SURVIVORS OF RIKERS, DIRECTLY IMPACTED FAMILIES, AND ALLIES RALLY BEFORE CITY COUNCIL BUDGET HEARING TO DEMAND A BUDGET THAT SUPPORTS CLOSING RIKERS
As City Council prepared to convene their criminal justice budget hearing, members of the Campaign to Close Rikers gathered at City Hall to call on Mayor Adams and the City Council to deliver a budget that supports the closure of Rikers by moving resources from the bloated Department of Correction to crucial community needs like supportive housing, community-based treatment, and alternatives to incarceration. Participants included people previously incarcerated at Rikers and impacted family members, organizations providing services to people held at and returning from Rikers, elected officials, faith leaders, and other allies.
The path to closing Rikers Island and moving to a smaller borough-based jails by 2027 must include increasing funding for community resources that prevent incarceration and improve public safety, but the Adams administration has shown it intends to continue its trend of underfunding these programs and overspending on incarceration at Rikers Island. In a budget driven by deep cuts to alternative to incarceration (ATI) programs, reentry supports and a stubborn refusal to fund supportive housing and community-based mental health treatment to scale, the Mayor has proposed spending $2.6 billion on jail operations in FY2025, down just 3.3% from FY2024 forecasted spending for the DOC. DOC’s budget includes hundreds of millions for unfilled vacancies, chronically absent officers, and excessive overtime. The Criminal Justice Committee’s hearing also fell on International Women’s Day, as the Adams administration plans to triple capacity to incarcerate women and gender-expansive people in the Queens borough-based jail, in addition to previously reported capacity increases for men. This proposed budget will undermine the health and safety of our communities.
“Short-term budget decisions cannot short-change the city’s ability to close Rikers by 2027,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “By cutting alternatives to incarceration and stymying the capital budget for the smaller borough-based jails, the City is taking a short sighted route that jeopardizes the city’s safety. In order to confront the humanitarian crisis in our city’s jails, our City must better manage a plan that ensures Rikers shutters for good.”
Council Member Sandy Nurse, Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, said, “As an advocate for justice and community well-being, it's crucial to emphasize the urgent need to close Rikers Island. It's not just about shuttering of this facility; it's about dismantling an oppressive symbol of systemic injustice. Rikers perpetuates cycles of violence and trauma, prioritizing punishment over rehabilitation. Closing it isn't just a legal obligation; it's a moral imperative rooted in our commitment to human dignity and equity.”
“Rikers Island is required to close by 2027 - that’s not a suggestion, it’s a legal requirement as well as a moral one,” said Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda. “Our City needs to pass a budget that puts all of the necessary resources in place to end mass incarceration and shift to a smaller borough jail system. Instead, Mayor Adams’ budget reads like a recipe for keeping Rikers open, by maintaining DOC budget bloat while cutting funds for alternatives to incarceration, supervised release, and re-entry services, and failing to add funds that are desperately needed for supportive housing and community-based mental health treatment.The City Council must intervene to pass a budget that will get Rikers closed.”
Kandra Clark, Vice President of Policy & Strategy, Exodus Transitional Community said, “Opportunities to divert people from Rikers should be fully utilized, in collaboration with the Jail Population Review Initiative that the Council established last year through Local Law 75-2023. Instead of investing in smarter, safer, and more cost-effective solutions that lead to the closure of Rikers Island,, this Mayoral Administration is proposing further cuts to alternative-to-incarceration and reentry programming. For years, providers like Exodus have been doing the work needed to close Rikers. Hundreds of people have successfully completed our ATI program, have obtained employment and housing, and are now united with their families and communities. As New Yorkers, we must stand in solidarity to fight against these budget cuts! And, we must advocate for expanded funding to ensure that Rikers Island closes on time.”
“Community safety has shown itself to be bigger than a jail issue. It is a community issue. New York already has the framework in place to reduce recidivism and stem gun violence. The structure for this solution can be found by working alongside the organizations that have made it their life mission to meet justice system and violence-involved people where they are, guiding them in productive directions and offering real life solutions. BronxConnect has seen 97% of successful graduates within our youth felony program stay conviction free for 3 years. Rikers in contrast has a marred history of mismanagement, death, and deterioration. It’s time to focus the enormous Rikers budget on programs that present effective alternatives,” said Reverend Wendy Calderón Payne, Executive Director, Urban Youth Alliance (BronxConnect).
Larry Goodson, member of Freedom Agenda said, "When I think about the real life impacts of the Mayor's budget, I think about my brother. My brother is coming home from many years of incarceration this year. I’m so excited to welcome him home. But I'm afraid of what he will face returning to a city where his struggles will not be looked at lightly. The resources he will need to help his mental health and his reentry will be scarce. What programs will be available to him after $8 million dollars is cut from re-entry services that were already too limited? We have the money to give my brother a warm welcome home, and we have the money to give everyone across this city the help and support that they need. We are just spending it in all the wrong places. Funding the DOC is a waste and frankly always has been."
