Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Council Member Louis questions DOC on staffing, funding, and borough-based jails
0:42:27
·
4 min
Council Member Farah N. Louis poses questions to the Department of Corrections (DOC) officials about the gender breakdown of the uniform DOC workforce, allocation of federal funding for the prison rape elimination program, and investments in borough-based jails. DOC officials provide responses on current gender statistics, plans for funding allocation, and commit to following up on borough-based jail investments.
- Current DOC gender breakdown: 54.39% male, 45.61% female
- $50,000 federal funding increase to be used for trauma expert training
- DOC commits to recruitment efforts to address potential staff attrition
Farah N. Louis
0:42:27
Thank you chairs and good morning first deputy commissioner and your team.
0:42:32
Three quick questions.
0:42:33
I wanted to know what is the current gender breakdown of the uniform DOC workforce and how does the department project that will change in FY twenty six compared to FY twenty five?
0:42:47
In addition to that, a follow-up question to that, was what is the FY twenty six budget allocation for sorry, the first one is in regards to the breakdown agenda but the second one is in regards to how will the one time 50,000 increase in federal funding for the prison rape elimination program be distributed across services such as education, facility audits, and survivor support?
0:43:14
And my last question is in regards to borough based jails.
0:43:17
I wanted to know what investments are being made to ensure that the facility meets the demands for a more humane environment including mental health services, family visitation and reentry programming and alignment with community feedback.
Francis Torres
0:43:34
Board member, I may have to ask you during the conversation to repeat your question in order for us to ensure that we address all of on
Sandy Nurse
0:43:41
I'll do
Francis Torres
0:43:41
the first one again.
0:43:43
So I'm going to have Bureau Chief, Chief Remberg give you the specifics of the breakdown on gender by our staff.
0:43:51
Okay.
Sherrieann Rembert
0:43:53
Good morning again.
0:43:55
The gender breakdown for males is three thousand and twenty six.
0:44:00
The female breakdown is two thousand five hundred and thirty eight.
0:44:04
On the male gender breakdown is 54.39%.
0:44:09
On the female is 45.61%.
Farah N. Louis
0:44:16
And, how will that change in FY '26?
0:44:18
You mentioned uniformed officers, they're eligible for about seven sixteen are eligible for retirement.
0:44:25
So how does that look for FY '20 '6?
Francis Torres
0:44:28
So keep in mind that that is very fluid.
0:44:30
I wish that we could actually project who will retire.
0:44:35
We do have numbers on who is scheduled.
0:44:40
But keep in mind that there's some members that decide to stay with us rather than just go that venue.
0:44:47
We will be more than happy to share with you as we see the attrition rate.
0:44:51
But do know, board member Lewis, that as a department we are committed to ensuring that we recruit and that we onboard new staff members.
0:45:04
Significantly new recruits.
0:45:06
It is something that we are investing in terms of in person recruitment by our recruitment unit as well as investments in marketing such as announcements in television, radio, using social media to bring in fresh members.
0:45:28
Right.
Farah N. Louis
0:45:30
Which could be a bit more enticing because I've seen them myself and I'm happy that you all are investing the funds to do that but it could be more enticing.
0:45:37
But my last two questions and I'll just try to reiterate them because my time is up.
0:45:41
How will the one time $50,000 increase in federal funding for the prison rape elimination program be distributed across services, education, facility and survivor support?
0:45:53
And the last one is regarding borough based jails, the investments to make sure that we have everything we need for a humane environment.
Francis Torres
0:46:00
Assistant Commissioner Zuber will respond to the allocation of the funds while Assistant Commissioner Maldonado will talk to you about the BBJs.
0:46:09
Thanks.
Faisal Zuber
0:46:10
Thank you Councilmember Lewis.
0:46:12
The one time increase in $50,000 will be used to procure services for a trauma expert who and the vendor will train one staff member and develop a train the trainer course.
0:46:25
It is still preliminary and we just received the funding so we haven't done anything yet in terms of procuring
Jasniya Sanchez
0:46:34
It would be good if you
Farah N. Louis
0:46:35
could have conversations with the chair about this just so that we could make sure whoever this trauma expert is is actually meeting the criteria.
0:46:43
Last one's on borough based jails.
0:46:45
I know council member Ressler's here.
0:46:46
He's one of the members of the committee.
0:46:48
I know he'll have a lot of questions about that but just wanted to ask that really quickly.
0:46:52
Thank you chairs.