Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Council Member Stevens questions MOCJ on ATI program cuts and impact
2:15:28
·
3 min
Council Member Althea V. Stevens questions Deanna Logan from the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice about the impact of budget cuts on Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) programs. Stevens expresses frustration with the lack of specific information provided by the agency regarding the number of people affected and potential job losses due to these cuts.
- Stevens pushes for concrete numbers on how many people will be detained on Rikers due to inability to access ATI programs.
- Logan admits there will be reduced capacity but cannot provide specific numbers, citing ongoing assessments and budget negotiations.
- Stevens criticizes the agency's lack of transparency and urges providers to share specific numbers in their testimonies.
Althea V. Stevens
2:15:28
Good afternoon.
2:15:32
So I guess my questions for Mok J, let me just get to it.
2:15:41
Okay, many individuals are mandated by the court to participate in ETI programs as a condition of their release while their case is pending.
2:15:50
How many people do you expect will be detained on Rackers because they cannot access ATI programs as a result of the cuts?
Deanna Logan
2:16:00
At this point, we are still working with the partner providers to assess how capacity would be modified, so I couldn't give you a specific number of individuals.
2:16:13
We are looking to make sure that
Althea V. Stevens
2:16:15
So as as you're doing your assessment, what are you seeing because I think that even saying like you're doing assessment that means you know that there's gonna be some impact and so even with the cuts moving forward, what is your I guess educated perception of what's gonna happen because Overall,
Deanna Logan
2:16:32
in talking with our partners we understand that there will be reduced capacity on their part to service individuals.
2:16:40
The actual number of individuals that will not be when they will not be able to meet or provide services for, we don't have that number.
Althea V. Stevens
2:16:51
When will you have that number or is that part of the evaluation that you guys are currently doing?
2:16:55
So when would that be when that be available?
Deanna Logan
2:16:57
So that usually comes closer to when counsel has finished negotiations on what the final numbers are so that we know definitively with the partners what is in the budget as it relates to services.
Althea V. Stevens
2:17:15
So I just want to say this, so I've had budgets too, right, and so I just want to say it's always very frustrating when we're here with the agencies when they're like we don't know, we don't know because that's not true you do know.
2:17:24
And so if you have the number already and you know meaning like if you know what number is gonna be cut, know how many people you're already serving, if the the amount is being reduced you know the number that it's gonna be.
2:17:33
And so I think that I get frustrated because it just doesn't feel honest and it feels very disingenuous when it's like we don't know.
2:17:40
You do know the number, we do know the cost and so I think even when we're talking about negotiations this puts us at a place where we can't even negotiate for you right?
2:17:48
Like that's our job to push to get the money for you and so we do need to come out with a better system because as the number is being reduced, there is a number of what we we know what we'll be losing because of the price point.
2:18:00
And so that's just my always my frustration because that's always the response of like oh we don't know, we do know, we do know that this is gonna affect us and the number because we have the price point and I'm sure the providers when they come to testify after you guys leave, they're gonna have the number and so why could why does the providers know the number and then we as the agency don't?
2:18:21
It just does not make sense to me.
2:18:23
How many staff at the ATI and reentry provider organization have listed experience and many even have been participating in their own very own programs?
2:18:32
How many staff collectively across the provider organization stand to lose their jobs as a result of this budget cut?
2:18:38
So do we know how many people will be losing their jobs according to the budget cut?
Deanna Logan
2:18:43
On the ATI side, we know that right now the shortfall is going to be 8,900,000.0.
2:18:49
How that will be achieved, whether it is actual loss of an individual who is doing the work and or the number of people that are are actually served by the work is gonna be by each specific provider as we move forward.
Althea V. Stevens
2:19:06
I just wanna say to providers when you come up and testify, give the numbers because they don't have it and so we wanna have it on record so when we do you guys come to testify, you can talk about the numbers because apparently on the city side we are not doing the analyzation so that we can have an accurate number.
2:19:20
So I would love when the providers testify please give the numbers when you're testifying so we could have in the record.
2:19:24
Thank you.