Overview

More cops on the beat means less crime in the streets

A proven plan to fight drug crimes

GED or job training will help keep criminals from repeating their crimes

Improving local justice systems and promoting property tax relief

Giving crime victims a place to turn

Making better use of New York's prison capacity

Gun interdiction

Funding ATI Programs for non-violent offenders

Conclusion

Over the past three years, the New York State Assembly has enacted the toughest crime laws in a generation--and New Yorkers have seen a dramatic 18% decrease in reported crime.

To continue this trend, the Assembly Majority has developed a comprehensive plan--Public Safety 2000. Our plan makes communities safer and saves hundreds of millions of tax dollars.

• Putting 2,500 more cops on the street in localities across the state (outside New York City) to complement additional police officers added in New York City through the Safe Streets, Safe City program.
• Fighting drug crimes by requiring drug treatment for criminals, drug testing, new drug treatment beds, and funding for tough drug enforcement programs.
• Requiring inmates to get GEDs or vocational training to help ensure that they work after serving their time, instead of committing new crimes.
• Improving local justice systems and relieving property taxes by providing localities with over $200 million to fight crime, taking over probation costs, and helping counties pay to house State-Ready inmates.
• Helping crime victims by investing in 1,100 new domestic violence shelter beds and increasing funding for the Crime Victims’ Board.
• Making better use of New York’s prison capacity by using 1,000 vacant jail beds, implementing shock incarceration programs for nonviolent offenders, and building tough new juvenile facilities.
• Fighting gun violence through a new Gun Trafficking Interdiction Program.

The Public Safety 2000 Policing Plan

New York City has seen an historic reduction in crime in the past few years, due in large part to the Safe Streets, Safe City program that put more police on the streets

That’s why the Assembly Majority’s Public Safety 2000 plan puts 2,500 new cops on the streets in communities outside of New York City.

Our plan pays 75% of the cost of hiring the new police officers, developing innovative computer technology to fight crime, and putting more officers on the street in community policing programs to fight drugs and guns.

Public Safety 2000’s policing plan will not only make our communities safer--it will save taxpayers money. Each state prison cell costs more than $75,000 plus interest to construct and approximately $25,000 per year to operate. If each new police officer hired under Public Safety 2000 were to stop just one serious crime each year, our investment in safer streets would be repaid many times over.

More Cops on the Beat Cut Crime in NYC

The Safe Streets, Safe City Program was enacted in 1991 to fund an additional 3,462 police officers in New York City. This landmark law also requires the City to maintain its police force at approximately 38,000 officers.

More cops on the streets and other innovative policing strategies have made the City a crime fighting model for the entire nation.

• New York City’s murder rate plummeted 57% between 1990 and 1996, reaching its lowest level since 1968.
• Between 1990 and 1993, violent crime in the City dropped 12%; in the past three years that rate has declined by an additional 38%.
• New York City’s FBI crime rate, ranked among other cities with a population of over 100,000, has declined from 88 of 182 reporting cities in 1993 to 140 of 191 cities in 1995.

Even more extraordinary, published reports indicate that during the first three months of 1997, New York City’s murder rate has declined by an additional 27% below comparable 1996 figures. Double-digit declines also occurred during the first quarter of 1997 for rape, robbery, burglary and auto theft.

Public Safety 2000 brings these successful initiatives to the rest of the state.

Crime and drugs--the connection between the two is as well documented as any problem facing our society.

A recent study by the Department of Correctional Services found that of 23,994 New York State inmates released from prison in 1992, 42% returned for committing a new crime or violating parole. More of these offenders returned to prison on drug charges (49%) than for any other reason.

According to the National Bureau of Justice Statistics, 62% of prison inmates admit to regular drug use prior to incarceration. 43% used drugs daily in the month before they were imprisoned. A 1995 analysis by New York’s Department of Correctional Services found that approximately 66% of New York’s prison inmates were drug or alcohol abusers.

