Agency Watch List

FY 2020

Department of Correction FY 2020

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Table of Contents

Why is This Agency on the Watch List?

The Department of Correction (DOC) is on the Comptroller’s Agency Watch List for the second consecutive year. First announced in 2018, the Agency Watch List spotlights city agencies that raise the most budgetary concerns due to rapidly increased spending and meager measurable results. The following report reviews trends and recommends indicators that should be reported and monitored to evaluate the effectiveness of agency spending in achieving the Administration’s stated goals.

Over the last five years, the Office of the Comptroller has consistently highlighted the continued growth in the DOC budget, even as the jail population has fallen and the rate of violent incidents continues to climb unabated. From Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 to FY 2019, the jail population declined by 20 percent, from an average daily population of 10,240 to 8,175 in the first four months of FY 2019. Yet total agency spending is projected to rise 19 percent from FY 2015 to FY 2019 (as of the FY 2020 Preliminary Budget). Since FY 2016, the DOC has employed more correction officers than the average daily jail population. While the DOC has been under a Consent Decree and federal mandates since November 2015, according to the most recent Sixth Report on the Nunez Independent Monitor, “Despite significant effort by the Department, these measures simply have not yielded the results necessary to materially advance the overarching goals of the Consent Judgment.”

Recent Developments

  • In June 2018, the DOC closed the George Motchan Detention Center (GMDC) on Rikers Island. The facility had previously housed most of the City’s 18-year-old detainees, who were subsequently moved to the Robert N. Davoren Complex (RNDC).
  • In August 2018, the City unveiled plans to build four new jails in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, including a Draft Scope of Work. Each facility would provide about 1,510 beds and include support space for correctional programming and therapeutic services, community space, and parking. The City plans to use a single Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) process for all four jails. In the FY 2020 Preliminary Budget, the City added $16 million over FY 2019 and FY 2020 in the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) for a project management consultant for the borough-based jails program, but no additional funds for design and construction.
  • As of October 1, 2018, the City moved all 16- and 17-year-olds from DOC jail facilities to the Horizon Juvenile Center in the Bronx, a youth detention facility operated by the City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).

Indicators to Watch

The Watch List includes tables with selected indicators as reported in the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) and other sources. Also included are key indicators that should be tracked and reported in order to evaluate the effectiveness of initiatives, labeled “Indicators to Watch.” A number of these are not currently publicly reported, however, and the Administration should move immediately to make the relevant statistics publicly available and ultimately incorporate them into the MMR.

Budget and Spending

  • The DOC budget is projected to rise 19 percent from FY 2015 to FY 2019.
  • Uniformed headcount rose 24 percent from FY 2015 to FY 2017, before falling 2 percent in FY 2018. DOC expects uniformed headcount to continue declining, in part due to the closing of GMDC.
  • After peaking in FY 2016, overtime expenses have steadily decreased.
  FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 Budgeted FY 19* Actual

FY 19
To Date**

 Budgeted FY 20*
Expenditures ($mil) $1,162.1 $1,307.6 $1,368.6 $1,400.2 $1,380.3 $864.2 $1,407.5
Overtime (Unif.) ($mil) $180.5 $253.9 $240.4 $198.1 $150.4 $93.0 $150.6
Overtime (Total) ($mil) $196.3 $275.2 $266.4 $221.7 $157.4 $108.5 $157.7
Personnel (Unif.) 8,756 9,832 10,862 10,653 10,226 10,467 10,063
Overtime/Unif. $20,613 $25,791 $22,130 $18,595 $14,705 N/A $14,966
Personnel (Civl’n) 1,418 1,569 1,729 1,770 2,274 1,771 2,043
SOURCE:  Office of the Comptroller; Financial Management System.
NOTES:  N/A: Not available.  *Budgeted, as of FY 2020 Preliminary Budget.  **As of 02/28/19, headcount as of 12/31/18.

Indicators to Watch

  • Overtime spending per uniformed headcount (not reported; calculated by Comptroller’s Office)
  • Average number of fixed posts requiring coverage; monthly (not reported)

Census, Staffing, and Cost

  • Annual admissions and average daily population (ADP) continue to fall. For the first four months of FY 2019, the average jail population was 8,175, compared to more than 10,000 in FY 2015.
  • The ratio of correction officers to detainees has increased, and the cost per detainee has risen.

  FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 Actual FY 19

To Date*
Admissions 67,672 63,758 58,226 49,455 14,154
Avg. Daily Population 10,240 9,790 9,500 8,896 8,175
C.O. to Detainee Ratio 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3
Avg. Cost per Detainee $113,487 $133,568 $144,067 $157,397 N/A
SOURCE:  Office of the Comptroller based on Mayor’s Management Report.  *Through 10/31/18.

