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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Piyali Basak, Managing Director of Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem
8:31:00
ยท
155 sec
Piyali Basak from Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem presented testimony on the need for increased funding for public defender organizations. She highlighted the holistic and interdisciplinary approach of their services and emphasized the importance of competitive salaries to maintain quality representation.
- Requested a 25% increase in personnel budgets to raise existing salaries
- Asked for additional funding to support rising health insurance and occupancy costs
- Emphasized the need for more funding to support homicide contracts
Piyali Basak
8:31:00
I was saying that I wish we had the five minutes but I'll be brief.
8:31:04
My name is Piali Basak, I'm with the Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem.
8:31:08
'll introduce myself, I think my colleagues are going to introduce themselves.
8:31:12
As you know, our offices provide constitutionally mandated representation for those who are accused of crimes.
8:31:18
Collectively, our organizations thousands, thousands of largely black and brown New Yorkers each year.
8:31:25
But the council supports us, you're familiar with our work, because we're more than just public defenders.
8:31:32
We offer holistic interdisciplinary defense representation.
8:31:36
So what does that mean?
8:31:37
We work with attorneys, advocates, and administrators who work collectively because everyone is invested in our mission to fight for justice and equity for the communities that we serve.
8:31:49
Let me give you some examples of that.
8:31:51
It looks like a social worker who sits for hours with a young client who's facing arraignments, making sure they are released and able to go home.
8:32:00
It involves investigators who are being trained to keep up with the ever changing landscape of technology, which is vital to ensure that we have access to critical discovery to get cases resolved quickly.
8:32:14
Most importantly, I think so critically, it involves advocates who are accompanying clients to sometimes life saving mental health substance abuse treatment.
8:32:24
And the earlier that our teams get involved, the more successful our advocacy.
8:32:28
But we want to discuss why we need increasing funding.
8:32:31
And the greatest impact that funding has had in the last few years is that it's impacted our inability to offer competitive salaries, which my colleagues will discuss.
8:32:43
So what we are at, and I will have a joint statement to actually lay out what our specific requests are as well as to respond to some of the statements made earlier.
8:32:52
But our ask is a 25% increase on the personnel budgets of our baseline contracts to raise existing salaries.
8:33:02
Just three more statements.
8:33:05
Our ask also increases funding to support the rising costs of health insurance on our baseline contracts to support the increase, the substantial increase we're seeing in OTPS, the occupancy costs, rental costs, and as well as supporting our homicide contract which we very much need additional funding to support our homicide contracts.
8:33:31
So I think each of my colleagues will speak specifically about those requests.