Lucas Marquez Director, Civil Rights and Law Reform Project, testified before the New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice's Preliminary Budget Hearing on the City's criminal justice budget.

How a society allocates its budget is a statement of its values. As the Council convenes to consider the funding needs of the Department of Correction (DOC), thousands of people are enduring horrific conditions merely a few miles away. The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic response saw an unprecedented and successful effort to decarcerate through the concerted efforts of the last Administration, the District Attorneys’ offices, the Courts, Correctional Health Services (CHS), DOC, and the City Council, along with the institutional defender organizations and advocacy groups.

After achieving an historic low in average daily jail population during the last Administration, this Administration’s policies have resulted in a significant increase in the population at DOC facilities—a fact the DOC concedes. The DOC has created conditions that resulted in 20 deaths over the past 12 months through a combination of aged, failing facilities and deeply ingrained mismanagement. Last year was the jails’ deadliest in history. DOC is unable and unwilling to provide consistent access to medical and mental health care for the people in its custody, or timely process people through intake to the jails.These conditions are of the Department’s own making.

View the full testimony here.