empty beds , wasted dollars
the oversupply - estimated at 8, 700 beds - has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars because public and private health - care funds help pay for their upkeep, whether they are occupied or empty, the state officials said .
with the headline: about 25% of beds in hospitals in city are empty, state reports .
the new prisons in tuba city and kayenta, ariz. , have court space and peacemaking rooms, but the space for prisoners grew to 132 beds from a planned 48 beds, and 80 beds from a planned 32 beds, respectively .
jjp’s “empty beds, wasted dollars” campaign, funded by the jeht foundation, focused on the plan’s good fiscal sense: the facilities are either mostly or completely empty, and each empty bed costs the state $ 140, 000 to $ 200, 000 per year. ocfs forecasted $ 16 million in annual savings to taxpayers. with state revenue shortfalls looming, the financial argument for closing the prisons was persuasive. jjp was successful in garnering media attention statewide, including editorials in the new york times and albany times union questioning the logic of keeping underutilized facilities open at the expense of taxpayers when more effective & # 8212and less costly & # 8212alternatives are available .
if the new system is adopted in new york next year, as state health officials say is likely, hospital stays for all patients will become even shorter, thus adding more empty beds to the excess .
that’s just one example of how private prison companies keep the dollars rolling in, whether crime is rising or waning. not surprisingly, in the public interest’s report calls on local and state governments to refuse to include occupancy requirements and even ban such requirements with new legislation. “with governmental priorities pulling public funds in so many different directions, it makes no financial sense for taxpayers to fund empty prison beds, ” the report says .
according to the health systems agency, the cost of replacing 1, 000 hospital beds would be nearly $ 500 million. it estimated that it would cost $ 2 billion to operate them over the next 25 years, whether empty or occupied .
state officials said the excess persisted despite the fact that 6, 000 hospital beds had been eliminated in the city since 1972, when the city had 112 hospitals with 42, 984 beds .
rebuilding hospitals with underused beds, as proposed by several major institutions, would waste billions more, they said .
according to state officials, hospital stays for surgical patients are being shortened and more surgery is being performed on an outpatient basis. another factor is the shift of surgery from hospital operating rooms to outpatient surgical clinics. these outpatient trends, combined with the increasing use of second surgical opinions, state health officials say, are leaving rising numbers of surgical beds empty .
you might be wondering: what happens when crime drops and prison populations dwindle in states that agreed to keep their private prisons 80 percent or 90 percent full? consider colorado. the state’s crime rate has sunk by a third in the past decade, and since 2009, five state - run prisons have shuttered because they weren’t needed. many more prison beds remain empty in other state facilities. yet the state chose not to fill those beds because democratic gov. john hickenlooper and cca cut a deal to instead send 3, 330 prisoners to cca’s three colorado prisons. colorado taxpayers foot the bill for leaving those state - run prisons underused. in march, christie donner, executive director of the colorado criminal justice reform coalition, estimated that the state wasted at least $ 2 million in taxpayer money using cca’s prisons instead of its own .
two brand new tribal jails built by the navajo nation in arizona and paid for by the federal government are sitting almost empty because they’re more than twice as large as planned — and now there’s not enough money to run them .
about a quarter of the 36, 479 beds in new york city' s general hospitals are unused and unnecessary, according to state health department officials .
the number of unnecessary beds has increased dramatically over the last few months, brian hendricks, deputy director of the state office of health systems management, said .
given these trends, the state health commissioner, dr. david axelrod, said he did not want to approve the rebuilding of hospitals with unnecessary surgical beds. the issue is important, health officials said, because new york hospitals have proposed $ 4 billion in rebuilding and they want to insure that unnecessary beds are not included in any rebuilding .
the tribe, like many others, has long struggled with tiny, run - down jails that need replacing and a shortage of beds. modernizing its correctional system has been a high priority .
the current excess is nearly seven times the 1, 300 unnecessary beds reported by state and federal health planning officials two years ago after a one - year state freeze on all major hospital construction .
