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DOC Testimonies

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Testimony before the

New York City Council

Committee on Criminal Justice

Chair Sandy Nurse

By

Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, Commissioner

NYC Department of Correction

March 8, 2024

Good morning, Chair Nurse and members of the Committee on Criminal Justice. I am Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction (“Department” or “DOC”). My colleagues and I are here to discuss the Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 and my vision for the future of this agency.

Introduction

Today, I am joining you as the Department’s newest Commissioner and I am proud to deliver my testimony alongside our First Deputy Commissioner, Francis Torres, Acting General Counsel, Nancy Savasta, Deputy Commissioner of Budget and Finance Mala Srinivasan, Assistant Chief Sherrie Rembert, and other members of my team. Although I am new to this role, I am not new to the Department. I have served DOC for over eight years. During this time, I’ve become familiar with our policies, our facilities, our legal matters, and our people. As Commissioner, my unwavering commitment to this agency has only deepened and I consider it a privilege to lead the men and women of the Department of Correction.

Corrections is a law enforcement job, but it also involves human services. That is how I have always seen my career and how I encourage our staff to think about their roles. As many of you know, I joined this agency in 2015 with the goal of giving back to a city that has given so much to me. I am proud to have been granted positions of progressive responsibility, including Deputy General Counsel, Acting Senior Deputy Commissioner and Chief Diversity Officer, and First Deputy Commissioner. But I am more proud of the opportunity to keep serving the DOC community and continuing to advocate for better treatment for everyone working and living in our jails.

I want to be clear with everyone here today that people who work at DOC are committed to criminal justice reform. They want to see better, safer jails for themselves, their colleagues, and the people in our care. However, gaining their buy-in on needed reforms requires that we treat them with the same empathy and respect we expect to be treated with. With our support behind them, they will in turn provide the same level of empathy and respect to those in our care. Every day, I am motivated by the dedication of our workforce and their willingness to engage in the difficult work of change. I see the stories that go untold of the positive work they do in the jails each and every day, and I am confident that their passion for their work will continue to be the vessel for enduring change.

Today, I will provide you with insight on how my team and I are working to cultivate that passion and how we are providing a greater voice and additional support to people in our care. I will also give you an overview of the Department’s fiscal year 2025 Preliminary Budget.

State of the Jails

I am well aware that in order to effectuate change in our jails, we must first be honest about the state of our jails. Our facilities are old and outdated. These structures have inadequate lines of sight, and the crumbling infrastructure is too easily dismantled by people with ill intent. Complicating matters, our population, which fell to approximately 4,000 at the height of the pandemic, has risen to an average of approximately 6,135 per day. Of those individuals, over 500 have been detained for longer than two years and over 20 percent are being held on a violent felony charge. These challenges are further compounded by high levels of workforce attrition. Over the past four years, the Department has attritted nearly 3,500 uniformed staff. This decline in staff plays into our difficulty in managing a highly concentrated violent population and has contributed to a demoralization among our workforce. This, in turn, contributes to a greater sense of frustration among those in our care.

These challenges are not new, but to resolve them, we owe it to ourselves to take a different approach. Under my direction, we will face these challenges by treating the source, not the symptom. We are focused on assessing and meeting our population’s basic needs and actively listening to them to resolve conflicts. We are taking the same approach with our staff by providing enhanced training and greater on-the-ground support.

A New Approach

As Commissioner, I firmly believe that to lead the jails, you need to tour the jails. To that end, I have instituted a mandatory touring schedule for all uniformed and non-uniformed leadership. On these tours, my team is expected to speak with staff and people in custody, address any issues they see in real time, and report back to me on their positive observations as well as areas of concern. I hold myself to the same standard and continue to tour our facilities as well.

Regular touring is critical for our success. If we are to uphold our commitment to creating a safer, more humane environment, then we must personally know the conditions of our jails. As leaders, we must listen, and we must develop solutions to problems informed by those on the ground. Moreover, we know that among the best paths to violence reduction is ensuring that the people in our care have what they are entitled to and what they deserve. Regular touring by leadership ensures that extra pairs of hands and eyes are present to get people what they need.

I have also instituted focus groups with uniformed and non-uniformed staff as well as people in custody. The goal of these focus groups is to provide a space for everyone to voice their honest feedback. We’ve collected input on everything from safety and jail conditions to wellness opportunities and the need for more programming. So far, there have been over 20 focus groups scheduled across multiple facilities, with more sessions to be scheduled. The feedback offered in these sessions will be compiled, shared with all members of leadership, and used to inform decision making in the coming year. I am committed to returning to these focus groups to hear their thoughts on our efforts to mitigate the issues they raised.

