Mayor Adams cuts classes and re-entry services at Rikers to save $17 million in NYC budget

The Adams administration is eliminating programs that help detainees get jobs, find housing, stay off drugs, and reconnect with loved ones once they’re released from Rikers Island in order to save $17 million in next year’s budget.

“We were blindsided and in shock,” said Ronald Day, vice president of programs at the Fortune Society, one of five nonprofit agencies informed on Monday that their contracts, due to expire next year, were suddenly nixed.

The canceled classes cover training in carpentry and plumbing skills, financial literacy, cognitive behavioral therapy, drug relapse prevention and anger management. The last day of class will be June 30. Dozens of full-time employees who worked daily in the jails, including the formerly incarcerated, will lose their positions.

Some of the programs operated in various forms at Rikers and the floating jail in the East River for decades. The agencies’ contracts together make up just 1.4% of the Department of Correction’s $1.2 billion budget, but the cuts were ordered by Mayor Eric Adams who has tasked city agencies with eliminating 4% in spending.

“The department will assume the responsibilities previously carried out by contracted providers and continues to offer dozens of additional programs to people in custody, including educational programming, fine/performing arts, and other enrichment activities,” said Frank Dwyer, the department’s deputy commissioner of public information, in a statement.

But Day said the Department of Correction cannot replicate the programs, which helped reduce violence and idleness in the jails..

“There is no way that DOC is going to be able to deliver the services at the rate and at the capacity and with the quality that the providers have been doing for years,” he said. “That is a complete pipe dream to think that is possible.”

It is unclear how the department will replace the reentry services that the agencies provided. Day said they were intended to “increase the chances that people can be successful once they make the transition from the jail to the community.”

Challenges of recidivism

Recidivism remains a persistent political and policy challenge in the city, with the Adams administration often blaming repeat offenders for crime increases. Jordan Neely, who was killed on the subway earlier this month during an encounter with another commuter, Daniel Penny, had recently been released from Rikers. He was allegedly acting erratically on the train prior to Penny placing him in a deadly chokehold.

“A lot of individuals who have mental health and substance abuse issues — where do they end up? They end up in our city jails,” Day said.

Thousands of detainees who attended the classes will be “devastated” to learn that the programs – and their facilitators – will be gone from Rikers, according to Archana Jayaram, CEO of the Osborne Association, which had its $2.5 million contract canceled.

“We find that participants engaged very deeply in the conversations – we’re talking about their family relationships, talking about past harms, talking about things they feel guilty about,” she said. “It’s a really vulnerable set of conversations.”

The programs also give detainees a link to the outside, as those released later connect with the Osborne Association for job placement, housing assistance, substance abuse counseling and free MetroCards, Jayaram said.

Still, attendance at the 90-minute classes, which is voluntary, has just been about 30%, according to the Department of Correction.

Jayaram said attendance numbers are affected by the fact they’re conducted in loud communal areas with regular lockdowns and interruptions.

“And the engagement we see is quite powerful despite those dynamics,” she added.

Other budget reductions planned at the Department of Correction include $30 million in salaries and benefits, due to vacant positions. The City Council must approve the next fiscal year's budget by June 30.