when the state last estimated the oversupply of beds at 1, 300, dr. axelrod said he would try to cut by as much as half the $ 2 billion in hospital rebuilding proposed in manhattan .
hospital officials regard any decision on the issue of excess beds as critical because health care is the city' s third largest industry, accounting for $ 18 billion a year, surpassed only by government and retailing .
the state has contended that there are too many hospital beds in the city, primarily in the big teaching hospitals in manhattan and in the municipal hospital system, cutting across poor and rich neighborhoods. in recent months, the problem has increased dramatically, the state officials said .
now, however, with the state projecting a much larger surplus of beds, mr. hendricks said the state would take'' a much more aggressive position'' in approving new construction, particularly in manhattan, where several large teaching hospitals have proposed the major share of rebuilding .
by means of a highly technical formula that is regularly disputed by the hospitals, the state health department periodically measures the volume of services provided by each hospital and then calculates how many beds are needed to deliver them. the count by the state covers only public and private teaching and community hospitals and not long - term care, psychiatric or veterans administration hospitals .
state health officials attributed much of the excess of beds to a sharp decrease in hospital surgery and to several trends and regulatory changes involving strict federal review procedures that have affected new york hospitals in recent months. hospital spokesmen say occupancy rates for hospitals, particularly for surgery, have declined. but they say the drop is not nearly as deep as reported by the state .
presbyterian hospital and mount sinai medical center have already received approval of their rebuilding plans, totaling nearly $ 1 billion. state health officials said new york hospital and st. luke' s - roosevelt hospital center, with an estimated total of $ 800 million in proposed rebuilding and a total of 2, 757 beds, would face tougher restrictions than those imposed on presbyterian and mount sinai hospitals .
occupancy requirements, as it turns out, are common practice within the private prison industry. a new report by in the public interest, an anti - privatization group, reviewed 62 contracts for private prisons operating around the country at the local and state level. in the public interest found that 41 of those contracts included occupancy requirements mandating that local or state government keep those facilities between 80 and 100 percent full. in other words, whether crime is rising or falling, the state must keep those beds full. (the report was funded by grants from the open society institute and public welfare, according to a spokesman. )
corrections supervisor lt. robbin preston gives a tour of the new adult detention center in tuba city, ariz. navajo nation officials say the tribe lacks funding to fully staff the jail (ap / felicia fonseca )
that’s what the justice department’s watchdog found in a report released wednesday that shows how $ 70. 3 million in economic stimulus grants turned a crucial need in indian country to incarcerate and rehabilitate adult offenders into two white elephants .
the audit by inspector general michael e. horowitz says about half of that money went out the door improperly, more than $ 32 million of it on the jails’ “excessive” and “larger than planned” size. the construction lacked proper oversight not just by the navajo nation but the justice department itself, the watchdog found .
the office that gave the grants to the navajo tribe was aware of the projects’ creeping scope but didn’t take “sufficient action” to prevent them from moving forward .
“the excessive size of both facilities creates increased costs for operations and maintenance staff, ” auditors wrote — costs that are mostly funded by the interior department’s bureau of indian affairs .
right now, that office can pay for just 40 percent of the tribal corrections officers needed to staff the new, larger - than - planned jails .
as a result, “there is an increased risk that the [ facilities ] will not become fully operational due to a lack of funding, ” says the report, which also found sloppy accounting and financial controls over the construction and inadequate vetting of the builders .
the sprawling navajo nation, located in parts of arizona, utah and new mexico, is the largest and most populous indian reservation, with 250, 000 people on more than 27, 000 square miles .
visitors walk up to the a new adult detention facility in tuba city, ariz. , navajo nation officials say the tribe lacks funding to fully staff the jail. (ap / felicia fonseca )
the increases seem at odds with crime rates on the reservation: the average monthly jail occupancy for tuba city from 2008 through 2014 was between 14 and 22 inmates, with a high of 49, auditors found. and the average occupancy for kayenta during the same period was between 7 and 11 inmates, with a high of 24 .
