FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Contact: Yonah Zeitz, yonah@katalcenter.org | (347) 201-2769
Follow on Twitter @KatalCenter | #ShutRikers | #CutShutInvestNY
Statement from the Katal Center on the FY 2027 Preliminary Budget Hearing Held by the New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice
Mayor Mamdani’s Proposed Budget is a Continuation of the Status Quo from the Previous Administration that Increased the Jail Population and Left the Closure Plan in Limbo
New York, NY: Today, the New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice held a preliminary hearing on the budget for Fiscal Year 2027. Right now, the crisis at Rikers is worsening, the jail population is rising, and the closure plan remains off track. Yet the FY2027 preliminary budget allocates $2.99 billion to DOC, which represents a 5 percent increase for the agency budget compared with last June’s adopted budget. This budget continues the status quo of increasing the budgets used to cage people while inadequately funding the programs and services proven to keep our communities safe and thriving without relying on incarceration.
The budget also fails to investigate and address the increased costs to the Borough-Based Jails (BBJ), which have risen from the original estimate of $8 billion when the closure law was enacted in 2019 to nearly $16 billion today. The budget increases funding for the DOC without a clear and reconfigured plan that provides a definite date of when Rikers will be closed.
See Katal’s written testimony for today’s budget hearing here.
Melanie Dominguez, Organizing Director at the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, said: “While Mayor Mamdani has stated he’s committed to closing Rikers, the FY2027 Preliminary Budget doesn’t reflect that commitment. Instead, it’s a continuation of the status quo that was normalized under Mayor Adams, who did everything he could to undermine the closure plan. Under this proposed budget, the department of correction would get a budget increase, while essential services like libraries and parks are shafted. Once again, Black, brown, and low-income communities are confronted with a budget proposal that leaves the Rikers closure plan in limbo and fails to address the rising jail population.
If the mayor is truly committed to shutting Rikers, the city budget should decrease the DOC’s budget and personnel costs to align with the closure plan and invest in proven solutions to safely reduce the jail population such as ATI’s, supervised release, JISH housing, IMT and FACT teams, B-HEARD mental health responses, and more. The City Council must also use its budgetary power to advance the closure of Rikers and hold the mayor accountable to the closure law.
We demand a budget for New Yorkers that will cut the jail population, shut down Rikers, and invest in real community safety, with housing, health care, including mental health care, education, and jobs.”
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