TESTIMONY
Jay Edidin, Director of Advocacy at the Women's Community Justice Association, on Budget Impacts and Over-Incarceration of Women and Gender Expansive Individuals at Rikers Island
5:31:38
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164 sec
Jay Edidin criticizes the Adam Administration's expansion of jail beds for women and gender expansive people incarcerated at Rikers Island and the cuts to community services.
- Edidin advocates for the rights of women and gender expansive people, especially on International Women's Day.
- Points out the administration's plan to significantly increase the number of jail beds, from 126 to 450, at a time when mass incarceration is on the rise.
- Highlights the disproportionate impact on women and gender expansive people, majority of whom are primary caregivers and have mental health concerns.
- Calls for prioritizing community resources and alternatives to incarceration, referencing the Women's Community Justice Association and Litman Commission's report as a roadmap.
- Urges resistance against fear mongering and the ineffective, inhumane mass incarceration system.
Jay Edidin
5:31:38
Thank you, chair nurse and members of the criminal justice committee.
5:31:42
My name is Jay Edden, and I'm the director of advocacy at the Women's Community Justice Association.
5:31:47
Like many of the people here today, I've come to speak about and on behalf of people incarcerated at Rikers Island.
5:31:53
Specifically on this international women's day, I wanna bring your attention to the budget's impact on a population that frequently gets left out when we're talking about people involved in the criminal legal system, specifically the women and gender expensive people incarcerated at the Rose Eminger Center.
5:32:08
As you already know, the Adams Administration's plans for the upcoming Queensboro jail more than triple the agreed on number of beds for women and gender expensive people.
5:32:17
From 126 to 450.
5:32:21
This is happening at a time when mass incarceration of women is rising at an alarming rate.
5:32:26
Disproportionate to either the incarceration of men or, and this is the part that should make you particularly angry, rate of criminal offense.
5:32:35
The administration has claimed that its expansion of mass incarceration is a matter of simple math beyond its control.
5:32:41
And they make this claim in the same breath as a budget that includes catastrophic cuts to community services, including our alternatives to incarceration and detention.
5:32:52
I wanna return to the women and gender expense of people currently incarcerated at RMSC.
5:32:57
77% of them are primary caregivers.
5:33:00
80% have some kind of mental health concern.
5:33:03
Either of those facts alone would justify diversion from incarceration, and together they represent a mandate.
5:33:10
And yet thanks to pressure again from the current administration, judges and prosecutors at whose sole discretion those options are available are taking less and less advantage of alternatives to incarceration and detention and sending more and more women and gender expensive people to jail.
5:33:27
So I'm asking you to resist that fear mongering and to look at the actual crime statistics and the price, human, and financial of the city's embrace of mass incarceration.
5:33:36
The destruction of lives and families, the waste of taxpayer dollars, and for what, a bloated, inhumane, and ultimately ineffective system.
5:33:45
Look at the Women's Community Justice Association And Litman Commission's paths to 100 report, which offered simple direct and a effective interventions to lower the population of RMSC below a 100.
5:33:57
Look at the data on reoffense and how it differs between incarceration and ATI's.
5:34:02
Mara Adams, Docs, and the n I NYPD will tell you that mass incarceration is the cost of safety.
5:34:08
You and I know that it is not.
5:34:11
I call on this committee to prioritize community resources and alternatives to incarceration and to resist the growing sprawl of the burrow jails.
5:34:20
Thank you for your time and the opportunity to testify.