Metro

NYC jails spending rises despite population decline

Spending and violence continue to rise in New York City jails — despite a plummeting jail population, a report released Tuesday claims.

Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office released an analysis Tuesday saying the city’s average daily jail population for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018, fell to 8,896 — its lowest in 37 years.

However, the city’s annual cost per inmate ballooned to $302,296 — up from $275,986 the previous year and $117,232 a decade earlier. Meanwhile, there are 10,653 uniformed officers — 1.2 officers per detainee, the report said.

A decade ago, there were 9,149 officers overseeing 13,850 inmates — or 0.66 per detainee.

“The [Department of Correction] is spending more money with more staff to guard fewer people — yet rates of violence and assault continue to rise, which is troubling both for our detained population and for correction officers,” Stringer said in a statement. “We have to do better, and this analysis sheds a light on just how much work remains ahead of us.”





The report found that while the number of DOC officers dropped from 10,862 to 10,653 the past year, officers for a third straight year exceeded the total number of prisoners.

The DOC’s overall budget was $1.39 billion in fiscal 2018, a 47 percent increase from a decade earlier.

During his state of the city address earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the inmate population of Rikers Island had actually dropped below 8,000 for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Despite the added resources and smaller jail population, the rate of detainee assaults on staff has increased by a whopping 258 percent the past decade while fights and assaults among prisoners tripled, the report said.

“Safety in our jails must be one of our highest criminal justice priorities,” added Stringer. “Working towards closing Rikers Island and a record reduction in our incarcerated population is a start, but on our road to real reform, we’re seeing some numbers continue to move in the wrong direction.”





But DOC Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Peter Thorne painted a rosier picture than Stringer’s analysis.

“Both the crime rate and our inmate population are at historic lows and the city’s investments in jail reform are paying off,” he said. “We are now managing a more challenging population with a greater density of serious top charges, yet slashings and stabbings have decreased by 42 percent and fights are down 4 percent. We’ll continue to implement key reforms to drive incidents down further.”





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