Yet the Pataki administration has done little to stop criminals and those who might commit crimes from using drugs. Governor Pataki has repeatedly cut funding for drug programs, including those designed to stop known criminals from committing new crimes. Consider these facts:

• In 1995 the Governor proposed a $21.7 million cut in drug abuse education, prevention and treatment programs operated by the State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). In the face of increasing prison populations, the Governor proposed eliminating 161 prison Alcohol and Substance Abuse counselors. As prisons continued to fill with drug offenders in 1996, 40 additional substance abuse counselors were cut by the state’s Department of Correctional Services.
• In 1995 the Governor cut $2.4 million in drug treatment programs and other relapse prevention services to parolees. Ironically, the Governor proposes a partial restoration of these funds this year--more than a year after he eliminated them.
• In 1996 the Governor proposed cutting OASAS local assistance drug abuse education and treatment programs by $42.2 million. This would have eliminated drug and alcohol abuse prevention services for an estimated 200,000 school children and other New Yorkers.
• This year the Governor’s budget again calls for a reduction in state OASAS local assistance spending of $4.2 million. So the only increase localities would see would come from federal funds.
• According to a 1995 audit by State Comptroller, H. Carl McCall, New York’s premier drug abuse treatment program for inmates, the Comprehensive Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment program (CASAT) provides inadequate drug treatment and is being used more as a prison population control mechanism than a treatment program. According to McCall, “prisoners are being returned to the community without being given sufficient treatment for alcohol and substance abuse problems.”

Partly because of New York’s failure to stop drug abuse among its prison population, inmates coming out of New York prisons stand a significant chance of committing new crimes.

The Assembly Majority knows that treatment programs are a proven way to prevent drug abusers from committing crimes in our communities. And drug treatment is not only an effective way to stop crime--it’s cost-effective as well.

The average annual cost of a residential substance abuse treatment program is $18,000. Outpatient programs average $5,000 per year. Compared to the cost of incarcerating a non-violent drug offender in a state prison, at a cost of $25,000 to $30,000 per year, these programs are more cost-efficient. More importantly, when compared to prison alone, such programs are more effective at stopping drug crime:

• According to a 1994 study by the Rand Corporation for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Army, every dollar spent on drug treatment leads to a $7.46 reduction in crime related spending and lost productivity.
• A recent survey of police chiefs across the nation conducted for the Police Foundation and the organization Drug Strategies, found that 59% of police chiefs believe putting drug users in court-supervised drug treatment programs is more effective than prison.
• The Treatment Outcome Evaluation of St. Joseph’s Rehabilitation Center in New York found that criminal involvement was reduced from 75% pre-admission to 7% of clients 18 months after the successful completion of the in-patient program.
• Fewer than 10% of offenders who have completed the Brooklyn Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime (TASC) substance abuse treatment program have been rearrested.
• A recent Cornell study of 6,000 junior high students in New York State found that students in school-based prevention programs were 40% less likely to use alcohol and drugs than those who were not.

Public Safety 2000 would enact a series of tough new programs to stop drug abuse and drug related crime before it occurs.

Expanding DTAP

New York’s Drug Treatment Alternatives to Prison (DTAP) program, operated by District Attorneys, is making communities safer.

DTAP provides a tough 18-24 month residential drug treatment program. Offenders who do not meet program requirements are sent to state prison--typically for 3-6 years.

DTAP is operated by district attorneys in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Onondaga Counties and by New York City’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor. Because it is run by law enforcement officials, DTAP is a tough program, committed to ensuring public safety. Those convicted of a violent crime or who have a known history of violence are not eligible for DTAP. And special enforcement squads quickly apprehend participants who leave or are expelled from treatment--with state prison the ultimate consequence of failure.

DTAP works. Researchers from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office have found that two years after completing DTAP treatment, participants are half as likely to be arrested as offenders with similar criminal records who were released on parole.

And DTAP has a successful record of keeping inmates in the program. According to a study by the Vera Institute of Justice, 63% of DTAP participants are still in treatment after one year, a rate which is two to four times greater than retention rates reported in studies of other long-term drug treatment programs.

Continuing and Expanding DTAP

For the past four years, DTAP has received federal funding. These funds, which equaled $1.2 million last year, are no longer available.

The Governor’s budget does not continue DTAP in its current form. But the Assembly Majority believes DTAP should not only be continued--but expanded.

Public Safety 2000 provides $3.9 million to expand DTAP in counties where it is currently operating, and increase its use by District Attorneys throughout the state.

A continuation of the DTAP program is supported by a broad based coalition including district attorneys and drug treatment professionals. The fact that the program is strongly supported by some of New York’s toughest D.A.’s is a powerful testament to its success.

The Assembly Majority believes that if a program works, you don’t fix it--or scrap it. DTAP is working to protect our communities--and should continue to do so.

