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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jennifer J. Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project, on Mental Health and Criminal Justice System
8:40:27
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Jennifer J. Parish from the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project testified on the need for increased investment in mental health services for individuals involved in the criminal justice system. She highlighted the high percentage of incarcerated individuals requiring mental health treatment and proposed solutions to reduce this number through community-based services.
- Advocated for $4,800,000 in annual funding for Justice Involved Supportive Housing (JISH) to expand to 500 units
- Requested $22,000,000 for 15 more Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) teams and $7,000,000 for additional Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) teams
- Called for a $4,500,000 allocation for peer specialists in mental health crisis response teams without police involvement
- Suggested reallocating funds from the Department of Corrections budget to support these mental health initiatives
Jennifer J. Parish
8:40:27
Good evening.
8:40:27
My name is Jennifer Parish.
8:40:28
I'm the director of criminal justice advocacy at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project.
8:40:35
Currently, about fifty seven of the jail population has been assessed as needing mental health treatment.
8:40:40
That includes about fourteen hundred people diagnosed with serious mental illness.
8:40:44
With adequate community resources, we could significantly reduce that number.
8:40:48
And I want to highlight a couple of investments that we need.
8:40:52
One of those is justice involved supportive housing.
8:40:54
It's critical to ensuring that people with mental serious mental illness and criminal legal system involvement can obtain that housing.
8:41:01
Last year, the council supported it, and we urge the city to invest an appropriate $4,800,000 in annual funding.
8:41:09
This would allow the city to fulfill its commitment to expand JISH to 500 units.
8:41:14
We also need additional funding for intensive mobile treatment and forensic assertive community treatment teams.
8:41:19
Earlier in this hearing, DOHMH was asked about the waiting list for that.
8:41:24
They did not provide the information, but we know that people wait for months and months to receive these services.
8:41:29
People who are incarcerated but qualify for these teams would be so much better served in the community, But DOHMH has not prioritized connecting incarcerated people with these teams during incarceration.
8:41:40
Doing so would not only provide for continuity of care when the person's released, but it could also reduce the amount of time people with serious mental illness are incarcerated.
8:41:49
We asked the council to allocate $22,000,000 to create 15 more IMT teams and $7,000,000 to create more forensic assertive community treatment teams.
8:42:00
Finally, York City needs a crisis response that does not include police.
8:42:04
We support CACIT NYC in calling for a baseline allocation of 4,500,000 to ensure competitive compensation for peer specialists to staff the city's mental health crisis response teams.
8:42:19
By reallocating just a fraction of the Department of Corrections' two point eight seven billion dollar budget, we can easily fund these services.
8:42:27
Simply by eliminating the department's uniform vacancies, the city would save a 49
UNKNOWN
8:42:32
time's expired.
8:42:33
Thank you.
Lynn Schulman
8:42:34
You can you can summarize.
Jennifer J. Parish
8:42:36
Oh, thank you.
8:42:36
We can and will close Rikers Island, but we need to make community investments to do so.
8:42:41
Thank you very much.
Jane Kaufman
8:42:42
Thank you for your time.