TESTIMONY
Hannah May Powers on the Urgency of Closing Rikers Island and Addressing its Fiscal Inefficiencies
4:48:26
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161 sec
Hannah May Powers, representing the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President, argues for the closure of Rikers Island by 2027, citing financial inefficiencies and a humanitarian crisis.
- Powers discusses the exceedingly high cost of incarcerating individuals on Rikers Island compared to other similar systems.
- She highlights Mayor Adams' proposed budget cuts to essential programs that reduce incarceration rates and support reentry.
- The testimony identifies excessive spending on Department of Corrections (DOC) staff salaries, benefits, and overtime as a significant issue.
- Powers proposes reallocating funds toward mental health, youth investment, and alternatives to incarceration to address the injustices on Rikers Island.
- The urgency to invest public funds in supporting, rather than incarcerating, community members is stressed throughout the testimony.
Hannah May Powers
4:48:26
Good afternoon, Chair Chairner's, and thank you also to the members of the criminal justice committee for holding this hearing today.
4:48:34
My name is Hannah May Powers, and I'm here today on behalf of Brook Brooklyn borough president, Antonio no such to say unequivocally that Ryker's Island must be closed by the legally mandated date of August 31, 20 27.
4:48:46
According to the Vera Institute, the Department of Corrections spends more than $556,100,000 per person per year currently incarcerated on Rikers Island.
4:48:57
This is nearly 350% more per person than the Los Angeles and Cook County Systems.
4:49:03
Yet Riker I Rikers Islands remains in a humanitarian crisis.
4:49:08
Even a single death of an incarcerated person is too many.
4:49:11
However, thirty people have died on Ryker's Island alone since January 2022.
4:49:17
Despite these egregious numbers, mayor Adams wants cut funding to some of the most impactful research driven programs that help keep people out of jail.
4:49:25
These budget cuts include 6,700,000 for all alternatives to incarceration, 13,000,000 for supervised release, and 8,000,000 for reentry services.
4:49:35
The most bloated areas of spending for DOC, 88.3 of agency expenses are staff salaries, benefits, and overtime.
4:49:43
There are approximately 901 current vacancies of uniformed DOT staff, yet even with these, The ratio of uniform staff to incarcerated individuals is more than four times the national average.
4:49:56
Rightsizing DOC by cutting the vacancies could free up $162,000,000 in fiscal year 2025 alone.
4:50:03
It is also necessary to hold uniformed DOC employees accountable for chronic absenteeism.
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As of December 2023, the number of uniformed DOC off servers taking sick leave is nearly twice that of pre pandemic rates within the department.
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Approximately 8.49% of uniformed DOC employees are out sick on any given day, which is nearly twice the rate of NYPD and FDNY.
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Agencies that also have unlimited sick time.
4:50:32
Relevant budget areas include, Justice involves support housing and mental health safety net, increasing the board of correction headcount, increasing and funding alternatives to incarceration, investing in our youth, and keeping our communities out of Rikers Island for their own safety.
4:50:50
Thank you for this opportunity to participate in the hearing today.
4:50:53
The Brooklyn borough president looks forward to working with you to ensure that we can keep our commitments to all New Yorkers and address the many injustices happening daily on Rikers Island.
4:51:03
It's time to invest our public dollars to supporting our neighbors instead of incarcerating them.