(State Sen. Jessica Ramos through Twitter)
March 24, 2022 By Allie Griffin
State Sen. Jessica Ramos is asking on town council to spend money on psychological well being providers for alleged lawbreakers reasonably than pumping cash into the jail system.
Ramos joined a rally on the steps of Metropolis Corridor Wednesday morning to demand the council add funding to psychological well being providers and reduce funding for the Division of Corrections within the upcoming metropolis finances.
The rally-goers have been responding to a preliminary finances Mayor Eric Adams launched final month, through which he proposed rising the DOC finances by roughly $53 million, to $1.23 billion, whereas chopping funding to the well being division by over $194 million, to $2.07 billion. The mayor’s finances additionally requires slashing funding to town’s public hospital system by practically $390 million, to $717 million.
Following the rally, Ramos testified on the council’s preliminary finances listening to the identical morning to advocate for her place.
“We’re all involved with public security, let’s take the accountability of addressing these fears significantly by spending taxpayer {dollars} on applications that meaningfully intervene into the post-pandemic psychological well being disaster,” Ramos mentioned in her testimony.
The lawmaker, whose district will quickly embody Rikers Island resulting from current redistricting, additionally demanded its closure.
“Because the senator who will quickly symbolize Rikers, I’ll be clear: it should shut,” she mentioned on Twitter.
Ramos mentioned town should take into account different choices – much like current drug diversion applications — as a substitute of jailing pre-trial defendants on Rikers Island in “inhumane situations”.
She recommended the usage of psychological well being diversion applications as one different and has launched a invoice within the state legislature referred to as “The Therapy Not Jail Act” to develop the usage of such applications. The invoice expands the quantity and sort of costs eligible for remedy inside psychological well being diversion applications as part of sentencing.
To help the invoice’s aim, town must allocate funding for extra remedy services in its finances.
“To implement diversion applications we’d like our metropolis to spend money on extra psychological well being beds and
extra remedy services,” Ramos mentioned.
Her testimony echoed the message of the Freedom Agenda, the group that organized the rally exterior Metropolis Corridor. In keeping with the group, town spends greater than $556,000 a 12 months per inmate on jail operations.
“We name on our allies and elected workplaces for a simply finances,” Freedom Agenda chief Peggy Herrera mentioned on the rally. “Make investments into our communities as a substitute of an inflated DOC finances.”
Ramos shouldn’t be the one Queens official to name for change within the mayor’s preliminary finances.
Three Queens council members, Tiffany Cabán, Shekar Krishnan and Nantasha Williams, joined a bunch criticizing Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed cuts to providers like schooling, housing and healthcare, whereas boosting funds for the jail system.
“Mayor Adams has proposed a finances that may defund a lot of our most significant public security and public well being businesses and establishments,” Cabán mentioned at a Manhattan rally final week.
They’re pushing for a metropolis finances that redistributes funding from the DOC and NYPD to businesses that oversee public well being, schooling, sanitation and parks — that are going through finances cuts within the mayor’s proposal.
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