REMARKS
Council Member Julie Won's opening remarks on jail services contracts
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Council Member Julie Won, chair of the committee on contracts, delivers opening remarks for a joint hearing on essential services for incarcerated individuals in NYC jails. She introduces the main topics of discussion, including contracts with Keefe Group for commissary services and Securus for electronic communications, highlighting concerns about these vendors' performance and the DOC's oversight.
- Won emphasizes the need to examine whether these vendors are meeting their contract obligations and if the DOC is providing adequate oversight.
- She questions the decision to continue with Keefe Group without a competitive bidding process, despite reported issues with their services.
- The council member also mentions the introduction of outside vendors during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent contract renewals without competitive bids.
Julie Won
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Thank you, chair nurse, for co chairing this hearing on essential services for people incarcerated in New York City's custody.
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My name is Julie Wen, and I chair the committee on contracts.
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Today, our committees examine contracts on vendors who provide intimate at inmates at jail at jail cells with crucial links to the outside world and basic comforts.
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In particular, we want to take a look at the work done by Keefe Group, a national company that has provided commissary services at city jails since 2021, as well as Acurus, which handles electronic communications and technology for inmates.
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The Department of Corrections began working with these outside vendors with the worthy goals of modernizing city jails, reducing risk of contraband, and improving services for inmates and their loved ones.
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But reporting in local outlets have raised questions about whether the new systems implemented by Keefe and Securus are working as promised with serious consequences for inmates' comfort and civil rights.
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Possible shortfalls raise questions about whether these vendors are meeting their contract obligations or whether Department of Corrections has been doing adequate oversight and accountability.
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City watchdogs have long raised concerns about these department of correction contracts.
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The Keefe Group contract, in particular, has been subject to criticism from the comptroller who has refused to approve the contract before being overruled by the administration.
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The city hired the Keefe Group during the early days of COVID 19 pandemic when city jails were wracked by mass absenteeism, which created emergency staffing needs that had to be filled by outside vendors like Keefe.
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But as the crisis passed, the contract was renewed without a competitive bid.
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And in 3 year and in years since, local media have reported that commissary systems run by Keefe sometimes fails to correctly deliver goods or inmates to inmates or provide adequate refunds for botched orders as well as price gouging.
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We want to understand why the Department of Corrections settled on Kyiv without a competitive bid process and what kind of oversight has been done to ensure that the city gets the service to which it is entitled.
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Corrections officials testified earlier this year that the typical competitive bidding process wouldn't have been efficient in this case and could have been disrupted could have disrupted commissary functions.
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By the system, they have settled on as a subject of a record of volume of complaints.
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So how did they decide to stick with Keefe?
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Before we begin, I'd like to thank the committee staff, senior counsel, Chris
James Conroy
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Sartore.
Julie Won
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Sartore, policy analyst Alex Yablon, and finance unit head, Owen Kotowski and Jack Story for their hard work in putting today's hearing.
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I'll turn it over back to chair nurse and the nurse and the committee council to administer the oath.