On Rikers Island (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
July 15, 2022 marked the day that 34-year-old Michael Lopez died of an overdose in a mental observation unit at the Rikers Island jail, bringing the number of lives lost under New York City Department of Correction custody this year to 11. Mr. Lopez’s death and the broader public health and humanitarian crises at Rikers demand that we reimagine true public safety through a lens of community care, rather than more punishment.
An eight-jail complex standing on an island in the East River plagued by environmental hazards, Rikers has been described as a modern-day penal colony intended to isolate its mostly Black and Latino residents from society and networks of support.
The rampant violence, cramped conditions, corruption, and horrendous sanitation within its dilapidated walls are largely out of sight and out of mind for New Yorkers. The crisis is not out of sight for Jennie Rosario-Megibow, the mother of Michael Lopez, whose many questions about his death have yet to be answered.
Disturbing images released last year depicted 26 people occupying an intake cell filled with human excrement, where many had been held for days. Lack of basic services contributes to a culture of violence at Rikers leaving many vulnerable to attacks. It has been widely reported that the use of solitary confinement continues, where an individual can be isolated for 23 hours a day in a small cell deprived of any human interaction and essential medical care. Solitary confinement not only has immediate psychological impacts but also increases the risk of premature death.
Nearly half of the people incarcerated at Rikers require treatment for mental illnesses—a rate double that of the general population. On the heels of two deaths in one week, advocates are calling for a reduction in the Rikers population and an end to solitary confinement.
Thanks to the leadership of formerly-incarcerated advocates, Rikers is set to shut down by 2027. However, conditions are dire now and require urgent action, lest we watch as more preventable deaths occur behind bars. It is well-documented that incarceration negatively impacts health. Most immediately, incarceration is associated with dramatically increased risk for overdose deaths and spread of infectious disease.
Fortunately, there are steps that policymakers can take to address dangerous conditions at Rikers.
As a member of the Campaign to Close Rikers and with a long history of investigating and promoting public health over punitive approaches to drug policy, the New York Academy of Medicine supports an approach that centers the humanity of individuals who are incarcerated and is based on the best available evidence.
Change must begin today to reduce harm by: 1) enforcing existing policy to decrease the current population and 2) improving access to housing, healthcare, and addiction services to prevent arrests and re-arrests.
There is precedent for decarceration as an effective and immediate strategy to save lives. Heeding warnings from public health experts (including the New York Academy of Medicine) and the New York City Board of Correction around the risk of COVID-19 transmission in jails and prisons, the city released 3,400 people from custody between March and May 2020, reducing the jail population to levels not seen since World War II.
The NYPD’s own data showed these releases did not impact public safety. The Department of Correction has stated that it would be better able to ensure adequate medical care if there were fewer people in their custody. Diverting the stream of individuals entering Rikers is essential to reducing harm to people on the island, while we work toward a closure date that cannot come soon enough.
Communities of color, disproportionately policed and arrested, need access to safe and affordable housing, healthcare, and addiction services. An estimated three out of every four people detained at Rikers experience addiction, yet evidence shows that a small minority of these individuals receive treatment for substance use disorder prior to incarceration. Evidence-based harm reduction services, such as overdose prevention centers, can more effectively address overdose risk and treatment access than jail.
Access to affordable and stable housing is known to reduce arrests and cycling through the criminal-legal system. In 2021, the annual cost per person incarcerated in New York City was $556,539, compared to the $33,276 spent per supportive housing unit. Thousands of people incarcerated at Rikers are experiencing chronic homelessness and have significant health needs that could be best addressed in community settings. One of the key Points of Agreement in the plan to Close Rikers – 380 supportive units for people who most often cycle between hospitals and jails – remains unfulfilled because the contracts offered to providers did not meet their costs. To date, zero units have been opened.
Ultimately, public safety is best served by equitable access to healthcare and social services rather than more incarceration. These are the kinds of upstream solutions our city needs. The time to advance them is now.
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Gabriella Khawly is a Policy Intern and Michele Calvo, MPH, is a Program Officer at the New York Academy of Medicine. On Twitter @NYAMNYC.
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Scaffolding (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayor's Office)
The cost to build in New York can be 10 times more expensive than in neighboring New Jersey or Connecticut. It’s a reality that’s hurting our economy, especially Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs) in the construction sector, at the worst possible time.
