City Hall, NY – During the City Council’s Executive Budget hearing jointly held by the Committee on Criminal Justice and the Committee on Finance on Tuesday, the Council detailed changes to the Department of Correction’s (DOC) budget and identified budget gaps within the Mayor’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Executive Budget for programs and services that reduce recidivism and address mental health challenges to improve public safety and advance the closure of Rikers Island.

The FY 2026 Executive Budget includes $1.21 billion for DOC, $869,931 less than the Preliminary Budget and $162.7 million more than the FY 2025 adopted budget. While changes to DOC’s budget include funding for a virtual visitation platform ($1.4 million) and discovery materials sharing platform ($1 million) to facilitate an improved administration of justice, many key investments identified by the Council and the Independent Rikers Commission’s Blueprint to Close Rikers were omitted from the Mayor’s Executive Budget.  

The following funding priorities, outlined in the Council’s Preliminary Budget Response and Response to the Blueprint to Close Rikers, include programs to confront the city’s mental health crisis, reduce recidivism, and prevent unnecessary overincarceration. The items below are critical to advancing public safety and supporting the City’s legal requirement to close Rikers Island and transition to a borough-based jail system, but they are either underfunded or left out of the Mayor’s FY 2026 Executive Budget:

Electronic Monitoring Capacity Increase

Stakeholders in the justice system agree that a certain portion of people held in New York City’s jails have an appropriate risk profile to be safely released to community supervision while awaiting trial, with the additional oversight provided by electronic monitoring. Currently, the Department of Probation has the capacity to electronically monitor 400 people. To further reduce the number of people unnecessarily detained in city jail facilities, the Council proposed the Administration double the current electronic monitoring capacity to 800 monitors. Providing $10.6 million for 400 additional bracelets would allow for more people, who would otherwise be held in custody, to remain in their homes and communities, safely lowering the jail population as a vital step towards closing Rikers Island. The Executive Budget did not include any funding towards expanding electronic monitoring.

Supervised Release Intensive Case Management Pilot Expansion

Studies have shown that a relatively small core group of people commit a disproportionate number of lower-level crimes in New York City. People in this group often suffer from drug addiction, have experienced abuse or serious mental illness, and often do not receive the interventions necessary to avoid recidivism. The City has initiated a Pre-Trial Supervised Release Intensive Case Management (ICM) pilot program that provides intensive case management and connection to services, therapy, and treatment for people with serious mental illness and addiction issues who were arrested and released pre-trial. The existing pilot includes funding for two Supervised Release ICM pilots. The initial results of the pilot show positive results for people unresponsive to traditional supervised release programs, connecting more people with serious mental illness and addiction issues to services that ensure they appear in court and avoid re-offending. To build on this success, the Council proposed the Administration expand this program to all five boroughs with an additional $46 million.

Justice-Involved Supportive Housing

The Council called on the Administration to allocate an additional $26.6 million to enhance Justice-Involved Supportive Housing (JISH) to fulfill the City’s previous commitment to provide 500 supportive housing units for individuals leaving Rikers. JISH can reduce recidivism by providing stability and successful reentry for those transitioning from incarceration and at risk of homelessness, preventing their entry into homeless shelters. This funding would increase service funding rates for new and existing supportive housing units to adequately fund the existing 120 units and bring the additional 380 units that the City has been unable to find providers for due to insufficient funding for the program. JISH is currently the only designated supportive housing program in the City for people exiting Rikers. It is estimated that the need for JISH exceeds 2,500 units, but the current funding gap has undermined the program’s ability to help reduce recidivism and facilitate successful reentry in violation of the Close Rikers points of agreement. The recently enacted state budget included up to $30 million in capital funding for JISH, resulting from the funding agreement for the Council’s City for All housing plan, but it is not yet clear how these capital funds will be employed.

Alternatives to Incarceration Restoration

Recognizing that public safety cannot be achieved by law enforcement alone, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice brings together diverse stakeholders to address the systemic issues that undermine the safety and stability of neighborhoods. Many of the programs it funds help to prevent crime and reduce recidivism. Yet, the Administration cut funding for some of these programs in the November 2023 Financial Plan. The Council proposed the Administration reverse these cuts and restore $8.9 million in FY 2026 for Alternative to Incarceration programs that provide services tailored to participants, which can help reduce unnecessary incarceration and recidivism. The Executive Budget partially restored $7.6 million of the previous cuts.

Re-entry Services Restoration

The City works with nonprofit providers to offer employment opportunities and job training, as well as holistic services such as mental, behavioral, and physical health care, substance abuse treatment, case management, and legal services for formerly incarcerated individuals. These programs can better serve individuals in their own neighborhoods, where community-based services can help to ensure their success in securing employment, achieving stability, and as a result, lower recidivism. Approximately 70 percent of people detained at Rikers who are released return to the City, rather than move into State custody. Re-entry providers have found that individuals who receive re-entry services are 70 percent less likely to experience homelessness and saw a 50 percent reduction in psychiatric hospitalizations post-incarceration. The Administration cut funding from these programs in recent financial plans. The Council proposed the Administration reverse cuts made to re-entry programs by restoring and baselining $8 million starting in FY 2026. The Executive Budget only partially restored $4.7 million of the previous cuts.

Residential Treatment Beds

It is estimated that at any time, half of the population at Rikers Island has a mental health diagnosis. To lower the Rikers’ population and to close Rikers Island, the City must increase its investment in programs that provide treatment for people with serious mental illness and with co-occurring addictions. There is currently only one residential program in New York City specializing in treating this population, but the wait list to enter the program is extensive. To provide appropriate services for this population and to reduce their chances of ending up in correctional facilities, the Council proposed the Administration allocate $6.3 million in FY 2026 to create 250 new residential treatment beds. The Executive Budget failed to include any funding to create these new residential treatment beds.

Council Initiatives

The Council’s criminal justice budget initiatives of over $37 million fund programs to support crime victims and recidivism reduction. These include Alternatives to Incarceration, Discharge Planning, and the Initiative to Combat Sexual Assault. It is critical that this funding, left out of the Mayor’s Executive Budget, is included in the final budget through a continued full commitment towards Council discretionary funding.     

“I am glad to see the Mayor has restored funding for Alternatives to Incarceration and Detention programs, but their long-term sustainability remains in a state of uncertainty,” said Council Member Sandy Nurse, Chair of the Committee on Criminal Justice. “With looming federal cuts, the city must go further to support incarcerated and formerly New Yorkers. We need to increase investments in programs that keep people out of our jail system, support reentry, and help us move towards closing Rikers.”

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