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Q&A
Council Member Adams questions OMB on public safety investments and mental health programs
0:43:26
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3 min
Council Member Adrienne E. Adams questions OMB Director Jacques Jiha about public safety investments to close Rikers Island and address the city's mental health crisis. The discussion focuses on the funding and cost-effectiveness of various mental health and prevention programs, with Adams suggesting that more investment in these areas could lead to long-term savings for the city.
- Adams highlights underfunded or unfunded programs such as justice involved supportive housing, supervised release intensive case management, and mental health residential treatment beds.
- Jiha responds by detailing various investments made in the executive budget, including funding for intensive case management, justice involved support housing, and mobile treatment.
- Adams indicates a desire to explore further expansion of these programs.
Adrienne E. Adams
0:43:26
Let's talk about public safety investments to close Rikers and mental health.
0:43:30
The independent Rikers Commission released its blueprint to close Rikers identifying a number of key investments the city must take into mental health and public safety programs that are not only critical to closing Rikers, but also addressing the city's mental health crisis and improving public safety.
0:43:48
The executive budget added some important funding for mental health programs and recidivism reduction programs, but there are still remaining gaps to ensure these programs actually have the capacity to fulfill the needs New Yorkers have for them.
0:44:01
For example, justice involved supportive housing, supervised release intensive case management, reentry programs, mobile treatment teams, and mental health residential treatment beds are all underfunded or unfunded in the budget.
0:44:18
Many of these programs can be cost effective by saving the city the higher expenses of unnecessarily placing people who could be helped with treatment into jails that cost more and don't solve their underlying issues, while increasing the likelihood that they will repeatedly return to jail and cost the city in various other ways.
0:44:40
Seems like a vicious circle to me.
0:44:43
How does OMB analyze the cost effectiveness of prevention programs, and is there any assessment made that it would be wiser for the city to invest more in effective mental health and prevention programs so they actually reach people, reducing the accompanying costs when their inaccessibility leads to other bad outcomes.
0:45:03
Essentially, this is the concept that prevention is more cost effective than an emergency room response.
Jacques Jiha
0:45:10
We wholly agree with you and that's the reason why in the executive budget we made so many investment in trying to reduce the jail population.
0:45:22
You know, as you know, we funded an extension of the intensive case management pilot in the executive budget with $9,100,000 We have justice involved support housing.
0:45:36
There's an IPR there for up to 500.
0:45:40
We have mobile treatment funded in the exec for like $45,000,000.
0:45:47
We baseline funding for project reset and rapid reset.
0:45:54
We baselined funding for $7,600,000 for alternatives to incarceration services.
0:46:02
We baselined $4,700,000 to help stabilize recently decarcerated individuals with reentry planning services.
0:46:11
So we made a bunch of $9,100,000 in intensive case management pilot to provide enhanced supervision for 1,100 defendants.
0:46:23
So again, we fully agree with you that many of these programs, you know, this program are effective, and that's the reason why we made so much investment in, you know, in the executive budget on these programs.
Adrienne E. Adams
0:46:36
Thank you.
0:46:37
We're we wanna take a look at expanding that a bit.