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Public Advocate's statement on challenges and importance of closing Rikers Island
0:41:54
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3 min
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams delivers a statement addressing the challenges in closing Rikers Island by the 2027 deadline and criticizing the current administration's lack of urgency in addressing the issue.
- Williams highlights the rising jail population and the human cost of delays
- He emphasizes the need for a cultural shift in addition to physical construction of new jails
- The statement outlines potential cost savings and the importance of investing in mental health services and reintegration programs
- Williams calls for accountability and urges the implementation of the Independent Rikers Commission's recommendations
Jumaane Williams
0:41:54
Thank you madam chair, much appreciated.
0:41:56
Mentioned, my name is Jermaine Williams, a public advocate for the City Of New York.
0:42:00
Thank you all for for being here and for doing the work.
0:42:03
Thank chair, nurse, and the members of the committee on criminal justice for hearing for holding this hearing and giving the opportunity to make the make a statement.
0:42:11
Despite the urgent humanitarian crisis on Rikers Island, it is impossible for the city to meet its legally mandated line to close the year 2027.
0:42:20
This has been an open seeking as the Adams administration has sat on its hands for most of its tenure allowing the dysfunction in the jails to spiral and the death toll to rise.
0:42:28
However, the independent Rikers Commission recently confirmed that we already knew in a report in a report released last month.
0:42:34
Though the jail population reached historic lows during the pandemic and despite the planned borough based jails capacity of only about 4,500 people, this administration has facilitated a consistent rise in the number of people incarcerated on Rikers Island every year since Adams took office.
0:42:48
This lack of diligence and urgency has compromised the dignity and safety of people on both sides of the bars and has cost at least 38 people their lives.
0:42:55
The blame for this city's imminent failure, we have to be honest to meet its deadline, cannot be placed solely on mayor Adams.
0:43:02
But at the same time, there's no exoneration from the direct and clear failure to put any systems at all in place to move forward this deadline.
0:43:09
The pandemic contributed to a backlog of court cases and a wildcat strike in Upstate prisons have has forced the city to pull people in jail past the days they were supposed to be transferred to state prisons.
0:43:20
At the same time, there's a lack a clear lack of urgency from this administration to decrease the population and ensure the city is hitting the benchmarks it needs to close the jails on time.
0:43:29
Efforts to obfuscate the abuse and dysfunction of jails and to share transparency and accountability, including through dubiously legal executive orders to get around city laws that the mayor doesn't like, have exacerbated the suffering on Rikers Island.
0:43:42
It is clear that there must not only be the physical construction of new jails, but a radical cultural shift to prevent the recreation of Rikers in each borough, an example the mayor has thus far failed to set.
0:43:53
While it is impossible to put any miracle value on a person's life, the crisis at Rikers has cost the city in many other ways as well.
0:44:01
Holding one person in jail costs $400,000 annually.
0:44:04
Closing Rikers Island, transitioning to the proposed borough based jails will save the city $2,200,000,000 annually in operating overtime costs.
0:44:12
The closure of Rikers Island must not only be an investment in infrastructure, the new jails themselves, but in people and communities.
0:44:18
Rikers Island is currently the largest provider of mental health services in the city, I believe in North America, and this is neither appropriate nor practical.
0:44:26
The city and state can decrease the number of people in jail by investing in an expanding mental health treatment and services, both inpatient and the community.
0:44:33
While the mayor likes to blame changes to the state bail reform for recidivism, the city is divesting from programs and services that help people successfully reintegrate back into civilian life and recidivism has been a problem long before the state's bail laws were changed.
0:44:47
In addition to this report from the commission, several pieces of legislation are also being heard today.
0:44:52
Resolution three seventy one, co sponsored by council members Hudson, nurse, and myself, calls on the state legislature to pass s six six four three a and assembly nine one one five, which would provide eligible incarcerated individuals with a monthly stipend upon release from a state correctional facility.
0:45:07
Person released from incarceration is immediately faced with expenses including housing, clothing, food, and acquiring identification documents.
0:45:15
This is relatively inexpensive tangible way that we can ease the transition from incarceration back into the community.
0:45:21
The independent riots commission report makes numerous clear and direct recommendations to lead the city back to the path to close Rikers as soon as possible though after 2027.
0:45:31
I wanna focus here on accountability for this administration that has failed to meet its legal mandate and how we can avoid another mayoral tenure be it under Eric Adams, hopefully not, or someone else of inaction and negligence.
0:45:42
We owe the families of these whose whose lives have been taken by Rikers Island that much.
0:45:47
Thank you.