Web | Why My Workplace Refused to Register DOC Web Companies Contract: Lander

By the discussion board workers

Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander launched a letter to New Yorkers on Wednesday explaining why his workplace has refused to register a contract between the Division of Corrections (DOC) and a for-profit firm known as Securus Applied sciences.

“It is lower than us to determine whether or not a contract is a good suggestion, however it’s our accountability to verify metropolis companies observe procurement guidelines,” Lander stated.

“The settlement would basically give Securus a monopoly on promoting Web providers to folks incarcerated in New York Metropolis jails.

“DOC did not trouble to get bids for the contract, regardless that there ought to have been bids. Why not? As a result of Securus instructed them they have been the one firm that would present the service. That is not true, however DOC Simply took Securus’ phrase for it.

Photograph courtesy of NYC DOC
Metropolis Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Magnelli-Woman.

“And that is not all: DOC’s sole supply settlement provides Securus the discretion to lift costs every year with out DOC or anybody else’s approval. It may well, and does, revenue from incarcerated folks with no different choices.

“What’s extra, Securus has a historical past of information privateness violations. In 2021, the corporate unintentionally allowed greater than 1,500 confidential cellphone calls between inmates and their attorneys to be improperly recorded by the Division of Corrections. .

“From the doubtful take care of Securus to the month-to-month jail statistics that present the necessity for federal receivership at Riker’s Island, it is clear that the Division of Corrections wants stronger administration to handle the humanitarian disaster in New York Metropolis’s prisons. Is.

“One other factor that is not serving to: The Adams administration plans to chop $17 million from very important reentry and alternative-incarceration applications that preserve New Yorkers protected. Reentry and ATI applications not solely serve communities. They enhance safety and cut back the jail inhabitants, they save taxpayer {dollars} – and are essential to the profitable closure of Rikers Island.

“These applications, which offer a wide range of providers together with mentoring, cognitive-behavioral remedy, and job readiness coaching, considerably cut back re-arrest charges for program individuals. For instance, , the 2-year retention fee for graduates of ATI/Reentry Coalition applications is lower than 20 %, lower than half of these launched from incarceration with out entry to programming at 42 %.

“What I am proposing is that this: much less cash for for-profit jail service corporations via no-bid, sole-source, monopoly contracts — and extra money for applications that preserve New Yorkers protected, Confirmed to scale back corruption, and obtain. We’re again on observe to closing Rikers Island,” Lander concluded.