Testimony on the FY27 Preliminary Budget Before the City Council Committee on Criminal Justice

SUMMARY

The Corrections and Community Reentry Committee (Karen Adelman and Paul Montuori, Co-Chairs) testified at a hearing before the New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice on the FY27 Preliminary Budget. Committee co-chair Karen Adelman delivered the testimony, in which the committee noted the “persistent crises” within City jails, “rang[ing] from staffing shortages, missed appointments, and inconsistent programming to dangerous, unsanitary conditions, visit denials, and the deaths of those in custody.” They also noted the recent appointment of a federal remediation manager which further underscores “the systemic challenges and revealed structural weaknesses in accountability and governance.” The testimony supported increased resources for the Board of Correction, the City agency charged with overseeing conditions of confinement in the City’s correctional facilities, including much-needed technology upgrades and expanded inspection teams, compliance analysts, and subject-matter experts, to ensure the agency is able to cover the full breadth and depth of its duties.

REPORT

TESTIMONY BY THE CORRECTIONS AND COMMUNITY REENTRY COMMITTEE

PRELIMINARY BUDGET HEARING BEFORE THE CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE

TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2026

My name is Karen Adelman and I am a Co-Chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Corrections and Community Reentry Committee. As a new administration assumes the Mayor’s office, New York City faces a pivotal opportunity to reform its correctional oversight system. Persistent crises within City jails have ranged from staffing shortages, missed appointments, and inconsistent programming to dangerous, unsanitary conditions, visit denials, and the deaths of those in custody. The Nuñez case and recent appointment of Nicholas Deml as federal remediation manager have laid bare the systemic challenges and revealed structural weaknesses in accountability and governance.

Against the backdrop of these challenges, the City Charter already provides a mechanism to foster a more humane and just criminal justice system, enshrining the Board of Correction as the City’s independent oversight body for correctional facilities. The BOC has been charged with this important oversight role for decades and will continue to perform its charter-mandated core functions long after Mr. Deml’s tenure has concluded. But the drastic step of appointing a remediation manager should itself make clear how important it is to strengthen the BOC’s capacity to execute its oversight mandate. To this end, we urge the Council to ensure that BOC has the resources it needs to perform its duties.

The BOC’s mandate includes monitoring across the entire City correctional system, requiring continuous inspections, investigations, data analysis, and public reporting. Unfortunately, outdated technology severely hampers the BOC’s ability to manage the voluminous amount of material generated by its monitoring. This deficiency slows down operations and limits the potential insights that can be drawn from the data which, in turn, hamstrings the BOC’s capacity to ensure compliance with its minimum standards and thwarts any ability to develop or implement innovations to meet real-time challenges. We believe it is essential that the next City’s budget give BOC the resources to update the sorely outdated technology it currently uses for critical data collection and management. As the Council heard during the BOC’s own testimony, the $2.1M needed to update these crucial oversight tools is a minute fraction of the vast budget granted to the agency that the technology is used to monitor.[1]

Adequately funding the BOC is, in fact, a cost-saving measure that mitigates long-term fiscal and legal risk and builds confidence in the system.^[2] Empowering the BOC in this regard will enable it to act more nimbly when faced with crises and timely assess the needs present on the ground at the facilities at any given time. Equipped with the necessary resources, the BOC can serve as a type of early warning system, identifying and addressing risks before they escalate into injuries and, regrettably, the fatalities that have far too often plagued our City’s jails. As the City begins to plan its transition to a completely transformed, geographically dispersed network of jails, it is even more crucial than ever that the BOC has the resources, technology, and the staff it requires to develop, monitor, and enforce its minimum standards. As it currently stands, staffing levels are insufficient. Beyond technology upgrades, BOC needs expanded inspection teams, compliance analysts, and subject-matter experts, to ensure it is able to cover the full breadth and depth of its duties.

Empowering the BOC will neither weaken the executive authority vested in the DOC nor interfere with DOC functions. To the contrary, strengthening the BOC will greatly benefit the City’s correctional system by fostering transparency, early crisis intervention, and a robust exchange of data and policy initiatives that will reinforce institutional ties and public confidence. Properly equipping the BOC now is particularly vital given the looming legal deadline to close Rikers Island by 2027 and continuing challenges in the timely completion of the new borough-based jails. At this critical juncture, the City has the opportunity to empower the BOC to act as a bridge at the conclusion of the remediation manager’s work and facilitate a seamless transition to a more effective, humane—and constitutionally sound—rehabilitation environment in our correctional system. Properly funding the BOC’s technological requirements will help ensure that gains are solidified, progress is maintained, and an effective oversight mechanism remains in place after the Nuñez action concludes.

The Board of Correction must be the meaningful regulator the City Charter requires, not merely an advisory body. We respectfully submit that empowering this agency through adequate resourcing is a necessary component of the City’s broader policy goals to advance public safety, uphold the rule of law, maximize operational efficiency, and protect human dignity. Thank you for your attention to these recommendations and for sharing our commitment to improve the health, safety, and fairness of New York City’s correctional system. We welcome the opportunity to further discuss these and other corrections system-related issues with your Committee and to offer our support and assistance.

Corrections and Community Reentry Committee
Karen J. Adelman, Co-Chair
Paul A. Montuori, Co-Chair