Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Workforce transition planning for DOC employees
0:39:40
·
133 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse inquires about plans for transitioning the Department of Correction workforce as Rikers Island closes. Commission members emphasize the need to start planning immediately and provide suggestions for the process.
- Jonathan Lippman and Leo Diaz stress the importance of starting the transition process now
- Recommendations include modeling a facility at Rikers with best practices to prove success
- Zachary Katznelson highlights the need for investing in staff training and support
- Stanley Richards notes that DOC can use current attrition data to plan for workforce changes
Sandy Nurse
0:39:40
And just as an add on before I open it up to folks, one of the things that we've touched on a few times is about this workforce that that is going to need to have a transition and a really thoughtful well planned out transition.
0:39:54
We've asked a few times you know what are they thinking.
0:39:56
We haven't we've been told it's too early, it's too early, but I think it's it's never too early to start thinking.
0:40:02
Do you all have any ideas or recommendations?
0:40:07
Are you all thinking about you know when the city should start that process of thinking about the workforce that will be essentially downsized?
Jonathan Lippman
0:40:18
Well the answer is now.
0:40:20
Yeah I
Leo Diaz
0:40:20
think start now.
0:40:21
Know I think the commission's report has it in there that you you take a facility in Rikers and you model it now right.
0:40:28
You put your best leaders in there, your review post orders, your policies.
0:40:33
So you start now so that you can take that success, right?
0:40:38
Prove it to staff that it can be done and then transition that into the new jail, into the new borough jails.
0:40:43
So it has to start now.
Zachary Katznelson
0:40:45
And so much so much of this depends on investing and supporting staff.
0:40:49
Investing in staff, making sure they have the training, the resources, the day to day leadership and mentorship and supervision that they need.
0:40:56
Right now, that doesn't happen.
0:40:57
It falls apart far too often at Rikers, where people again, officers are expected to deal with a population with significant numbers of people with serious mental illness without the training, without the support.
0:41:08
They often feel like they're out there on an island by themself, and that cannot continue.
0:41:13
Staff need to have something far better.
Stanley Richards
0:41:15
And the department knows exactly what their attrition rate is, and so they can plan this out.
0:41:20
They know when people start it, when they're gonna hit their retirement.
0:41:23
They can go out five, ten years with projections about what the workforce would look like.
0:41:28
They could even be talking about how many people they need to bring in to maintain or at least manage the current population until Rikers is closed.
0:41:36
So there's a way in which the planning can happen right now with the tools that they have right now.
Sandy Nurse
0:41:42
Thank you all.
0:41:43
I'm going to give a brief pause.
0:41:44
We're going to turn it over to the public advocate who I think had a statement he wanted to deliver, and then give it to open it up to members who want to ask you all some questions.