Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
New RFPs and changes in contract services for incarcerated individuals
3:42:02
ยท
98 sec
Council Member Stevens inquires about recent changes in contract services for incarcerated individuals, including new RFPs issued by the Department of Correction. Deputy Commissioner Nell McCarty explains the new contracts and their potential impact on services.
- DOC issued four new RFPs totaling $14 million, compared to $17 million in canceled contracts
- The new RFPs are not direct replacements for prior contracts, as they cover different topics
- Services were designed based on focus groups and surveys with incarcerated individuals
- New programming areas include post-secondary education, high school equivalency, substance misuse treatment, trauma-informed care, and reentry planning
- It's too early to predict exact outcomes, but the department hopes to see an increase in various programming opportunities
Althea Stevens
3:42:02
Under the cancel contract providers served a collective 1,700 people per day across the 200 housing units.
3:42:09
Will the services offered in those RFPs reach wait hold on, I'm sorry.
3:42:14
I want to take a moment to focus on four RFPs that DOC issued earlier this year.
3:42:20
Those four RFPs together amount to 4,000,000 and the contracts that providers held that have were abruptly cut in fiscal twenty twenty four totaling 17,000,000.
3:42:31
Under the cancel contracts, providers served a collective 1,700 people per day across 200 housing units.
3:42:37
Will those services offered and those RFPs reach the same number of people?
Nell McCarty
3:42:43
So we did open up a new RFP on January 6, which was an investment of $14,000,000 across those four RFPs.
3:42:52
What we can say is that those RFPs are not a replacement of the prior contract, so the cash amount is not going to be equal because they are actually uniquely different.
3:43:01
They're covering different topics.
3:43:02
And this was gathered through focus groups and surveys with people in custody to identify what services they were seeking additional support with.
3:43:10
With that being said, the number of people serviced, it's a little early for us to anticipate what the expected outcomes will be compared to the last contract that we had, the targeted jail based services contract.
3:43:22
But we do hope to see an increase in a variety of different opportunities from post secondary to high school equivalency programming to substance misuse programming, trauma informed care, and programming that is associated with trauma informed practices, as well as with reentry planning and transitional services.