The Empire State’s unaffordability factor begins with the massive, state-imposed cost-of-liability insurance, a result of the 137-year-old Scaffold Law.
To bid on any construction project in the public or private sector, a contracting firm in New York is held to a strict liability for whatever accident occurs for any reason—even if a worker jumps off a ladder. There is only one question: How much does the contractor pay?
The costs here are astronomical and out of line with the 49 other states. In New York, the cost of insurance is $41 per square foot compared to $3 in Connecticut and $4 in New Jersey. Is it any wonder why firms are moving there, or why there’s always such a housing shortage and affordability crisis in New York?
Now, with a market downturn looming, there’s well-meaning legislation on the desk of Governor Hochul that will, if not amended, worsen the problem considerably, especially for MWBEs and small businesses.
The idea behind “Carlos’ Law” is an honorable one. Named for Carlos Moncayo, a construction worker killed on the job in 2015, it raises the financial penalties employers face for workplace fatalities from a minimum of $5,000 and a maximum of $10,000 to a minimum of $300,000 and a maximum of $500,000. It also broadens the criteria of workers to whom these new rules apply.
In trying to solve the very real problem of having an ineffectual law on the books, legislators have gone too far in the other direction. If Carlos’ Law is signed by Governor Hochul without being adjusted, it will have a punitive effect on contractors in the state, putting New York, and its $40 billion per year construction trade, at further risk of a recession.
As the Building Trades Employers Association expressed in a June 30 letter to the Governor, there are easy ways to make Carlos’ Law workable for both employers and employees:
With some minor changes, Carlos’ Law would act as a deterrent against unscrupulous contractors without punishing the upstanding ones. Instead of keeping MWBEs at arm’s length, it would embrace them. It’s hard enough to build in New York. Let’s do it, together, the right way.
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Louis Coletti of New York City is president of the New York Building Trades Employers Association. On Twitter @BTEANY.
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A push to increase faith in government (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayor's Office)
Of all the pressing problems facing New York City — increasing crime, economic stagnation, high taxes, rising homelessness, crumbling infrastructure, and poor sanitation — a fundamental issue is at the core: lack of faith in our government and institutions to address and solve these issues.
Trust has been broken because government appears corrupt, indecipherable, and motivated to benefit special interests, insiders, and their allies. New York’s future depends on restoring its ability to create and implement policy that truly serves the public’s needs. To restore public confidence and reduce the cynicism that has led to abysmally low voter turnout, we must have the will and commitment to enact long overdue reforms.
Here are several recommendations:
1) Effectuate Non-Partisan Redistricting:
In New York’s recent redistricting debacle, the State Supreme Court ruled the Democrats’ gerrymandering plan failed to follow constitutionally required procedures to ensure a non-partisan redistricting process.
Democrats drew maps in January 2022, after the new bipartisan Independent Redistricting Commission failed to complete its work. The Court threw out those maps and hired an independent third party to redraw districts.
This could’ve been avoided if commission members were initially made up of independent members such as judges, law professors, retired public servants, and political scientists, rather than partisan political appointees. The word gerrymandering implies the system is rigged. A truly independent redistricting commission will secure voter trust that the system used to elect representatives is working and fair and not rigged to favor any political party or other special interest.
2) Expand Ranked Choice Voting (RCV):
RCV gives voters more say in who is elected. Efficient and more representative, it was introduced in New York City’s June 2022 municipal primary elections after 73% of city voters backed a 2019 ballot measure proposed by a city charter commission. It should be extended to all state elections.
Under the current “winner-take-all” system candidates often win with significantly less than a majority of votes. Voters are often faced with having to choose between their preferred candidate and a “safe” choice. Under RCV, even if one’s desired candidate loses, lower ranked choices still help decide the outcome. Winners reflect more broad consensus among the voters.
New York City provides an excellent template for broader implementation.
3) Implement Final Five Open Primaries:
Turnout in New York primaries is abysmally low. In the recent June 2022 primaries for Governor and State Assembly, less than 14% of those registered voted. In national elections, New York and other closed primary states have significantly lower turnout than states with open primaries.
