PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jennifer Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project
3:19:23
·
178 sec
Jennifer Parish from the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project testified on several proposed bills related to the treatment of incarcerated individuals in NYC jails. She expressed support for the bills and criticized the opposition to some proposals, particularly focusing on the importance of notifying families about emergencies and increasing transparency around deaths in custody.
- Emphasized the importance of person-first language in legislation
- Argued that CHS could easily implement a system for notifying families about emergencies
- Stressed the critical nature of Intro 423, which addresses transparency and family rights in cases of inmate deaths
Jennifer Parish
3:19:23
Good afternoon.
3:19:24
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
3:19:26
My name is Jennifer Parish, and I work at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project.
3:19:30
First, I wanna thank the council members who are co sponsoring all the bills here today.
3:19:35
It shows that you've been paying attention to what's happening in the city jails and paying attention to the people who come and testify at this hearing and what's reported in the press.
3:19:44
And the family members and loved ones that people incarcerated.
3:19:48
Many of them are just simply about recognizing that people are people.
3:19:52
I mean, council member coupons, Bill puts that in the record of all the language located in it, and I think it's important because the way we speak about people affects how they treat them.
3:20:05
I was planning on talking mostly about 423, but I was really surprised by CHS's opposition to 4:12.
3:20:14
That seems like a simple bill based on the fact that we know people who are incarcerated have loved ones in the community that care about them.
3:20:22
And when something bad happens to them inside, they should be notified.
3:20:26
They told you that they already have a system where they get authorizations from people for all different things.
3:20:31
There's no reason there couldn't be one more authorization, check boxes of when you want someone notified under those different situations, and who it is you want to be notified.
3:20:41
Unlike department of correction, they actually have an electronic medical record.
3:20:45
So finding this information wouldn't be that hard.
3:20:48
They told you they have patient relations.
3:20:51
So there's someone who could reach out in the situation of an emergency.
3:20:54
Tell someone your brother's being taken to Bellevue, Okay?
3:20:58
And tell Bellevue, this is the emergency contact.
3:21:01
So when you have something about the person's care, you can give them more details.
3:21:06
So I think it's something that they could easily implement.
3:21:09
But going back to 423, this is critical.
3:21:11
I mean, it's critical for the way that we treat families in terms of being able to get belongings back and be able to get video of what happened, you you heard what you'll have to go through.
3:21:22
There's a whole bureaucratic process around it.
3:21:24
But we also need to make sure that DOC is transparent and tells us about deaths You wouldn't think that that was needed, but the commissioner the previous commissioner showed us that it is.
3:21:34
Also, the border correction has done a good job recently in issuing reports about deaths, but they haven't always done that.
3:21:42
In fact, in the 16 deaths that happened in 2021, there were no reports about them until September 2022 when a different leadership of the board came in.
3:21:52
And even this year, they chose not to report on the death of Roy Savage.
3:21:58
To them, it happened in while the person was in custody, but in on hospital, so they didn't think it needed to be looked at.
3:22:04
But clearly, it does.
3:22:05
You heard from the first panel from his family about how disrespected they were.
3:22:10
Another piece of 423 that's important is making DOC respond to the recommendations.
3:22:16
That doesn't happen now.
3:22:17
I see out my times out, and I'll submit written testimony.
3:22:20
Thank you.