Building a New Foundation

As much as I believe in the work we are doing to change the culture within our jails and enhance safety for everyone, I must emphasize that to truly change this department, we cannot do it alone. I applaud the work that our Division of Programs and Community Partnerships has done to provide one-on-one sessions and group-based facilitation programs in the wake of a $17 million dollar budget cut to external programming. I am also thankful to the Fortune Society and Osborne Association, who have continued to provide discharge planning services to the population without additional city funding. I am equally grateful to the existing providers under the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice’s contracts for their work. However, an abundance of meaningful programs and services is a critical key to reducing idleness, and in turn, violence. I know this based on my years at the Department and it has been echoed in the focus group sessions we have held. For that reason, I am thrilled to welcome external program providers back into our facilities and am extremely thankful that the Mayor has been able to restore $14 million dollars in funding to support enhanced programming initiatives for people in custody. These funds will target new needs and will include robust transitional planning, substance misuse programming, supplemental educational programming, trauma informed programming, and transportation for those being reintegrated to our communities.

I also want to highlight that the Department recently received a grant for $180,000 from the New York State Office of Mental Health’s Suicide Prevention Center to expand wellness programs for staff. Our CARE Unit will spearhead the grant, and I anticipate that it will support our staff in managing the difficulties of this work. This initiative is personal for me because I know the trauma our staff experience on a daily basis. I also know that supporting our staff’s mental health will help them show up stronger for the people in our care.

The Department’s Fiscal Year 2025 Preliminary Budget

Now I will turn to the fiscal year 2025 Preliminary Budget. The Department’s FY25 budget is $1.05 billion, which is a $165.7 million dollar decrease from the previous fiscal year. The vast majority of our budget – 84 percent – is allocated for Personal Services, and 16 percent for Other than Personal Services. This budget decrease was achieved through:

Savings due to operating below the authorized headcount. $30.9 million was saved in FY24. We are projected to save $30.4 million in FY25, $49.4 million in FY26, and $49.9 million in FY27 by continuing to remain below our budgeted headcount for both civilian and uniformed staff;

A reduction in overtime. The Department saved $58.1 million in FY24 through uniformed and civilian overtime reduction efforts;

Several collective bargaining adjustments, which resulted in an additional $7.5 million in FY24, $11.6 million in FY25, $16.2 million in FY26, $20.8 million in FY27, and $22.8 million in FY28.

Capital Funding

The FY25 Preliminary Capital Budget and Commitment Plan totals $10.8 billion, which covers Fiscal Years 2024 through 2033. As of the FY25 Preliminary Budget, the majority of capital funding is tied to the borough-based jails program which totals $8.7 billion over the ten-year plan and is allocated as follows:

Brooklyn Facility - $2.8 billion

Manhattan Facility - $2.0 billion

Bronx Facility - $1.9 billion

Queens Facility - $1.9 billion

Queens Parking Garage - $10.7 million.

Headcount

We continue to work diligently to attract and retain civilian and uniformed staff. The Department’s authorized headcount remains effectively unchanged from the Adopted Budget totaling 8,788; 7,060 uniformed positions and 1,728 civilian positions. Our actual in staffing levels continue to remain well below our authorized headcount and the Department intends to remain aggressive with advertising and marketing strategies to promote recruitment.

Conclusion

In closing, I have assumed the role of Commissioner with a deep commitment to the men and women of DOC, and to the people we serve. I recognize that a positive working relationship with our oversight bodies, including the Federal Monitor, the Board of Correction, and the City Council, as well as with our partners and stakeholders, is foundational to this work. In the three months I have been Commissioner, we have enacted the changes needed to clear a contempt motion and restored the Monitor’s faith in the Department’s willingness to be a collaborative partner. I promise you this is just the beginning. I look forward to a partnership with the Council that focuses on thoughtful, meaningful, expeditious reforms. Achieving a safe, secure and humane environment for those who work and live in DOC facilities is my ultimate priority. Moreover, I understand that this is a job of service and that accepting our present challenges with humility is what will lead us to create lasting solutions.

The Department's issues are complex. Nothing will be easy, but I will not entertain failure. If I didn’t think this city could make the necessary reforms, if I didn’t think we could create a safe and humane environment for both staff and everyone in our care, I would not have committed myself to this work. I look forward to working with the Council toward our shared priorities and reforms. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My team and I are available to answer your questions.