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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Dorothy Weldon, Special Litigation Attorney at New York County Defender Services
3:51:11
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151 sec
Dorothy Weldon, representing New York County Defender Services, expresses support for legislation to study the effectiveness and inefficiencies of the 6A early release program. She emphasizes the importance of early release programs in reducing jail population and closing Rikers Island, while highlighting the lack of transparency in the current system.
- Weldon argues that public defender offices are uniquely positioned to assist with early release programs, including identifying eligible clients and supporting them through the application process.
- She criticizes the current lack of transparency around eligibility criteria and decision-making processes for early release programs.
- Weldon calls for increased involvement of public defenders in the early release process and urges the council to go further in increasing transparency on these programs.
Dorothy Weldon
3:51:11
Good afternoon, all.
3:51:13
My name is Dorothy Weldon, and I am the special litigation attorney at New York County Defender Services.
3:51:18
So in conjunction with our submitted written testimony and my colleagues' testimony, I'm here today to speak on our office's support for legislation authorizing a study into the effectiveness, and in our view, more importantly, into the inefficiencies of the six a early release program.
3:51:34
I don't think anybody's touched on that yet today.
3:51:36
If we are ever going to reduce the jail population and successfully close Rikers, early release programs like six a and like local conditional release, they need to be a more serious part of this conversation.
3:51:48
And the NYCDS and other public defender offices in New York are uniquely situated to help these programs work.
3:51:55
We can identify eligible clients, we can support them through the application process, whatever that may be, we can assist them with other needs like housing and medical issues, and we are also a party very attuned to any abuses in that system.
3:52:08
We are best suited, I would argue, to identify and advocate for individuals who are wrongly rejected from opportunities for early release.
3:52:17
But when there is no transparency around this system, there is simply no meaningful way for our offices to collaborate with city efforts to institute early release, to get these programs to work, and that's the state of affairs right now.
3:52:31
When individuals and their families and their loved ones come to our offices, come to their advocates and say, wanting desperately to get off Rikers Island and find out whether they're eligible for these programs, we often have nowhere to direct them and we don't have any answers.
3:52:47
The eligibility criteria isn't clear.
3:52:49
We don't know why certain clients are considered and granted release.
3:52:52
We don't know why certain clients are considered and not granted release, and we don't know why others are never considered at all.
3:52:59
So the result is a process that seems entirely arbitrary and to our clients and their loved ones certainly feels random and unfair.
3:53:07
We can't allow these programs to operate in the dark, and we should not be letting the Department of Correction, I'm almost done, I promise, be the only ones privy to the rules, the decision making, and the data on who gets out, why, and when in their sentence they're released.
3:53:24
So while we support this legislation, we urge the council to go further in increasing transparency on early release programs.
3:53:32
Please bring public defenders into the fold.
3:53:34
We want to advocate for these clients who we've represented.
3:53:37
We want them to survive Rikers Island, and we want them to thrive in the community.
3:53:42
Thank you.