the inspector general says the justice department should recoup the extra $ 32 million in construction costs from the navajo division of public safety, which received the grants. but justice department officials and the tribe said the changes to planned bed space were carefully vetted with planning studies and documentation .
but the watchdog said new designs for the kayenta jail were done more than two years after the grants were awarded and way after construction had started .
the justice department “does not believe these facilities are excessive, ” ralph martin, director of the office of audit, assessment, and management for the office of justice programs wrote in response to a draft of the report .
martin acknowledged that “in hindsight, ” the office that made the grants “recognizes that there appears to be some discrepancy with the recommended size for the facilities in relation to the [ plan completed in 2007 ]. ” but he said “no formal scope change” was required by the terms of the project, which was desperately needed by the tribe to alleviate years of poor jail conditions .
the navajo nation, in a similar response, wrote that the crime statistics cited by the inspector general are misleading: the tribe’s judges had to stop prosecuting certain crimes because there was no safe space for offenders to be incarcerated. and the master plan was intended only as a “vision” that could be modified .
the justice department and indian tribes share jurisdiction in criminal justice matters, with the federal government prosecuting serious crimes and tribal governments handling smaller offenses. construction of correctional centers is generally funded by federal grants, and the indian affairs bureau covers most staffing costs .
the tuba city corrections center opened in 2013, but today it is 82 percent vacant because the tribe does not have the money to pay corrections officers. the kayenta jail is completed but still not opened .
the indian affairs bureau told auditors that they can pay for just 25 of the 63 full - time correction officers needed to staff the tuba city jail and 20 of the 51 officers needed at kayenta .
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in february, shortly after new york’s office of children and family services (ocfs) announced its plan to close six juvenile facilities, the ca’s juvenile justice project (jjp) launched a strategic campaign to educate the public about the closures and urge policymakers to support the agency’s plan. correctly predicting backlash from upstate legislators who wanted to keep the facilities open for the jobs they provided in their districts, the ca sought to prevent the legislature from restoring funding for the prisons in the state budget .
but it was never just about the money the state would save. the closures are part of a broader paradigm shift in the agency’s outlook on juvenile justice. ocfs commissioner gladys carrión explained: “instead of continuing to pour money into this broken system and confining these children to facilities hundreds of miles from their homes, ocfs has aggressively been moving toward more community based alternatives to incarceration where these children can maintain and strengthen connections with their families and the significant adults in their lives. ”
the analysis that the juvenile justice system is in need of overhauling, and that investing in community alternatives is the first step, echoes reforms for which the correctional association and others have long advocated. a year and a half ago, before new leadership at the agency, few would have expected ofcs to take such a stance. despite soaring recidivism rates and its disproportionate confinement of youth of color, the old ocfs was loath to acknowledge the need for change. its administrators certainly had little interest in hearing from reform - minded groups like the ca .
but by january, ocfs’ announcement came as no surprise to the ca, which over the past year has been working closely with agency officials on a range of important juvenile justice reform issues. as the ca’s legislative mandate to monitor and report on state prisons does not extend to juvenile prisons, this degree of cooperation provides access to what has essentially been a closed system. shutting down underutilized facilities was an important step in the agency’s ambitious redesign, and the ca fully supported the plan .
a few days before the state budget deadline, the ca brought over 50 young people and other advocates to albany to speak directly with policymakers about the issue. during the subsequent budget negotiations, the closures became a bargaining chip between the assembly and senate, and after much wrangling, governor paterson and the legislature restored funding for two of the facilities. while the ca strongly supported closing all six facilities, the closure of four is nevertheless an advance for advocates, for youth involved in the juvenile justice system, and for an agency attempting to remake itself .