Mandatory Treatment For All Drug Addicted Criminals

We must stamp out drug and alcohol abuse in prisons and on our streets. That’s why Public Safety 2000 would require every inmate and parolee with a substance abuse problem to undergo mandatory drug or alcohol treatment and periodic drug or alcohol testing.

Eliminating crime by eliminating drug and alcohol abuse costs less than waiting for crimes to occur and then building more prisons. Like putting more cops on the streets, requiring criminals to get treatment is a common sense way to stop crime.

6,000 New Drug Treatment Beds

According to the Correctional Association of New York, while New York is home to approximately 860,000 known drug addicts, it offers just 71,098 publicly funded drug treatment slots.

Over the past three years, as New York’s prisons have filled with drug users, treatment advocates have been forced to focus their energies on restoring proposed cuts to existing drug treatment programs--programs which represent our best hope of stopping drug-related crime.

Public Safety 2000 would embark on a new direction, by financing the development of 6,000 drug treatment beds over 5 years. 60% of those beds would be targeted for non-criminal justice related programs--stopping drug abuse before it leads to serious criminal behavior. 40% of these beds would be reserved for known drug addicted offenders.

Tough Law Enforcement--Drug Interdiction

While committing to treatment, Public Safety 2000 would also enact a program helping local police departments and district attorneys step up enforcement efforts aimed at stopping drugs from entering our communities. When fully implemented, this program would provide $5 million to local police departments and district attorneys’ offices each year.

Drug trafficking is a serious crime. We must redouble our efforts to prosecute drug traffickers and stop drugs from entering our homes, schools and neighborhoods.

According to the state Department of Correctional Services (DOCS), inmates who earn a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) have a lower recidivism rate than uneducated inmates. But in spite of this fact, high school equivalency and vocational education programs have been cut from New York's prison system over the past three years.

In 1995, 138 educational and vocational training positions were eliminated from the Department of Correctional Services, a reduction of $4.9 million. These cuts have never been restored. The result has been inmates coming out of prisons less capable of finding jobs--and more likely to commit crimes again.

Public Safety 2000 changes that direction. It would require every inmate to work towards a GED degree or undertake comparable vocational training. This would help ensure that after inmates pay their debt to society, they spend their days working--not committing new crimes. Inmates in prison should not be sitting idle--especially when statistics prove that training them will make our streets safer.

Public Safety 2000 would funnel hundreds of millions of new dollars annually into local justice systems, improving law enforcement and keeping property taxes down.

Probation Aid Takeover

The probation system is the state’s largest criminal supervision program. County probation departments supervise approximately 185,000 lower level criminals. Probation officers make sure offenders do not abuse alcohol or drugs, remain employed and are not a danger to the community. Probation is tough law enforcement--and vital to the safety of our neighborhoods.

Probation costs are paid by local governments, and they impose a tremendous financial burden. New York is required to reimburse local governments for a significant portion of the operating costs of probation. Yet each year, the Governor tries to cut the probation aid reimbursement rate to localities. Last year’s Executive Budget proposed a $13.8 million reduction from prior year's spending. This year’s Executive Budget proposes a $6.9 million spending reduction.

Public Safety 2000 charts a new direction, with a five-year phased-in total state takeover of reimbursable probation costs. Under the Assembly plan, probation aid would rise from the $48 million proposed by the Executive this year, to over $200 million by 2001.

Every county in New York State would benefit under our plan. Local property taxpayers would no longer foot the bill for the state’s law enforcement obligations. And New York’s communities would be safer.

Paying The True Cost of Local Jail Incarceration

Inmates who are incarcerated while their case is pending are held in county jails, paid for by local county governments. Once an inmate in a county jail has been convicted and given a prison term of more than one year, however, the inmate is transferred to a state facility and housed at state expense. All too often, however, delays by the State in accepting so-called State-Ready inmates have imposed intolerable and unlawful costs on local governments.

New York State is required to pay local governments $34 per day for housing State-Ready inmates. In almost all cases, however, this payment is only a fraction of the actual cost of housing such prisoners.

The Assembly Majority believes that the state should pay a county’s actual reasonable costs when the state does not meet its obligations. Under the Public Safety 2000 plan, local governments would receive their actual costs, capped at approximately $100 per day, for housing State-Ready inmates. This proposal would provide approximately $43 million in additional funds each year to local governments.

Domestic Violence Shelter Funding

Stronger domestic violence laws have put unprecedented demands on our domestic violence shelter system, as more and more people have found the courage to leave abusive homes and seek safe refuge.

