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Concerns about the current administration's actions on Rikers Island
0:02:56
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108 sec
Council Member Nurse expresses several concerns about the current administration's actions regarding Rikers Island. She highlights budget cuts, increasing mental health issues, and policy decisions that she views as counterproductive to closing Rikers.
- MOCJ plans to cut $8.9 million from alternatives to incarceration programs and $8 million from reentry programs.
- The number of people in custody with mental health diagnoses has increased by over 60% since January 2022.
- There are reports of people with severe mental illness being locked in cells for days.
- The mayor has announced plans to allow ICE to set up operations on Rikers Island again.
- Nurse criticizes these actions as troubling and counterproductive to closing Rikers Island.
Sandy Nurse
0:02:56
Recently we've received some troubling indications.
0:03:00
During our preliminary budget hearing in March, mock j testified its plans to cut 8,900,000.0 in funding to alternatives to incarceration programs and 8,000,000 to reentry programs.
0:03:11
Which means we are in the same unproductive cycle of inconsistently funding service providers and helping to set up people coming home to safely and successfully reenter our communities.
0:03:22
These cuts run counter to the Littmann blueprint for what is necessary to reduce recidivism and safely bring down the jail population.
0:03:31
The mayor has repeatedly stated that no one with mental illness should be at Rikers.
0:03:36
Yet since January 2022, the number of people in custody with a mental health diagnosis has increased by more than sixty percent.
0:03:44
There were reports of deadlocking or leaving people with severe mental illness locked up in cells for days on end.
0:03:51
There have been random sporadic announcements by the mayor with no real plan or buy in behind them for turning one of the borough based jails into a mental health facility, which could potentially further delay the borough based jails opening.
0:04:05
Mayor Adams has also willingly complied with the Trump administration and announced plans to allow ICE to once again set up shop on Rikers Island, which may lead people who are not convicted of a crime to be sent to El Salvador's torturous prison and potentially never heard from again.
0:04:24
He did this not because of safety but because Tom Homan went on TV and threatened to be up his butt if he didn't.
0:04:32
It's embarrassing to our city and demeaning to the role of New York City's Executive.
0:04:38
These are troubling and counterproductive measures and hopefully there is an effort to gain foot on a better path.