the budget battle now over, the ca will turn to supporting the agency’s pledge to reinvest funds in community - based alternative to incarceration programs. with carrión and ocfs still committed to improving outcomes for troubled youth and willing to collaborate with advocates, there is good reason to remain optimistic .
correctional association of new york releases “solitary at southport: a 2017 report based upon the correctional assn. ’s visits, data analysis, & first - hand accounts of the torture of solitary confinement from one of new york’s supermax prisons”
new york, ny (december 13, 2017): today the correctional assn. of ny (ca), founded in 1844 and one of the oldest prison watchdog organizations in the country, released a 92 - page report providing graphic first - hand depictions of physical, mental, and emotional abuse as a result of days, weeks, and often years of being caged in solitary confinement for 23 to 24 hours a day. read more
southport correctional facility is one of two super - maximum security prisons in the state that places an emphasis on solitary confinement. a new report looking at the facility’s practices is highlighting the negative impact solitary confinement can have on a human. so advocates are making a renewed push for the halt act. joining us to talk [... ] read more
“the isolation itself is torture. mentally and emotionally, it breaks you down. spiritually it strips you. the way it is built is to break you down as a person and push your family away. ” from “solitary at southport” solitary confinement is torture. new york state subjects people to solitary confinement and other forms of isolation [... ] read more
attica correctional facility, a 2, 000 - bed maximum security prison in western new york, continues to operate as a symbolic and real epicenter of state violence and abuse of incarcerated persons in the department of corrections and community supervision (doccs) state prison system 43 years after the 1971 prison uprising and violent suppression by state authorities. the [... ] read more
© the correctional association of new york 22 cortlandt street, 33rd floor new york, ny 10007 t: 212. 254. 5700 f: 212. 473. 2807
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eddie borges is irecting documentary about mexican and puerto rican childhood poverty united states. h
campaign to support the transformation of new york' s juvenile justice system. this included closing more than half of the state' s juvenile jails where black and latino children were maltreated and a child was killed .
borges is a motion picture and film producer & director at searching for los ríos and a founder at childpoverty. he was also the following: a us consultant at the rockefeller family fund and
director of communications and external affairs at times square alliance. tonite he will be discussing his latest projects .
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'' there has been a decline,'' said kenneth e. raske, the president of the greater new york hospital association, which represents the city' s private, nonprofit hospitals.'' but we do not think the dip is anywhere as sharp as reported by the state.''
but mr. hendricks of the state' s health systems office disagreed.'' what we have is a dramatic decline in patient census,'' he said .
anthony l. watson, the executive director of the new york city health systems agency, a federally financed health planning group, said,'' the decline is so sharp that there is a likelihood that some hospitals may not survive the bed reductions that must be made.'' the agency is empowered by congress to disapprove any hospital construction it regards as unnecessary .
the state officials also cited an increasing awareness by hospitals that they would not be paid for any unnecessary hospital care under the medicare program for the elderly in a tough new review program that began this winter. if review inspectors decide surgery is unnecessary, the hospital forfeits any payment .
another change that is already causing a reaction in many hospitals is new york' s anticipated adoption next year of the same hospital bill payment system that was adopted by medicare in 1983 in most other states. new york was excluded because it was conducting a federally approved experimental payment system of its own. that system is scheduled to end dec. 31 .
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under the medicare system, the hospital gets a flat - rate payment, no matter how long the patient is hospitalized. the new flat - rate system was designed to reduce the financial incentive to hospitalize medicare patients longer than necessary, just to realize more income .
the state regulates construction, both in private and public hospitals, on the ground that public funds, in the form of federal, state and private health insurance programs, pay for virtually all capital improvements .
some of the big, teaching hospitals, such as presbyterian hospital, report a 1 to 2 percent drop in overall occupancy rates over the winter months .
some other hospitals, however, tend to confirm the state' s projections. for example, the lutheran medical center in brooklyn reported a 17 percent drop in surgical - bed occupancy rates .
the beth israel medical center, a large teaching hospital at first avenue and 16th street that provides a wide range of sophisticated services, reported an overall 10 percent drop .
dr. robert newman, beth israel' s director, said,'' there' s no question that there has been a decrease in occupancy rates, particularly in surgery.''
dr. newman said beth israel' s occupancy rate of 95 percent in 1983 had declined to 85 percent so far this year .