An open primary system would franchise more than 2.7 million ‘independent’ voters in our state, including over 400,000 military veterans, and liberate parties from being tied down and beholden to their most extreme influences. Diversity of opinion and thought would be ignited within parties once more as voters are able to participate in the elections that matter. When confidence in the system itself is restored, we can expect to see significantly greater voter turnout.
New York is one of only 14 states in which at least one political party administers closed primaries for federal and state-level elections. To implement open primaries for these elections, state election law must be amended.
For New York City elections, we must go directly to voters with a ballot initiative. “Final Five” voting will combine ranked-choice voting with open primaries.
4) Expand Mechanisms for Ballot Initiatives and Referendums:
Ballot initiatives and referendums, allowed in 26 states, enable voters to bypass the state legislature by placing proposed statutes and constitutional amendments on the ballot. These measures reduce voter disengagement and can contribute to greater turnout by signaling to voters that their vote will directly affect the outcome of a particular issue.
In New York, voters do not have the power to initiate statewide referendums and initiatives. Several attempts to introduce voter referendums in New York have failed.
Additionally, 19 states have enacted recall mechanisms, which have been effective in holding elected officials accountable for doing the job they were elected to do.
5) Enact Effective Campaign Financing Reforms:
State and City Boards of Elections need independent oversight to assure transparency and trust.
“Doing business restrictions” must be enacted statewide to largely prohibit campaign donations from individuals or entities that do business with government. We must finally end the “pay-to-play” mindset in Albany and the potential for unrestricted donations to influence contracting, subsidy, and other government decisions.
Contribution levels should be reconsidered annually. State contribution levels are far too high, even in the new campaign finance system to be instituted in the next elections, allowing large donors to maintain outsized influence. These rules must be made based on the ethical challenges of today and lessons learned from the past.
New York must address the ill effects of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision overturning 100 years of campaign finance restrictions in Citizens United v. FEC. We can heighten donor transparency requirements and expand matching funds and “democracy dollar” programs successful in other states. Programs to reward voters by providing matching dollar vouchers to
be donated to the political candidate of their choice can counter voter apathy, while expanding pools of candidates.
6) Empower Truly Independent Ethics Agencies:
Government watchdog groups like the League of Women Voters have been calling for city and state ethics reform for decades, but efforts always fall short. Truly independent commissions empowered to enact comprehensive integrity and conflicts of interest policies, along with mechanisms to enforce them, will restore institutional trust and confidence.
Governor Hochul and the State Legislature recently replaced the Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), with the “Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government,” but their reforms fell short because this new entity is still populated by political appointees without the independence needed to hold elected officials to the highest standards. The governor’s own ethical questions regarding the Buffalo Bills stadium funding and Penn Station redevelopment deals haven’t helped engender trust in how she has gone about implementing reforms and leading the government.
New York City’s Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) should be replaced by independent appointees with enforcement powers outside of political influence. Currently, its membership is nominated by elected officials including the mayor, comptroller, and public advocate.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio famously disregarded the Board’s advice and admonishments on multiple occasions, including regarding his fundraising efforts, which created the “appearance of coercion and improper access.” Yet de Blasio faced no punishment from a Board full of his own appointees. The city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, recently sought guidance from the Board, including an appointee of his own, about whether he faces conflicts in his office’s approval of contracts between the city and members of a nonprofit umbrella group run by his wife. These actions and questions undercut the credibility of the Conflicts of Interest Board to act independently and fairly, and diminishes public confidence.
Good government groups have rightly suggested a firewall between elected officials and appointees of ethics commissions. Elected leaders simply should not have any say in who gets appointed to the entities that oversee them. A truly independent ethics panel should be appointed by a designating commission made up of trusted, qualified, and experienced third parties, such as law school deans, bar association presidents, and judges, vetted for independence.
This autonomous panel would be empowered to write and enforce protocols that follow best practices for rules compliance and conflicts of interest, with full public disclosure of every investigation.
This list is not exhaustive of all that needs to be done to restore faith and trust in government, but even these pragmatic and reasonable recommendations will take considerable will to implement.
Elected leaders have been fighting real reform for decades, and it’s time we elect candidates who are unafraid to demand comprehensive action. Government will be far more effective with more democratic elections and proper rules in place to assure it is operating with honesty and integrity.
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By Sal Albanese & Maria Danzilo. On Twitter @SalAlbaneseNYC & @Maria4Dist6.
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