TESTIMONY
Amanda Berman on Continued Funding for Alternatives to Incarceration and Detention
4:51:13
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3 min
Amanda Berman advocates for sustained support for alternatives to incarceration and detention, emphasizing their crucial role in public safety and cost reduction.
- Berman represents the Center for Justice Innovation, focusing on the critical need for ongoing funding for incarceration and detention alternatives.
- The testimony details the Center’s comprehensive approach across the justice continuum, highlighting successful outcomes such as reduced recidivism and cost savings.
- Specifically, Berman presents data on the success of programs like the Brooklyn Mental Health Court and the Redhook Community Justice Center, which have significantly lowered recidivism rates.
- Furthermore, she stresses the potential of these programs to contribute to the goal of closing Rikers Island by the 2027 deadline by ensuring lower jail populations.
- Berman calls for continuous investment in these proven alternatives to meet current challenges in justice reform.
Amanda Berman
4:51:13
Good afternoon, chair nurse and the team staff of this committee.
4:51:17
My name is Amanda Berman.
4:51:18
I'm here today on behalf of the Center for justice innovation.
4:51:23
And I'm here to talk a little bit more about the critical need that we face for continued funding of alternatives to incarceration and alternatives to detention, which I know you know full well on turners, how critical they are.
4:51:38
They are critical to the goals of closing rikers, improving public safety, and also producing much needed cost savings.
4:51:44
And as you said chair earlier today in your opening remarks, we should be doubling down in this moment on programs that have proven track records of reducing recidivism and promoting healing in this moment.
4:51:58
At the Center for Justice Innovation, our work spans every Burrow of the city and the entire justice continuum, beginning with community based prevention efforts through pre arraignment diversion, and pretrial supervision to alternatives to incarceration for both felonies and misdemeanors.
4:52:16
And not only do we provide these services, but we also study them.
4:52:20
We evaluate everything that we do to identify what works and spread best practices in the field to produce better outcomes.
4:52:28
What are those better outcomes look like?
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For our participants, it means meeting their immediate needs to provide a better sense of stability, and assessing their long term needs and goals and connecting them to resources and services that are designed to set them up for longer term success.
4:52:45
Whether that be part of their mandate with us or to follow-up on a voluntary basis for them after their case is over.
4:52:53
So this also includes mental health, substance use services, of course education and employment and housing just to name a few.
4:53:01
And throughout that process, we center the dignity of every person that we serve and the humanity of every one of our participants.
4:53:10
And better outcomes are also captured in our data, and that data is often reflective of what we know to be the research and the data in the field more broadly around alternatives like this.
4:53:21
So for example, our Brooklyn Mental Health Corps works with Participants who have serious mental illness and have been released to our program as an alternative to incarceration on serious felony charges.
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And we have a proven track record of reducing recidivism.
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Our active participants in that court are 46% less likely to be rearrested while they're engaged with us.
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And the graduates are 29% less likely to be re convicted.
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Similarly, through our work at the Redhook Community Justice Center, we've also managed to reduce recidivism 10% for adults, 20% for juveniles, and also resulted in cost savings of $6,800,000 year.
4:54:03
And finally, in our supervised release program, which we operate in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, we serve nearly 9000 participants a year.
4:54:13
To ensure that they return to court, I'll wrap up if if you'll indulge me with just another moment.
4:54:19
In supervised release, we are making sure participants return to court and then connecting them with services to make sure they have the stability we need.
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We have an impressive 90% appearance rate in that program even as we serve people with the most serious charges.
4:54:34
And I know that we have been IN MOMENT WHERE THERE'S A LOT OF DISCUSSION RIGHT NOW ABOUT Rikers' closure and WHETHER IT IS FEASIBLE TO MEET THE DEADLINE OF 2027 AND as we see the population increase.
4:54:47
And I think it's clear we know what the answers are.
4:54:50
We have those tools.
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We know that these programs work.
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And they can bring the Ryker's population down, and it is just critical we continue to invest.
4:54:58
So thank you for your time today.