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“quite a few of our clients will lose their jobs, lose their housing or lose custody of their children” because they are held without bail while awaiting trial, despite a rule change intended to encourage pretrial release .
afety / reforms - intended - to - end - excessive - cash - bail - in - md - are - keeping - more - in - jail - longer - report - says / 2018 / 07 / 02 / bb97b306 - 731d - 11e8 - b4b7 - 308400242c2e _ story. html
crime / bs - md - ci - jerome - johnson - exonerated - 20180702 - story. html
in 2015 - 2016, baltimore' s schools had more police officers than counselors .
ue / baltimore _ girls _ report _ final _ 6 _ 26 _ 18. pdf
“ [ w ] hile black girls make up about 80 percent of the female student body in bcps, they account for 95 percent of suspensions. ”
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great report. it shows that maryland could do more to expand compassionate release .
state compassionate release programs make sense for many reasons. yet how this area of our justice system works—or doesn’t—is unclear. “everywhere and nowhere: compassionate release in the states” aims to finally make sense of it all. read our report :
here is the flier for our latino residents. please share with all! urltoken
instead of trying to get police to look more like social workers and health care providers, we should just hire social workers and health care providers .
dpscs has rescinded its book - limiting policy. inmates will now be allowed to receive books from family and third parties in the mail. additionally, there will not be a cap on the frequency by which inmates may order books from approved vendors. urltoken
policies need to reimagine how school police interact with youth to help end the school to prison pipeline .
education / k - 12 / bs - md - ci - school - police - policies - 20180607 - story, amp. html
help us get the word out: expungement clinic with the ⁦ @ naacpmd ⁩ montgomery county on june 21st (juneteenth). getting a job, contributing to society & starting a life should be easier during reentry. urltoken
opd is hiring! looking for a dedicated juvenile defender for our baltimore county team as well as an appellate litigator to join our appellate division .
opd training director patrice fulcher helping to close out # nlada # cod2018 moderating a discussion on implicit bias. urltoken
“your equity is in your staff. ” shannice anderson sharing how intake specialists and other core staff can initiate and lead public defender community activities. # cod2018 # nlada urltoken
sakinda skinner discusses opd prince george’s county’s care program. # cod2018 # nlada urltoken
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we are living in boom times for the private prison industry. the corrections corporation of america (cca), the nation’s largest owner of private prisons, has seen its revenue climb by more than 500 percent in the last two decades. and cca wants to get much, much bigger: last year, the company made an offer to 48 governors to buy and operate their state - funded prisons. but what made cca’s pitch to those governors so audacious and shocking was that it included a so - called occupancy requirement, a clause demanding the state keep those newly privatized prisons at least 90 percent full at all times, regardless of whether crime was rising or falling .
all the big private prison companies—cca, geo group, and the management and training corporation—try to include occupancy requirements in their contracts, according to the report. states with the highest occupancy requirements include arizona (three prison contracts with 100 percent occupancy guarantees), oklahoma (three contracts with 98 percent occupancy guarantees), and virginia (one contract with a 95 percent occupancy guarantee). at the same time, private prison companies have supported and helped write “three - strike” and “truth - in - sentencing” laws that drive up prison populations. their livelihoods depend on towns, cities, and states sending more people to prison and keeping them there .
mother jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and the wealthy wouldn’t fund the type of hard - hitting journalism we set out to do .