NOTE: The total cost of operating the City’s jails includes additional expenses outside the DOC budget, including medical services provided by Health+Hospitals and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and staff fringe benefits and pension contributions.

Indicators to Watch

Violent Incidents and Use of Force

  • In 2015, the Administration initiated a 14-Point Plan to reduce violence at Rikers, including risk-based housing and staffing; the creation of specialized housing units; expansion of video camera coverage; recruit and staff training; and others.
  • After showing signs of stabilizing, indicators of violence in City jails rose in the first four months of FY 2019.
  • The federal monitor noted that the closure of the George Motchan Detention Center (GMDC) in June 2018, and the subsequent transition of detainees to a new housing area with different rules and procedures, led to some “early frustration and resulting aggression” that coincided with a marked increase in violent incidents.
Rate per 1,000 ADP FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 FY 19*
Fight/assault infractions 920 1,148 1,332 1,354 1,634
Violent detainee-on-detainee incidents 454 574 662 670 840
Detainee assault on staff 103 95 101 110 150
Incidents/allegations of use of force 471 538 534 628 840
SOURCE:  Office of the Comptroller based on Mayor’s Management Report.  *Projected based on data through 10/31/18.
 ($ millions) FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 Budgeted

FY 19*

 Budgeted

FY 20*
14-Point Idleness Reduction N/A $0.8 $7.8 $11.2 $11.1 $11.0

SOURCE:  Office of the Comptroller; Financial Management System.  *Budgeted as of FY 2020 Preliminary Budget.

Indicators to Watch

  • Rates of violent incidents; monthly (DOC LL33 security indicator reports)
  • Hours of required training per Nunez settlement per uniformed staff member; annual (not reported)
  • Use of punitive segregation and alternatives; quarterly (DOC LL42 reports)
  • Crisis intervention team deployments; quarterly (not reported)
  • Hours of programming per detainee; quarterly (not reported)

Access to Health and Mental Health Services

  • As admissions have fallen, the percentage of detainees with a mental health diagnosis has gone up slightly, reaching 43 percent in FY 2018.
  • However, in the first four months of FY 2019, the share of the jail population with a serious mental health diagnosis rose sharply to 17.0 percent, from 14.3 percent in FY 2018.
  • The DOC has created new housing units and programs for detainees with mental health diagnoses in the last several years, including the Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation (CAPS) unit for those with serious mental health diagnoses and the Restricted Housing Unit (RHU) programs for those with less serious diagnoses.
  • Spending on DOC Health Affairs and the Health Management Division has risen from $3.3 million in FY 2015 to $6.0 million in FY 2018.

  FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 FY 19

To Date*
Jail population with mental health diagnosis

(% ADP)

 41% 42% 42% 43% N/A
Jail population with serious mental health diagnosis (% ADP) 11.1% 11.0% 10.3% 14.3% 17.0%
Health clinic visits 81,873 78,499 79,844 76,856 27,536
SOURCE:  Mayor’s Management Report.  *Through 10/31/18.

Indicators to Watch

Re-Entry Services and Recidivism

  • The Individualized Correction Achievement Network, or I-CAN, was created in 2013 and intended to reduce recidivism among high-risk detainees. ICAN was expanded to include medium-risk detainees in 2015.
  • In March 2017, the Administration announced that all detainees would receive re-entry services by the end of calendar year 2017.
FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 FY 19

To Date*
I-CAN enrollments 2,321 4,278 7,569 7,685 2,922
I-CAN workshops 2,065 6,505 12,002 12,799 8,273
Avg. daily number of detainees in vocational skills training programs 256 226 419 482 303
Detainees participating in skills-building activities/discharge planning 10.5% 8.7% 14.0% 23.8% N/A
SOURCE:  Mayor’s Management Report.  *Through 10/31/18.
 ($ in millions) FY 15 FY 16 FY 17 FY 18 Budgeted

FY 19*

 Budgeted

FY 20*
Detainee programming $4.2 $5.3 $11.8 $20.2 $20.7 $20.9
SOURCE:  Office of the Comptroller; Financial Management System.  *Budgeted as of FY 2020 Preliminary Budget.

Indicators to Watch

  • Percent of jail population eligible for discharge planning who receive a plan; annual (not reported)
  • Detainees earning a GED; annual (not reported)
  • Post-release job placements and retention; annual (not reported)
  • Readmissions and recidivism (re-arrests); annual (not reported)
$242 billion
Aug
2022