Megan French-Marcelin, Senior Director of NYS Policy at Legal Action Center said, “In approving the plan to close Rikers, the City Council acknowledged that subjecting people to inhumane and abusive conditions without access to family or their broader community undermines our larger mission to improve overall community safety. Now, the Adams’ administration is proposing a budget that would undermine the very programs that we know provide real pathways to safety. Alternative to incarceration programs not only provide holistic, human-centered supports for New Yorkers, but they also cost a fraction of what the city spends to detain someone at Rikers. We urge the administration to invest wholeheartedly in bringing these programs to scale so that we can begin to imagine a city that is truly safe for all New Yorkers.”
“77% of the women and gender-expansive people currently incarcerated at the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island are primary caregivers,” said Jay Edidin, Director of Advocacy at the Women’s Community Justice Association. “80% have some kind of mental health concern. Either of those facts alone would justify diversion from incarceration; together, they represent a mandate. And yet, thanks to pressure from the current administration, judges and prosecutors, at whose discretion those options are available, are taking less and less advantage of alternatives to incarceration and sending more and more women and gender-expansive people to jail. Mayor Adams, DoCs, and the NYPD claim that such mass incarceration is the cost of safety. It’s not. We must prioritize community resources and alternatives to incarceration and resist the growing sprawl of the borough jails.”
Jennifer J. Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy, Mental Health Project said, “The City’s legal obligation to close Rikers Island by 2027 should spur investment in preventive services and interventions designed to decrease the jail population. Instead, the proposed budget slashes funding for services that have demonstrated success in reducing incarceration, such as supervised release and alternative to incarceration programs. What is more, the Mayor’s budget includes no funding for developing the “community-based mental health safety net” which was promised in the Close Rikers Plan. Such a safety net is desperately needed as more and more people with serious mental health treatment needs are funneled into New York City jails and now constitute more than 20% of the jail population. Again, we know that forensic assertive community treatment teams and Justice-Involved Supportive Housing are effective, but the Administration has chosen to continue pouring money into the Department of Correction rather than expand these resources.”
"With the amount of taxpayer dollars the city uses to incarcerate one person a year, that money can go into investing in someone's future. I have firsthand seen the power of community, opportunity, transparency and what it can do to help propel someone in the direction to succeed. Riker's should not be one of the biggest mental health institutions in the United States. If more funding was diverted into community-based organizations that would help individuals get back on their feet, pursue their goals and help with their wellbeing, recidivism would significantly be reduced,” said Michael Feliciano, Innovations Manager, Fountain House said.
“Rikers must close by the lawful deadline of August 2027. This is a moral imperative, a matter of racial justice, and a pathway to true public safety,” said Ronald F. Day, Senior Vice President of The Fortune Society. “We can safely reduce the number of people held in our city jails, and prevent more people from entering them, by fully resourcing of Alternatives to Detention and Incarceration, robust reentry services, supportive housing, and other critical community-based supports. We urge our elected officials to craft a budget that invests in short- and long-term solutions that help people and communities thrive, instead of relying on incarceration - which is ineffective, costly, and disproportionately impacts Black and brown New Yorkers.”
Mya Martinez, Youth Action Organizer - YouthNPower: Transforming Care at the Children’s Defense Fund-New York said, “We need to close Rikers Now. As a teacher and someone who has been impacted by systems, I know that it's important to be able to go to school, get a job, get housing – we don’t need to put even more barriers between young people and their dreams."
“We must stick to the legally required plan to close Rikers by August 2027. We know it is possible to have far fewer people on Rikers in ways that keep us all much safer and free up resources for wiser investments. One year on Rikers costs more than $556,000 and yields trauma and harm for individuals - 90% of whom are there pre-trial - and their families. For this same amount, ATI programs can serve more than 33 people with life-changing results. Closing Rikers is also a matter of racial justice. 94% of people on Rikers are Black and brown, and the staff who work there are mostly people of color who also experience harm from the conditions and environment. The safest communities are the ones with the most resources. Let’s invest in communities and the programs that truly, and cost-effectively, promote public safety,” said Petal Fogenay-Foster, Deputy Director, Jails 2 Jobs, Osborne Association.
Emma Cathell, Senior Program Manager, Corporation for Supportive Housing said, “Justice Involved Supportive Housing (JISH) is currently the only NYC designated supportive housing program for people leaving Rikers Island, with only 120 apartments currently available, despite a need of more than 2,500 -- and the money to expand this resource sits unused because of the obscenely low service rates for the contract.”
For reference: Campaign to Close Rikers Budget Analysis
###