Departments:

DOCS

DOT

OMH

OMRDD

"NY CARES" Proposal

Parole

Parole Talking Points

SED

DOCS
Enhance the Department of Correctional Services'
ability to provide quality protection for our communities!

Here Are The Facts:

Our communities need legislators who will:

• Ensure that our communities receive quality protection by making inmates get the basic education, job skills, and substance abuse treatment they need to lead law-abiding lives once they are released back into the community.
  
• Despite the warnings of the Attica Commissions correlating inmate idleness to prison instability, since 1995 program staffing at DOCS has decreased by 195 positions while the inmate population has increased by over 20%, leaving fewer inmates meaningfully occupied in prison. Idle inmates are creating security problems in our prisons today and crime problems in our communities tomorrow.
  
• Based on DOCS' recommended hub staffing levels, there should be 3,614 program staff working in New York's state prisons. As of July 1998, only 3,192 of these positions were filled ­ 421 positions short.
  
• In 1995 there were 25 teachers and vocational instructors for each 1,000 inmates. That dropped to 16 per thousand in 1998. Our prisons are operating at 120% of capacity but only have 80% of their program staff positions filled.
  
• The inmate's under custody at DOCS are severely in need of program services. Almost 1400 inmates are functional illiterates and read below the fifth grade level; an additional 8,000 read at less than the eighth grade level. Over 45,000 inmates have not completed high school. Over 41,000 admit to prior drug use. Few have the job skills necessary for legitimate employment.
  
• The most recent GED Recidivism Study showed that offenders who earned a GED while incarcerated returned at a considerably lower rate than those who did not earn a GED while incarcerated.
  
• But according to a January 1999 DOCS report, there are 3,847 inmates on active waiting lists for academic programs, 7,063 inmates on active waiting lists for vocational programs, and 9,442 inmates on active waiting lists for substance abuse treatment (ASAT) programs.
  
• All of these inmates could be placed in programs if $6.8 million is added to DOCS' Program Services budget. This would fill 195 positions including teachers, vocational instructors, Correction Counselors (ASAT), and ASAT Assistant positions.

To reduce the number of idle inmates and increase prison and community security, the legislature should add $6.8 million to fill 195 program services positions.
The Legislature must also ensure that the proposed increased personal service funds for new medical staff is used to hire additional State staff, as provided by the Executive Budget. DOCS claims it can use these personal service funds for contracting out these jobs. The budget should specifically prohibit the use of any DOCS funds for privatizing the proposed new Regional Medical Units (RMU).

The contractual services at the Coxsackie RMU were supposed to be less costly than using State staff because per diem staff were to be hired. United Correctional Care Group actually hired full-time staff with comparable benefit packages. Recently this contractor went bankrupt and was replaced by a new contractor. Despite contracting out these services, DOCS still carries related administrative expenses.

Privatization of RMUs leaves the State vulnerable to increased lawsuits as it maintains responsibility for care of inmates but loses control over management of that care. The RMU at Walsh Correctional Facility has a state-operated skilled nursing facility. State staffing provides continuity of management, accountability, and the staff experience necessary to treat inmates without jeopardizing safety and security.

DOCS should not rely on private companies to care for inmates. The experience at Coxsackie has proven the folly of privatizing inmate health care. The legislature should ensure that all future RMUs are state-operated.

Support adequate levels of DOCS program staff to maintain prison security and make inmates work. Ninety percent of the inmates behind bars today will return to our neighborhoods in less than four years. Without job skills and a basic education, those inmates will be unprepared to lead law-abiding lives!

Keep quality services at the Department of Correctional Services!

Back To Top
or Continue Scrolling for more PEFacts

DOT
Enhance the Department of Transportation's ability to provide quality services to our communities!

Legislators: Do not reduce DOT's Capital Projects budget by almost $140 million when one-third of our bridges are rated as deficient. Restore DOT's Capital Projects budget to last year's level.

Do not ignore the bi-partisan recommendations of two State Comptrollers. Reject the Governor's proposal to eliminate almost two hundred state engineering positions

Here Are The Facts:

• The Governor's budget reduces DOT's Capital Projects appropriation by $139.2 million, and eliminates 197 state engineering positions.
• Last year Congress passed the Building Efficient Surface Transportation and Equity Act and DOT estimated New York would receive $200 million more a year for transportation projects.
  
• The Commissioner of DOT admits that one in three bridges in NYS are considered "deficient." It makes no sense to reduce state spending on road and bridge projects when there is more federal money available for these projects and when a significant percentage of our bridges are deficient.
  
• Two different audits, one issued in 1990 by Republican Comptroller Ned Regan and one issued in 1998 by Democrat Comptroller Carl McCall, both concluded that it costs substantially more to hire private engineering consultants and that the state could save money by hiring more state employees at DOT.
  
• In 1990 Comptroller Regan found that state-employed engineers cost 60% of what private consultant engineers charge. This includes the cost of their fringe benefits. Since that study, this disparity has increased because consultant engineers have received annual raises while state engineers have not.
• In 1998, Comptroller Carl McCall concluded that DOT entered into many private consulting contracts for routine services that could have been performed at a lower cost by State employees.
  
• The 1998 audit indicates that not only are there huge salary disparities between private contractors and state employees, but the indirect costs are also higher. In fact, the report shows that while DOT spends millions of dollars on the indirect costs associated with the private contracts, the addition of in-house employees would add little to the Department's indirect costs because these costs are essentially fixed.
  