New York does not have sufficient shelter beds to provide emergency housing for domestic violence victims. According to a 1995 Department of Social Services analysis, approximately two out of every three victims of domestic violence who sought emergency housing in 1995 in New York State were turned away--over 23,000 victims, many of them children.

To address this intolerable problem, Public Safety 2000 includes funding for 1,100 additional shelter beds for domestic violence victims. The plan also provides operating funding for existing less populated rural and upstate community shelters in danger of closing.

Increased Crime Victims’ Board Spending

Public Safety 2000 would also add $1.5 million in funding so the Crime Victims’ Board can better help victims recover from their traumatic experiences.

New York State continues to spend an ever increasing share of its tax dollars on prisons. In 1973, New York State prisons housed 12,500 inmates. Today, our prison population stands at 70,000.

Inmates currently entering our prison system for the most part, stand convicted of non-violent crimes. In 1980, approximately 57% of inmates entering state correctional facilities had been convicted of a violent crime. In 1996, that number was just 29%. The largest percentage of inmates who entered our prison system last year, approximately 61%, had been convicted of a nonviolent offense--most often a drug crime. As of December 1995, New York State incarcerated 23,344 inmates for drug offenses.

As New York State imprisons more and more non-violent offenders, state taxpayers are footing more and more of the bill. In the last 13 years, the Department of Correctional Services’ share of General Fund state spending has grown from 9.5% to 24.4%. This figure does not include the billions of capital dollars the state spends on building tens of thousands of new prison cells.

Over the past 13 years, general fund state operations spending for the Department of Correctional Services has grown from approximately $450 million to $1.5 billion. Approximately 90% of these costs are paid by New York taxpayers.

With declining crime rates, New York State will simply not need thousands of new prison cells in the years to come — yet Governor Pataki proposes building them anyway.

The Governor’s Proposal

In the face of these figures, the Governor has proposed a massive and expensive prison expansion plan. The first phase of the Governor’s proposal would add an additional 7,000 beds to the state prison system at a capital cost, excluding debt-service, of $635 million. Future Executive projections assert a need for an additional 6,000 beds after the initial phase of this construction program is completed, for a total of 13,000 new beds over the next five years.

Public Safety 2000 rejects the Governor’s proposal to fight crime solely by building more prisons. The facts are:

• Independent Assembly projections indicate that with crime rates falling, New York will not need thousands of new prison cells in the years to come.
• More police on the streets, mandatory drug treatment and the other initiatives contained in the Public Safety 2000 plan will reduce crime. It is cheaper to stamp out crime before it occurs than build new prisons after crimes are committed.
• New York has important resources which can be effectively used to house its offender population today--at a fraction of the cost of the Governor’s proposal.

The Public Safety 2000 Capacity Plan

Public Safety 2000 offers a rational alternative to Governor Pataki’s wasteful plan for expanding prison space. The Assembly Majority proposes using existing facilities and developing targeted new facilities to provide enough space for the state’s criminal population.

Using 1,000 Vacant Local Jail Beds

As New Yorkers consider the Governor’s proposal to build 7,000 new prison beds, at a cost of $635 million, an important fact should be considered: according to the State Commission of Correction, as of March 1997, New York’s county jails contained approximately 3,000 vacant beds.

The Assembly Majority estimates that over 1,000 of these vacant beds may be appropriate for housing state prisoners--if a mechanism were in place to use them.

A 1995 law authorizes the state to contract with local governments to use vacant local jail space for housing state prison inmates. However, the law limits payments by the state to localities for the use of such space to $34 per day, far below actual costs. As a result, the state jail rental program has not been an attractive option for local governments.

Public Safety 2000 would raise this rental rate to a locality’s actual cost--to a maximum of approximately $100 per day. The Assembly plan would also limit the use of local jail cells to non-violent inmates, to further ensure public safety. And Public Safety 2000 gives local governments the option to decide whether or not to rent their cells.

Using vacant local jail cells rather than wasting hundreds of millions of tax dollars to build new prisons is a common sense approach to housing criminals.

