Cuts to Rikers programming blasted as 'irresponsible' by lawmakers and service providers
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City Councilmember Carlina Rivera rallied with representatives of a number of nonprofits whose contract for providing social services on Rikers Island stands to be cut at the end of the month. Photo by Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
By Jacob Kaye
With a little more than a week before the Department of Correction plans to sever its contracts with nearly half a dozen nonprofits that provide services to detainees on Rikers Island, elected officials, formerly incarcerated New Yorkers and top officials with the affected organizations called on the city to reverse its decision and find new ways to save $17 million in its budget.
Though the DOC announced late last month that it had to decided to cut ties with five nonprofits that provide support services to detainees in the city’s jails, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and members of The Fortune Society, The Osborne Association, SCO Family of Services, Greenhope Services for Woman and Fedcap Rehabilitation Services said it’s not too late to walk back the austerity measure and keep the programming in place.
“We must pursue [budget reduction] options that do not reduce or eliminate necessary programming,” said Rivera, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice. “This move to cut these contracts is irresponsible.”
“It's ultimately detrimental to public safety if we move forward with these cuts,” she added.
Last month, DOC leadership announced that they were planning to prematurely end the combined $17 million contract with the five organizations, which offer a range of social programming to Rikers detainees. Though the contracts were set to run through March of next year, they are now scheduled to end on June 30.
The off-loading of third-party contracts came as Mayor Eric Adams ordered the agency to reduce its spending by 4 percent in the coming fiscal year. The $17 million cost reduction accounts for less than 1 percent of the agency’s 1.2 billion budget.
Under the contract, the organizations offer re-entry programs, educational classes, work training programs, stress management programs, parenting classes, wellness programs, financial literacy lessons, entrepreneurship classes, life skills classes, relapse prevention programming, anger management and trauma-informed group therapy.
Should the cuts remain in place, department officials say that the programming, which advocates and lawmakers say successfully reduce recidivism as well as the likelihood of violent incidents inside the jails, will continue and be led by DOC staff.
But standing outside of City Hall on Thursday, officials cast doubt on the DOC’s commitment and ability to provide the services currently offered by professionals with decades of combined experience.
“I think corrections is struggling to do the job that we are asking them to do right now,” said Williams. “There's a lot of issues there. Let's focus on that. Don't take a whole other thing that you have to put onto your plate right now.”
“They also don't have the expertise,” the public advocate added.
According to representatives with the Fortune Society and the Osborne Association, DOC staff has shown little interest in sitting in on the programming over the past month to make the transition in programming as smooth as possible, despite the impending cuts.
Additionally, communication between the DOC and the providers has been “minimal” since the cuts were first announced in mid-May.
“We've continued to go out, do our programs, be in the housing areas and work with folks,” said Brad Cauthen, the director of jail-based services at the Osborne Association. “And let's be clear, we are partners with DOC, they are our partners, we're asking them not to make this move, but our communication has been very little since they've announced the cut.”
“We're told they're going to train their staff and their staff are going to be the ones who deliver services, but we don't see them as being able to deliver services like we do,” Cauthen added. “We don't think they can do it in a one-month ramp up.”
Members of the Fortune Society and the Osborne Association rallied alongside lawmakers outside of City Hall on Thursday to call on the Department of Correction to restore proposed cuts to programming on Rikers Island. Photo by Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Department of Correction directed the Eagle to testimony given by DOC Commissioner Louis Molina and Francis Torres, the DOC’s deputy commissioner of the Division of Programs and Community Partnerships, during a City Council hearing held days after the cuts were announced.
The agency has claimed that the programs were poorly attended and that around 70 percent of seats in the programs, which are held for an hour and a half, Monday through Friday, go unfilled – that claim has been disputed by the providers.
Both Molina and Torres defended the cost-saving measure and attempted to assure concerned lawmakers that detainees would not suffer or lose out on programming in the transition during the hearing.
When asked by Rivera about why the programs were targeted when the DOC was looking for budget inefficiencies, Torres said because DOC staff provided the services in the past, they feel they no longer need to be contracted out – Torres later added that the move was “not ideal.”
A DOC spokesperson did not respond directly to questions about the details of the transition.
“The Department will assume the responsibilities previously carried out by the contracted providers and continues to offer dozens of additional programs to people in custody, including educational programming, career and technical education, fine/performing arts, and other enrichment activities,” the spokesperson said.
During the May hearing, Torres similarly offered few details, saying that “when it comes to that transition plan, we're working internally.”
In addition to impacts to Rikers detainees, leaders and employees of the affected organizations say they’ll be unable to retain the dozens of staffers assigned to work on the jail programs.
Around 20 staffers at the Fortune Society alone, a quarter of whom were formerly incarcerated, stand to lose their jobs with the organizations should the cuts be finalized.
Among those whose position in the organizations could be threatened is Jamel Ely, who served around a quarter of a century in prison and who was previously a client of the Fortune Society before joining the organization to work as a facilitator inside correctional facilities.
“I was in a dark place when I arrived [to prison] – physically captive, spiritually broken, but I was met with raw compassion and a strong desire to see me win,” Ely said. “Imagine that, strangers want to honor me more than I was willing to honor myself.”
Another beneficiary of programming in correctional facilities was Stanley Richards, the deputy CEO of the Fortune Society who previously served as first deputy commissioner in the DOC, the first-formerly incarcerated individual to hold the high-ranking position.
Richards made his plea directly to Mayor Eric Adams, who has been quick to defend the DOC and its leadership over the first year and a half of his administration.
“This is a big deal,” Richards said. “And we call on the mayor, like mayor's before him who had to face fiscal crises and manage budgets – but they did it in a way that didn't diminish some of the most vulnerable people in our city, the men and women who are incarcerated, and the communities that they come from.”
“We can find $17 million in our budget,” he added. “But don't find it on the backs of the most vulnerable, on the most silent, on the most traumatized – don't do it. You are better than that.”
