Experts: $130M NYC jail plan admirable, difficult
Corrections, mental health and law enforcement experts called Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $130 million plan to steer mentally ill and drug-addicted suspects to treatment instead of incarceration an encouraging first step toward repairing New York City’s broken jail system.
But they cautioned that the ambitious plan de Blasio announced Tuesday, aimed largely at “frequent flier” suspects who repeatedly end up jailed on minor offenses because there is nowhere else for them to go, will face enormous challenges.
“There’s a lot of moving parts there,” said Michael Thompson, director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a criminal justice nonprofit. “There’s a reason why this is difficult: You’re trying to do things at multiple points and you’re talking about a huge volume of people.”