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Q&A
Impact of resources and staffing levels on BOC's oversight capabilities
4:30:52
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91 sec
Council Member Diana Ayala inquires about how resources and staffing levels have affected the Board of Correction's ability to fulfill its oversight role, particularly in conducting and publishing reports on deaths in custody and PREA compliance. BOC Executive Director Jasmine Georges-Yilla explains the significant impact of limited resources on their operations.
- The special investigations team, responsible for death investigations, recently expanded from two to three people.
- BOC would need a significant increase in staff and resources to conduct more audits and assessments of minimum standards.
- The special investigations unit was established in 2021 and has gradually increased its staff over the years.
Diana Ayala
4:30:52
How have resources and staffing levels impacted your to fulfill your oversight role including conducting and publishing reports on deaths in custody, PREA compliance, and other?
Jasmine Georges-Yilla
4:31:05
I think the lack of resources to be able to hire more staff has severely impacted us.
4:31:12
We're not able to put out as much reporting and conduct as much audits as we would like because our, for instance, our death investigations, our special investigations team who investigates deaths is only a three person team and that's recent.
4:31:29
It used to be a two person team, and so conducting audits and assessments of all of the board's minimum standards will take a dramatic increase in our staff to be able to do that sort of work, which the the board's minimum standards envision doing and and I believe the council envisions that being our mandate.
4:31:50
So I think we would need a significant increase in our staff and resources to be able to do that.
Diana Ayala
4:31:57
Has it historically been just two?
Jasmine Georges-Yilla
4:32:00
The special investigations unit?
Diana Ayala
4:32:02
Yes.
4:32:03
Do you want to
Jasmine Georges-Yilla
4:32:04
speak to that?
4:32:04
I'll turn it over to our general counsel and deputy executive director.
Melissa Cintrón Hernández
4:32:09
The unit started a few years ago, I believe in 2021 with a director.
4:32:14
A year after that, we added a special investigations coordinator and just this year we onboarded an additional special investigations coordinator.