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Q&A
Delays in opening Woodhall and North Central Bronx therapeutic facilities
0:53:51
·
140 sec
Council Member Lincoln Restler questions the Department of Corrections about delays in opening two additional therapeutic bed facilities at Woodhall and North Central Bronx. The discussion reveals ongoing issues with project timelines and accountability.
- DOC claims to be working cooperatively with partners but cannot provide specific timelines
- Restler expresses frustration with years of delays and lack of progress
- The council member criticizes DOC for not providing concrete information or accountability measures
Lincoln Restler
0:53:51
Okay.
0:53:52
Years of delay and obstinance and obstruction from the Department of Corrections, and we are still at a point where there is no timeline for when you're moving forward.
0:53:59
Let's shift to the other two new therapeutic bed facilities that are supposed to also open that the Department of Correction has been wholly uncooperative in moving forward.
0:54:07
Woodhall and North Central Bronx.
0:54:09
When are these sites gonna open?
Alex Maldonado
0:54:10
Sir, the department has been fully cooperative in working with CHS and our partners at H and H.
Lincoln Restler
0:54:16
Only people who describe you as cooperative are yourselves.
Alex Maldonado
0:54:18
In order in order to review and approve the the design documents for
Lincoln Restler
0:54:23
We're years behind schedule.
0:54:25
Early last year, we got the deputy mayor for Health and Human Services when we had people working over there to approve this project.
0:54:31
Deputy mayor Williams Isom gave got a green light to move these sites forward again after they had been stalled, and we've heard no final design has been approved.
Alex Maldonado
0:54:40
We are working to approve those designs, sir.
Lincoln Restler
0:54:41
We're we're working Months and years delay.
0:54:44
Right?
0:54:44
Years and years delay.
0:54:45
You could be moving the people out of the Department of Corrections who have the most severe health needs, but you're not doing any of the work to actually make it happen.
0:54:54
In fact, you're obstructing every step of the way, and you're saying you're moving forward and you're working cooperatively with no timelines, no accountability, and no actual milestones to demonstrate progress.
Alex Maldonado
0:55:03
I think my staff who work tirelessly on both the borough based jail program and the OTHU program would argue that they are dedicated to this program and to the OTHU program.
Lincoln Restler
0:55:14
If you don't come before us with a timeline for when you're going to actually get anything accomplished, then there's no accountability.
Alex Maldonado
0:55:20
Sir, we can't we can't account for the SCOC and and the timeline that it takes.
0:55:24
We are working towards those milestones.
Lincoln Restler
0:55:25
Any other agency that comes before us with capital funding for a project, it's been in the budget for five years, this capital funding, Would say, these are the dates and the times that we're gonna have design completed, we're gonna have procurement completed, we're gonna have construction completed.
0:55:39
The Department of Correction though just operates in fair and fantasy land and just does whatever it wants, whenever it wants.
0:55:45
And I don't understand it.
0:55:47
I like don't understand why you should all have the ability to come before us and give no information, no timeline, no accountability.
0:55:53
It's not how this is supposed to work.
0:55:55
Our job is to ask questions and get answers, and yet every time you come before us, we get nothing.
0:56:00
So this was just one topic, I could have done 10 topics, but the answers would have all been the same.
0:56:06
No information, no substance, no accountability.
0:56:08
That is the hallmark for the Department of Corrections under Eric Adams.