NY: Urgent Action Alert! Urge Legislature to Use Federal Funds to Restore Cuts to ATI and Re-Entry

ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION AND RE-ENTRY SYSTEM IS ESSENTIAL TO PUBLIC SAFETY AND IMPLEMENTATION OF ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAW REFORM

ENSURE PUBLIC SAFETY, SAVE LIVES AND MONEY, STRENGTHEN FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES

MESSAGE TO LEGISLATORS:

Use available federal funds to restore cuts to Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) and reentry programs that reduce crime and the prison population and play an essential role in the successful implementation of Rockefeller drug law reform.

 

BACKGROUND:

Although ATI programs have been critical to reducing the prison population and crime and are essential to the success of Rockefeller drug law reform, they face potentially massive funding cuts because of the state’s fiscal struggles.

The governor’s budget proposes a cut of more than 10% (similar to the rest of the criminal justice budget), which would reduce ATI funding by $1.6 million, and neither the Assembly nor Senate budget resolutions restored any of that.  The field also lost critical federal and state funding over the last two years.  Even worse, we are hearing that approximately $3 million in Legislative adds – which have been the backbone of much of the ATI system for many years – is in real jeopardy.  All told, ATI programs stand to lose as much as $4.5 million, a blow that could decimate the system.

We have learned that the state is projecting that millions of dollars of federal criminal justice funding allocated last year will not be needed for its original purposes.  We are urging the Governor and Legislature to use some of those unspent funds to continue ATI programming.  As you know well, funding for ATI programs is critical to ensuring the success of drug law reform and ending the cycle of addiction and crime.  Indeed, what could be a more appropriate use of these funds than identifying good candidates for diversion from prison to treatment or other community sanctions, advocating for their diversion, providing them treatment and other services they need, and monitoring their progress?

ACTION:

Please encourage your clients and their families, staff, board members and colleagues in your criminal justice work to call the legislative leaders listed below and their own Assembly member and senator (Assembly at 518-455-4100, Senate at 518-455-2800) and ask them to use unspent federal funds to protect ATI and reentry programs, which are essential to public safety and the backbone of Rockefeller reform. . Click here to send an e-mail now!

Assembly Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver	Senate Senate Majority Conference Leader John L. Sampson (e-mail him)
Joseph R. Lentol, co-chair (e-mail him) Jeffrion L. Aubry Roann M. Destito Helene E. Weinstein	Ruth Hassell-Thompson Eric T. Schneiderman Craig M. Johnson