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the youth first initiative has released a new report breaking down the walls highlighting the achievements of youth, families, and advocates in six states to help advance a new vision of youth justice. the report serves as a playbook for activists working to end the juvenile justice systems’ reliance on incarceration throughout the nation .
to accelerate the efforts to end harmful and inequitable youth incarceration, and to build on the work of the youth, families, and advocates who have fought successfully to close youth prisons, the youth first initiative looked at successful campaigns in six states, gathering lessons learned and strategies for success. “breaking down the walls” features these multi - year strategies and campaigns :
the strategies shared throughout this report are based on public documents as well as hours of conversations with youth, family members, and other advocates who generously gave their time to explain what they thought made their campaigns successful, as well as what they would do differently knowing what they do now .
the youth first initiative would like to acknowledge all the people who contributed to this effort. sheila bedi is the primary researcher and writer of this report with support from sue burrell, carmen daugherty, mishi faruqee, will harrell, grace bauer - lubow, lisa pilnik, liz ryan, marc schindler, david utter, and jill ward. the youth first initiative thanks: lisa pilnik, editor; sarah baker, copy editor; andy stepanian, designer; and gladys carrion, tommy croft, tawanda davis, laura talkington - denies, chino hardin, andre holder, derrick johnson, michael mcintosh, lanita mitchell, amoretta morris, arja nelson, jonathan stith, jason wang, and ana yanez - correa .
you can make your voice heard by getting involved in a campaign to end youth incarceration in your state.
empty beds , wasted dollars was the strategic communications and advocacy strategy developed and executed by edward borges to support new york state office of children and family services commissioner gladys carrion 's transformation of new york 's juvenile justice system from a failed , punitive , correctional model to an evidence-based program to improve outcomes for children and make communities safer , despite formidable opposition from upstate republican legislators in whose districts the majority of juvenile jails were located and the employees who worked in these facilities . empty beds , wasted dollars campaign generated more than 300 newspaper , magazine , television , radio and online story and op-ed placements and 30 editorials in fewer than three years . it is widely-credited with creating the political capital needed to close more than half the state 's juvenile jails where children in custody had been maltreated by state employees and where an emotionally disturbed 15-year-old boy was killed in 2006 , when two state workers sat on him until he stopped breathing . the success of this campaign provided carrión the clout to advance reform of the state 's child welfare and child care systems and improve overall child well-being across new york . 
empty beds, wasted dollars was the strategic communications and advocacy strategy developed and executed by edward borges to support new york state office of children and family services commissioner gladys carrion's transformation of new york's juvenile justice system from a failed, punitive, correctional model to an evidence-based program to improve outcomes for children and make communities safer, despite formidable opposition from upstate republican legislators in whose districts the majority of juvenile jails were located and the employees who worked in these facilities. empty beds, wasted dollars campaign generated more than 300 newspaper, magazine, television, radio and online story and op-ed placements and 30 editorials in fewer than three years. it is widely-credited with creating the political capital needed to close more than half the state's juvenile jails where children in custody had been maltreated by state employees and where an emotionally disturbed 15-year-old boy was killed in 2006, when two state workers sat on him until he stopped breathing. the success of this campaign provided carrión the clout to advance reform of the state's child welfare and child care systems and improve overall child well-being across new york.
empty beds, wasted dollars was the strategic communications and advocacy strategy developed and executed by edward borges to support new york state office of children and family services commissioner gladys carrion's transformation of new york's juvenile justice system from a failed, punitive, correctional model to an evidence-based program to improve outcomes for children and make communities safer, despite formidable opposition from upstate republican legislators in whose districts the majority of juvenile jails were located and the employees who worked in these facilities. empty beds, wasted dollars campaign generated more than 300 newspaper, magazine, television, radio and online story and op-ed placements and 30 editorials in fewer than three years. it is widely-credited with creating the political capital needed to close more than half the state's juvenile jails where children in custody had been maltreated by state employees and where an emotionally disturbed 15-year-old boy was killed in 2006, when two state workers sat on him until he stopped breathing. the success of this campaign provided carrión the clout to advance reform of the state's child welfare and child care systems and improve overall child well-being across new york.