https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-conte...DOC_FY2022.pdf
FY 2022 Agency Watch List
Department of Correction
New York City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer
Census, Staffing, and Cost
• Annual admissions to city jails and the average daily population (ADP) have dropped substantially
in recent years. During FY 2020, the population averaged 5,841, a decline of 26% from the prior
year and 39% below FY 2017. Total admissions to jail were down 60%, dropping from 58,226 in FY
2017 to 23,317 in FY 2020.
• For the first four months of FY 2021 (July-October 2020), as the city began to ease COVID-19
restrictions, the daily population averaged 4,193, a further decline of 28% from FY 2020.
• Because the number of people in jail has fallen faster than the DOC budget and headcount, the
ratio of correction officers to incarcerated individuals and the cost per incarcerated person has
risen. As of FY 2020, DOC employed 1.6 correction officers and spent an average of $217,043 for
every incarcerated person.
• In FY 2020, the City spent an additional $230,294 in non-DOC costs for each person in custody,
including expenses for employee fringe benefits and pensions and health care services provided by
other agencies,
bringing
the full annual cost of incarceration to $447,337 per person.
• As admissions have fallen, the percentage of the jail population with a mental health diagnosis has gone
up, reaching 46% in FY 2020 and 54% in the first four months of FY 2021.
• The share of the jail population with a serious mental health diagnosis also increased from 14.8% in FY
2020 to 17.0% in the beginning of FY 2021.
• Health clinic visits fell 36% in FY 2020, which DOC attributes to a smaller jail population and the creation
of a health triage hotline.
FY 17 FY 18 FY 19 FY 20
FY 21
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The report's central finding on cost was that jails spent an average of $447,337
to incarcerate a single inmate over the 2020 fiscal year. The same cost was $334,864 during the previous year, according to the report.
In total, it has more than doubled since the 2015 fiscal year, data shows.
https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-...rceration-drop
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Comment:
It's easy to lock up a lot of people and certainly we can't have all these shootings
but look at the costs of locking somebody up, nearly a half million dollars and when the get out they could be more criminalized
Wouldn't it save a lot more money to figure out preventative measures?
Maybe if something in the educational system could show somebody a clearer looking path to getting a trade job particular jobs might be good.
So in a regular public middle school you have a class called Jobs and Careers and the teacher keeps up with all the latest data on where jobs are projected to be, how much they pay and the steps to qualify for it. So they would talk about anything form a person who fixes air conditioners, a retail manager, a stock broker, a doctor. They talk about the salaries and how long it takes to be educated to get the job.
Then you have people of a similar background to the students who have these jobs come around and make the rounds at various schools as living examples and who answer questions about how they got jobs and what it took to get them.
But you have another population, suppose someone is in their late 40s or 50s or 60s and they only have a high school degree and maybe they had a job but got laid off or it became obsolete yet no one wants to hire them for some other low end type of work when the rest of the staff are 20 year olds, they won't fit in and they are assumed to be less mailable, more set in their ways. They try to get a job for 3 years and then they give up
What can be done for such people?
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