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Opinion

Pay Equity for Probation Officers in New York City


Probation officers in the community (photo: @nycprobation)


When I was a college senior, I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew I wanted a career where I could make a difference in my community.  I sent my resume to a number of City agencies and was offered a job as a Probation Officer Trainee. This has led to a long and fulfilling career at the Department of Probation.

What appealed to me about working in probation was the opportunity to give people involved with the criminal justice system a second chance, while working to keep our neighborhoods safe. I rose through the ranks, eventually becoming a Supervising Probation Officer and ultimately becoming the first black woman to serve as President of my union, the United Probation Officers Association.

One of the challenges I face as a black woman in a leadership position, leading a union that is not big and being “the new kid on the block“ is that I am often not taken seriously or respected. When I speak our truth, I must be mindful not to come across as that “angry black woman.” I am still trying to figure out how we as Probation Officers can get a seat at the table, to be seen and receive the support of political leaders who claim to value and understand our work. 

While I am proud of the work I have done helping my fellow New Yorkers turn their lives around, it has been incredibly frustrating at times. Women, particularly Black women, are used to doing important work that holds communities together. And yet we’re rarely fairly compensated for it. You’ve probably heard the statistics before, but they’re worth repeating: women, on average, earn 81 cents for every dollar a man makes, and Black women make 61 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic males.

You’d expect a city as progressive as New York to be doing better. But a recent report from the New York City Council found that women working in city government earn 73 cents for every dollar men make. Inequities exist along racial lines too, with Black city employees making 71 cents to every dollar made by white workers, Latinos making 75 cents to every dollar in pay whites get and Asians making 85 cents compared with a dollar of a white person’s pay.

Pay at the Department of Probation illustrates how the work of women and people of color is overlooked and undervalued by the city. Not too long ago, our department was staffed by mostly white male employees, but over the years more women and people of color have joined the ranks. Today, approximately 80% of probation employees are female, and over 90% are nonwhite.  

Over time, the city has suppressed salaries in the Department. Today, our compensation lags other law enforcement agencies in the city, and probation departments in neighboring counties. Last year, the City Council conducted an analysis that looked at pay disparities in City agencies. The results were clear: Probation employees were paid far less than Department of Corrections employees, even though Probation Officers perform similar job functions as Corrections Officers and have higher educational requirements. The difference is that our agency is mostly women and people of color, while Corrections is mostly male.

This is simply unacceptable. New York City should be a leader in promoting pay equity and respecting the work of Black women. We should have a municipal government that acts as an example for treating women and people of color with dignity. Instead, they are preserving the status quo. How can we expect the private sector to treat their workforces fairly when the city is exploiting women and people of color who have dedicated their lives to public service?

We've taken the city to court to address the pay disparities our members face. We hope that the Adams Administration will be more receptive than its predecessors were to our very legitimate concerns, and work with us to ensure hardworking Probation Officers are paid what they're worth.

Last month was National Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. I spent the day reflecting on what world we want our daughters to grow up in. I want the girls who will grow up to look like me to be treated fairly, and to know that what they contribute to society is just as important and valuable as that of any man.

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Dalvanie K. Powell is the President of the United Probation Officers Association, the union representing more than 650 active and retired Probation Officers and Supervising Probation Officers. On Twitter @UPOA3.

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Aiding Domestic Violence Survivors and Addressing the Crisis on Rikers Island


Protesting conditions on Rikers (photo: Gerardo Romo/NYC Council Media Unit)


Stephanie grew up without a stable family and ended up in an abusive relationship with a boyfriend. A cycle of physical and emotional violence continued for years, leading to Stephanie giving him drugs while he was in prison, which resulted in her incarceration.

When she was released and returned to the city, Stephanie’s boyfriend raped her, and she became pregnant. Afraid for her life, she went to a domestic violence shelter. Stephanie’s parole officer claimed that she didn’t provide her change of address and that she tested positive for drugs, which she denies.

In 2018, she ended up at the Rose M. Singer Center (Rosie’s) on Rikers Island. Pregnant, and suffering from sleep apnea, Stephanie was in a life-threatening medical situation. After three months the court agreed that Stephanie could leave Rosie’s and instead be placed with SHERO, which provides transitional housing and services to women, gender-expansive people, and their families.

Like Stephanie, 93% of women diverted from Rikers Island have experienced domestic violence: physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, according to a recent report by the Women’s Community Justice Association and the Rikers Commission. Nationally, an estimated 77% of women in jail have experienced intimate partner abuse

With 16 deaths on Rikers already this year, there is an urgent need to decarcerate. As we honor Domestic Violence Awareness month, one way that New York City can address the Rikers crisis is to ensure that domestic violence survivors are diverted from jail and instead given the community-based resources they need to heal.

It should start with strong preventative services that help those suffering from domestic violence avoid criminal legal system involvement in the first place. That includes access to physical and mental health care, legal services, and affordable places to live. Economic independence is also crucial, but those with criminal records face barriers to hiring, professional licensing, and housing. Passing city and state laws that remove these unfair restrictions would help more families who have endured abuse to thrive financially and avoid the devastating cycle of incarceration. 

The next step is to get domestic violence survivors off Rikers and into community-based alternatives. There should be holistic screening for physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and other factors, such as mental illness, by peer specialists who have lived experience with the criminal legal system. These considerations should be used by judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and others involved at every stage of a case.

In 2019, New York passed the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, which has judges take into account a history of abuse when determining sentencing. Having domestic violence considered earlier in the case, including for bail and charging decisions, would help to get more survivors off of Rikers more quickly.