Regional Shock Incarceration Program

“Shock Incarceration” provides an intensive regimen of physical activity, discipline and treatment as an alternative to traditional prison confinement. New York’s existing state Shock Incarceration program has been hailed as a national model for helping criminals use the prison experience as a method to learn discipline and improve their behavior so they don’t end up back in jail. Public Safety 2000 would extend the benefits of the Shock Incarceration program to localities, while saving local jail costs and freeing up jail beds. Under the new Public Safety 2000 program, inmates convicted of non-violent low-level offenses who would otherwise have been sentenced to local jail could instead be sentenced to a 4 or 6 month period at one of four newly constructed 250-bed Regional Shock Incarceration Facilities.

The facilities would be constructed and operated by the State, but localities would pay 50% of the cost of operating them. Thus, in addition to providing a tough regimen for offenders, the Regional Shock Incarceration program would save money for local governments and property taxpayers.

Tough New Juvenile Facilities

Recent years have seen a disturbing increase in violent crime by juveniles. Various proposals are being considered to increase sentences for violent and repeat juvenile offenders. As the legislature acts to get tougher on violent juvenile crime, New York will need new secure space to house these young criminals.

Public Safety 2000 would finance the development of a new 400 bed “Super-Maximum” security juvenile facility to house youths convicted of violent crimes. The Assembly plan would also develop a new 75-bed Youth Shock Incarceration facility, offering a military-style boot camp program for less serious juvenile criminals.

400 Special Housing Unit Beds

State prisoners who present disciplinary problems while incarcerated may be placed in Special Housing Unit (SHU) cells in which they are separated from the general prison population. The threat of such placements serves as a deterrent to inmate misconduct and allows the Department of Correctional Services to isolate its most dangerous prisoners.

Additional SHU cells would give DOCS new tools to deter and punish inmate misconduct. Public Safety 2000 would finance the development of 400 additional SHU cells, to be located on the grounds of existing state correctional facilities.

Requiring Police and Peace Officers to Staff Prisons

Public Safety 2000 would also prohibit prison and local jail custody functions from being performed by anyone other than police and peace officers. In some other states, corrections systems have contracted-out prison guard jobs to private companies, rather than having these functions performed by regular police and peace officers. The critical task of confining and supervising prison and local jail inmates should be performed only by appropriately trained and supervised corrections officers.

The recent brutal shootings at the Empire State Building by an assailant who had purchased a handgun in Florida highlight a dramatic fact about gun violence in New York: most illegal guns used in New York crimes were originally purchased elsewhere.

Police agencies and district attorneys’ offices face a daily battle in attempting to cut off our supply of illegal guns. These efforts, however, have usually not included attempts to trace guns to their source and to work with law enforcement agencies in supplier states to track down the locations from which illegal guns originate.

Violent crimes often involve the use of firearms. In 1994, firearms were present in approximately 45,000 violent crimes in New York. According to 1996 figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the vast majority of guns used in New York State crimes were originally purchased in other states. Five “supplier states” continually head the list of states which send the most guns used in crimes to New York: Virginia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.

These states have lax gun control laws, which typically do not require licensing or careful background checks prior to the sale of a firearm. Guns purchased in these states are transported to New York, where they contribute to the carnage of gun violence here.

Public Safety 2000 would provide $6 million to district attorneys’ offices and police departments annually to improve illegal gun confiscation efforts through a new Gun Trafficking Interdiction Program. Under this legislation, New York law enforcement agencies would cooperate with law enforcement agencies in supplier states to trace illegal guns to their source and attempt to stop their flow into New York. ATF would be asked to trace the source of illegal guns used in crimes and the State Police would set up a central clearinghouse to identify trends and assist police.

State-funded Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) programs utilize offender supervision, substance abuse treatment, job training and employment to stop offenders from committing new crimes. These programs, operated by organizations throughout New York, have been effective in reducing recidivism and saving tax dollars.

Over the past three years, however, the Governor has repeatedly proposed cutting ATI funding. In 1995-96, the Governor’s proposed budget cut $12.5 million in ATI programs. In 1996-97, the proposed cut was $5.4 million; this year’s proposal calls for a $6.6 million reduction in ATI funding.

Public Safety 2000 would restore ATI funding cuts and enhance ATI programs, reducing the need to rely on costly prison beds to house non-violent offenders.

New Yorkers this year face an important choice. A choice between spending an ever greater share of our resources on new prisons or embarking on a new direction to reduce crime, save tax dollars and make our communities safer.

Hiring new cops. Getting inmates off drugs. Stopping drugs and guns from entering our state. Assisting crime victims. Reducing local costs and property taxes. This new vision of hope for community safety at less cost is the Assembly’s Public Safety 2000 plan.