerated decrease. This is both unprecedented and unnecessary. When we are spending far more on incarcerated individuals than we are in investing in communities and reentry programs, this is clear evidence that something is terribly wrong – and must be fixed. A reallocation of funds could make these essential changes. 

Let us give voice to the voiceless: We ask of you today to put funds where they can be best used – toward solving the inhumane and unjust treatment of people who are incarcerated and supporting reentry and community uplift. We are respectfully requesting the following: 

• Close Rikers; which is, as our CEO Joanne Page aptly described, “a pulsing tumor on our beloved city,” where people in DOC custody are subject to some of the worst jail conditions in the country – it must be closed without delay. Even shutting down two jails on the Island would save the city $11 million per year.
• Reallocate the bloated budget for the DOC, where they far outspend any other city with far fewer incarcerated people,and invest in reentry programs with proven histories of reducing recidivism. Let’s begin these programs pre-release, so people can face reentry with the tools they need to succeed.
• Following the Mayor’s recommendation, let’s invest in long-term prevention, and invest in people and communities to fix broken schools but also worthy alternatives to incarceration, diversion programs, resources for substance use conditions, and more, where we can genuinely help, such as ending the school-to-prison pipelines in our communities. 
• Hire no more corrections officers, and let’s instead fix the vastly wasteful current system: They are not understaffed. We currently have 1.5 officers per incarcerated person, far more than we need. Instead, we need to end the costly abuses of unlimited sick leave and guards being placed in non-jail posts, like working at the bakery or in the laundry room. In other jail systems, these positions are filled by civilians, so that the guards can fulfill their necessary obligations. To that end, too, we must create accountability for corrections officers while they are on the job – a recent investigation found that a majority of guards were not at their assigned posts, and were often found in the locker rooms or elsewhere. Let us not be part of making this system more inefficient and more bloated than it already is, and let us hold them accountable to us, the taxpayers. 

And finally, let’s take the word corrections seriously. Let’s correct the solely punitive pathways in New York City’s criminal legal system and make rehabilitation our priority. We can divert funds from the swollen, inefficient operations of the city jail system to programs with genuine promise of progress – from diversion and prevention programs to vocational training, education, mental health, and substance use treatment and reentry preparation, so that people have the opportunity to avoid incarceration or leave places of incarceration with hope and the skills and tools they need to succeed. This is not only a pathway to humane treatment, but also one with a proven track record of improving public safety. 

 Leaders such as yourselves, I am sure, remain committed to making a difference in the way the criminal legal systems operates and I deeply appreciate your time today. Yet the time is now to make these urgent changes and make a more fair and more just New York City. 

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