• Governor Pataki made a specific campaign pledge to make greater use of state engineers. The Governor's campaign said the state could save $180 million by using state engineers at DOT instead of consulting engineers. Unfortunately, DOT has followed the exact opposite policy.
  
• From January 1995 to July 1998, however, DOT eliminated approximately 300 in-house engineering positions, while continuing to increase spending on costly consulting engineers.
  
• In 1998, DOT received a budget waiver allowing up to 450 new appointments. This produced a net gain of approximately 175 primarily engineering positions. Now the Executive Budget proposes eliminating 197 engineering positions.
• The Governor's new 5-year Capital Plan states that it returns DOT to a "base program that is sufficient to fund essential highway and bridge projects across the State."
  
• Both a Republican and Democratic Comptroller agree that private contractors are only necessary to handle short-term work in peak construction periods and that using consultant engineers for a base capital program wastes millions of taxpayers' dollars.
  
• DOT's own in-house pilot project suggests that using DOT employees to inspect bridges was more cost effective than using private contractors. Yet, due to a lack of in-house staff, DOT continues to hire private contractors to inspect all state and local bridges in the NYC region.

Do not sacrifice the quality of our roads and bridges . . .
- Restore $139.2 million to DOT's Capital Projects and keep 197 engineering positions. Those engineers are needed to get projects designed and built in a timely and cost efficient manner. Cutting engineers will delay important projects.

Keep quality services at the Department of Transportation!

Back To Top
or Continue Scrolling for more PEFacts

OMH
Keep quality Public services at the Office of Mental Health!

Legislators: Think twice about budget cuts to mental health services.

- Restore staffing cuts that will seriously erode patient services in already understaffed OMH facilities.

- Maintain a vital State role in community-based services to ensure that the mentally ill get the services they need to safely remain in the community.

- Protect the severely mentally ill from the vagaries of managed care.

Here Are The Facts:

• The Executive Budget eliminates 789 positions in OMH, despite the increasingly violent and substance-abusive nature of the inpatient population and the demonstrated need for increased supervision of discharged patients.
  
• OMH continues to force the inpatient census down. A recent study by the University of Southern California Medical School concluded "the use of community alternatives to state hospitalization, which is often driven by lower costs and an ideology that highly structured care is seldom needed, is not suitable for all patients."
  
• The inpatient population at OMH is increasingly more difficult. Although the total OMH census has gone down by 63% from 1986 to 1996, the number of admissions of mentally ill individuals with criminal histories has increased by 11%. That's an increase of 223% in the proportion of overall admissions. The proportion of mentally ill chemical abusers (MICAs) has increased by 360%. The population is also increasingly younger and violent, and a greater percentage is male.
  
• More difficult patients require more intensive staffing, especially when these patients are in a concentrated population of predominantly difficult patients. A recent study concluded "although downsizing may result in fewer patients, the need for staff may not be reduced, given the qualitative changes in the patient population."
  
• Patient assaults on staff have increased as staffing levels have decreased. In 1995, 39 PEF members at OMH were paid benefits under PEF's assault, trauma and attack coverage. In 1998, 53 OMH staff were paid benefits, a 35% increase. The injury rate in 1997/98 for OMH employees was 15 per 100 employees, more than twice the national average rate for all employees.
  
• Data on the increasingly difficult population of OMH psychiatric centers is incompatible with the decision in this budget to reduce to size of the STAIR program from 125 beds to 100 beds. The STAIR program is "designed to address the needs of patients resistive to treatment and who have had a history of violent or aggressive behavior." Management of this program should be improved to allow admission and treatment of these patients.
  
• The tragic murders of Kendra Webdale and Judith Scanlon demonstrated the need to reevaluate the risk to public safety of discharged mental patients.
  
• The MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study found that the prevalence of violence in discharged mental patients was significantly higher among those who reported symptoms of substance abuse. A recent study found that 57% of individuals with severe mental illness diagnoses in clinical settings in New York State and 78% of men in inpatient settings have had chemical abuse problems in the past five years.
  
• The Executive Budget eliminates 215 professional positions that are responsible for ensuring care for the mentally ill in the community. The experience and knowledge of these "shared-services staff" positions cannot be replaced by a simple shift in funding.
  
• The Executive Budget proposes to eliminate the 15% share of Community Reinvestment Act funds that is set aside for State services for the mentally ill. These State services provide an anchor of continuity, experience, and professionalism in the delivery of quality services for the mentally ill. The need for these services has grown, not diminished.
  
• The authorization of the Special Needs Plan for the mentally ill expires in July 2000. If State-provided mental health services are reduced as part of the Special Needs Plan implementation, we face the risk of slashing the mental health safety net to shreds. There is no guarantee that all State psychiatric centers will be providers within the SNPs, nor is there any guarantee that their role will be significant. Do not extend the SNPs program unless a State role is guaranteed.
  
• The Executive Budget proposes to cut funding for 27 research positions from general funds to outside grants demonstrates a lack of commitment to cutting-edge research into the causes and treatments for mental illness. Significant research projects into the cause and treatment of mental illness should not be dependent on transitory external funding.

This year, PEF urges state Legislators to:

- Reject the Executive's proposal to continue downsizing and resource funding for needed state provided professional services for the mentally ill.

- Reject the Executive's proposal to eliminate the State share of Community Reinvestment Act funding.

- Maintain shared staffing with localities to ensure quality services to the mentally ill living in the community.

- Don't extend or begin implementation of the Special Needs Plans for the mentally ill until the continuation of the State-operated safety net is guaranteed.

More PEFacts