Suffolk sheriff calls for criminal justice system reform, education

New York State taxpayers spend more than $2.7 billion each year on state prison expenditures. This price tag doesn’t even include the cost of incarcerating individuals in local jails. Suffolk County residents will pay close to $50 million this year to house its local inmate population, and will pay another $255 million over the next seventeen years for construction costs for phase one of a state-mandated jail complex. This is the most costly public works project in Suffolk County’s history. Looming on the horizon is the second phase of jail construction, which will add yet another $150 million in debt for residents already burdened by some of the highest taxes in the nation.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and a correctional system has failed in its rehabilitative mission. Sixty to eighty percent of inmates leaving jail or prison will return within three years, and many within the first few months of release. Many of the individuals who cycle in and out of prison had their first contact with the criminal justice system before their eighteenth birthday, and often with the juvenile justice system.

Over the last few years, there has been a growing wave of bi-partisan support for federal and state prison reform, inmate rehabilitation and reentry initiatives to prevent recidivism. In July, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the formation of a Council on Community Re-Entry and Reintegration to examine policies and improve outcomes for individuals transitioning from state prisons. New York isn’t unique in pushing for such reforms. Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, recently signed into law a set of reforms that promise to halve the number of youth held in state custody by increasing community-based correctional alternatives and investments in youth programs. Conservatives are pushing for similar reforms. In Texas, Republican Governor Rick Perry diverted funds slated for state prison construction and invested much of the savings into drug courts and treatment alternatives. As a result, the state has saved more than $3 billion in corrections and has the lowest crime rate in four decades. Right on Crime, a conservative public policy institute, has been one of the nation’s most outspoken proponents of reducing the federal and state prison populations through community based diversion programs.

There needs to be similar attention directed at reforming the county’s criminal justice system. In Suffolk County, the majority of lawmakers realize that there is a better way to address local crime than embarking on another costly jail construction project. Cost effective strategies such as increasing the use of electronic monitoring in conjunction with court-mandated substance abuse and mental health interventions, intermediate sanctions for minor technical violations, and increasing the use of specialty courts are some ways that lawmakers could act now to drive down incarceration rates in Suffolk County.

It is common knowledge that communities struggling with economic instability and educational challenges are known breeding factors for youthful gang activity, violence and drug dealing.

Suffolk’s new Felony Youth Part specialty court and the jail’s Youth Tier Initiative have already led to a significant reduction in incarcerated youth, who are now receiving services designed to address negative and criminal behaviors instead of being locked in adult prisons. In the past three years, the jail’s average daily population of 16-18 years olds has dropped from 70 to 25, and our youth under 21 has been reduced by more than a third.

Lawmakers would be wise to consider directing even a fraction of the resulting savings into youth programs and public education, which could further drive down crime rates in the long term. These are worthwhile investments that could benefit an even greater number of county residents.

Many of the young people drawn into gangs and unlawful activity have educational deficits and lack hope in their ability to earn a viable living. Integrating basic education with vocational training and career exploration as early as middle school could help reduce the high school dropout rate in these communities, and better prepare these youth for a more productive future.

This model, coupled with mental health and life skills programs, has been successfully piloted in the Suffolk County Correctional Facility’s education program as part of the jail’s Youth Tier Initiative and I believe it could serve as a template for education reform in troubled communities. Keeping kids in school and actively engaged in learning is one of the most important ways we can keep our youth out of the criminal justice system, and possibly from a lifetime of cycling in and out of costly government and criminal justice services.

With the spotlight on high taxes and uncontrollable debt, and a new wave of research that supports the fact that public safety could be improved by increasing the use of community-based corrections and rehabilitation, there is no better time than now to embrace these reforms in Suffolk County.

Vincent DeMarco is the sheriff of Suffolk County.