NEW YORK — Criminal justice advocates are urging New York City lawmakers to revise the proposed FY2027 budget, arguing it fails to prioritize reducing the city’s jail population or advancing the long-delayed closure of Rikers Island, according to a Thursday press release from the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice.
The criticism follows an oversight hearing held by the New York City Committee on Criminal Justice, which the organization said took “some steps in the right direction, but ultimately [fell] short of making significant investments to reduce the jail population at Rikers.”
According to the release issued Thursday, the FY2027 executive budget allocates $2.96 billion to the Department of Correction, marking a 3.8% increase from last year’s budget.
“Using our taxpayer dollars to allocate money to continue to arrest and incarcerate Black, Brown, and low-income New Yorkers is unacceptable,” Katal Center member Kevin Valentine said in the statement. “We call on the New York City Council to use its legislative and budgetary power to hold the Mayor accountable to reduce the jail population and shut down Rikers.”
The announcement also noted that the budget process added 580 NYPD officers despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign promise not to expand the police force.
According to the release, these funding changes reduce the amount of money allocated to the public services New Yorkers rely on, falling short of Mayor Mamdani’s promise to commit 0.5% of the budget to public libraries and 1% to parks.
“The FY2027 Executive Budget continues the status quo of increasing the budgets used to arrest and cage people while inadequately funding the programs and services proven to reduce the jail population and allow New Yorkers to thrive,” Katal Center Advocacy Director Yonah Zeitz said in the announcement. “This comes as the conditions at Rikers continue to worsen, the jail population rises, the death toll increases, and the closure plan is off track.”
The City Council passed a law in 2019 to close Rikers Island and has failed to take meaningful steps toward that goal, according to the advocacy group. Eighty people have died in city jails since the law was passed.
“The city’s increased DOC budget also fails to provide more details on the borough-based jails’ cost overruns and timelines,” the press release stated. “The city clearly has no intent to meet the legal closure deadline of 2027, but it has also not reconfigured the plan to provide a definitive date for when Rikers will be closed.”
Valentine described in a statement how his detention at Rikers Island affected him, noting it was “something that stays with a person forever,” which pushed him to join the advocacy group for prison reform.
The media release linked to written testimony by the Katal Center outlining several ways the mayor and City Council could reduce the jail population at Rikers. It also urged the Committee on Criminal Justice to halt the city budget process until the administration presents a funded plan to shut down the jail complex.
“People detained at Rikers Island are experiencing horrible violence and are left to languish,” Katal Center member Baron Lee said. “This must come to an end, and the only way that will happen is by shutting down this deadly jail complex.”