Finally, there should be better access to programs like SHERO, which has diverted Stephanie and over 300 women and gender-expansive people from Rikers since it launched in 2017. It costs $60,000 to $70,000 annually for a program slot at SHERO, compared with $550,000 to incarcerate someone at Rikers.

While at SHERO, Stephanie gave birth to a healthy baby. “I had my own apartment and case managers that listen and care about me,” she said. “This is a community of women who support each other. I’m in culinary school and working towards my dream of becoming a chef.”

New York City must do more to protect and support domestic violence survivors whose trauma and experiences leads them to Rikers Island. Strong community-based resources that prevent incarceration and a focused effort to more quickly divert those at Rikers into alternatives would improve safety and justice.

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Michelle Feldman is the Policy and Campaigns Director for Women’s Community Justice Association, which advocates to end mass incarceration for women and families in New York. On Twitter @WomensCJA.

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Mayor Adams, If NYC Schools are ‘Segregated Intentionally,’ Why Increase Segregation with More Admissions Screening?


Mayor Adams talks with students (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


On September 29, the Adams Administration announced changes to the high school and middle school admissions process for the 2023-24 school year. Most significantly, middle schools, which had been unscreened for the last two academic years, can resume academic screening of fifth-grade students in admissions if the district superintendent so chooses.  

Admissions to New York City high schools are the nation’s most competitive. The most coveted schools admit students on the basis of grades, state test scores (when available), and sometimes school-specific interviews, evaluations, and essays. The “winners” of the competition receive a free ticket to an education comparable to elite private schools. For those students who come from poor and working-class families, admission to “brand name,” well-resourced public schools can be life-changing.

But what of the “losers” who vastly outnumber the “winners”? As one high school student observed: “People say numbers don’t lie. Good, smart students get good grades and are thereby entitled to the city’s bulk of resources. The rest of us are left to fight over the scraps. That is the logic of our school system.”  

Even some winners pay a heavy price. Black and Latino students who are offered the opportunity to attend one of the highly selective New York City high schools (including but not limited to the specialized schools such as Stuyvesant and Bronx Science) can feel marginalized. One Black student reflected: “Everyday walking through those doors I feel alienated, like a single piece of black pepper in a sea of salt…School should be considered your home away from home, yet all I can feel at school is out of place.” 

High school screens will remain in 2023-24, with one substantial tweak: students whose grades are in the top 15% of their school–or in the city as a whole–will have priority in admissions to the city’s most coveted public high schools. This change could, in theory, increase racial and ethnic diversity in these schools to a certain extent, since middle schools are highly segregated by race and class.

However, coupled with other changes to the admissions process, a Department of Education (DOE) spokesperson told Chalkbeat New York that the city expects the changes to increase racial and socioeconomic diversity of students at screened schools as compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic, but not compared to last year. 

In my research on historical and contemporary segregation in New York City schools, it became clear to me that students wish to attend a school where they feel a part of a community, and one that has sufficient resources. Finding such a school has long proven elusive for many Black and Latino students.  

They may attend a co-located school that shares its building with five other schools; the demographics of these schools and the resources allocated to them often are starkly different, highlighting the vast disparities in the system. 

Most devastatingly, Black and Latino students may feel their schools are “not good enough” for white students. As one former student told me about her “mainly Black and brown” school: “If you saw any white kids in the school it was like…‘What happened?’ It’s almost like: ‘How’d ya get here?’ You’re supposed to be in a better school with better academics. And because they were white, a lot of the kids just assumed they were a lot smarter than us. They put [the white students] on a pedestal–because of how much of our academia was lacking.”     

These are the fruits of segregation and excessive screening. By late 2017, former Mayor Bill de Blasio had brought hope to integration activists by launching the School Diversity Advisory Group (SDAG) and naming Richard Carranza as Schools Chancellor. SDAG’s extensive recommendations to reduce segregation and increase equity resulted in little concrete action, an occurrence that echoed the demise of previous city panels on integration. Carranza spoke passionately about the need for integration, insisting in Spring 2019 that “we will not wait to dismantle the segregated systems we have!” By August, he conceded: “If I integrated the system, the next thing I’m doing to do…is walk on water.” 

Shortly thereafter, SDAG released its second and final report on school diversity. Among its recommendations were the unscreening of all middle schools and some high schools. In the six months before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, de Blasio said virtually nothing about any such changes being implemented. However, in a covid-era change that integration advocates hoped would become permanent, mIddle-school admissions for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years were unscreened.

Those desires were dashed by the current administration’s recent announcement. Despite Adams’ insistence last November that city schools are “segregated intentionally,” 

his administration has revealed little appetite for meaningful school reforms aimed at increasing integration and equity. At the recent news conference announcing the admissions changes, School Chancellor David Banks justified rigorous screening by arguing that hard-working students with high grades “should not be thrown in a lottery with just everybody.” It is wrong to classify students whose grades do not reach the top tier in this way. The less-than-stellar grades of a 12-year-old should not relegate them to the school system’s “scraps.” 

There is a lot of work to be done in a school system with 1 million students, 85% of whom are students of color and more than 70% of whom are low-income.

District superintendents should resist pressures by influential parent groups to resume screening of 10-year-olds for middle-school admissions. The un-screening of middle schools brought some promising, if modest, changes to the racial and economic demographics of the most highly-regarded middle schools–at least in districts with considerable diversity. The system didn’t collapse.

Thoughtfully and deliberately increasing racial and economic integration in schools remains a crucial step for the city to move beyond its longstanding model where there are a smattering of “great” schools for the “winners,” and a much larger number that are short-changing their students.  

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Christopher Bonastia is Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, Lehman College, and Professor, CUNY Graduate Center. He is the author of The Battle Nearer to Home: The Persistence of School Segregation in New York City (Stanford University Press). On Twitter @Uno_Collison.

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