TESTIMONY
OF
THE
FORTUNE SOCIETY
In Support of Prop 1012-A-- Establishing a Commission to to investigate and create recommendations on:
The Root Causes of Violence
Committee
on Economic Development
Honorable
Karen Koslowitz, Chair
Members:
Mathieu Eugene, Julissa Ferreras,
Letitia James, Diana Reyna, Albert Vann
Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Donavan Richards, Mark Weprin, Rubin Wills,
Brad Lander, Stephen Levin, Donavan Richards, Mark Weprin, Rubin Wills,
December 6, 2013
Presented by
Marlon Peterson
Director of Community
Relations
Project Director,
iLIVE
The Fortune Society
29-76 Northern Blvd.
LIC, NY 11101
347.510.3611 (direct line)
347.848.7395(mobile)
Good
morning. My name is Marlon Peterson and I am the Director of Community
Relations at The Fortune Society. Thank you, Chair and members of the City
Council Committee on Economic Development, for the opportunity to testify today.
For
over forty-five years,
The Fortune Society has been a powerful criminal justice advocate and re-entry
service provider. We are a longstanding member of the coalition of service
providers from across the City and State offering alternatives to incarceration
(ATI), reentry, and related programs (including pre-trial services,
defender-based advocacy, client specific planning, community service
sentencing, drug treatment diversion programs, legal and employment
assistance). These programs divert
appropriate individuals who have been arrested or convicted to community
supervision and sanctions and connect people who are transitioning from prison
or jail into our communities to needed services. These efforts protect the public and save
the city and state revenue by reducing jail and prison costs, preventing
recidivism and stabilizing these individuals and their families. At the Fortune Society, for instance, every
dollar invested in ATI programs yields three dollars in jail and prison
displacement savings to the City and State, while providing individuals an
environment that fosters change, allows clients to stabilize themselves,
develop legitimate income streams, build a track record of “clean time” without
drug use, and access needed services.
Most recently, The Fortune Society, through its David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, created the initiative, iLIVE. Inspired by a quote by writer and activist, Darnell Moore, “LIVING is the most radical act that I can commit myself to,” iLive aims to reach individuals from neighborhoods throughout the city, who have been affected by gun violence and help them get professional licensed mental health treatment. As part of this effort, we are developing a campaign to address the stigma that impedes many people from receiving needed care and support. iLive will also host a variety of groups and events throughout the City and at Fortune in collaboration with community based partners such as Harlem SNUG, Man Up!, Inc., Life Camp, SOS South Bronx, Legal Aid Society, and others working to end gun violence.
When
I read the term “root causes” of violence in Prop 1012, I immediately though
about nature and the fact that there are trees taller than football fields and
that these trees are nourished from its root below the surface of the ground. Elaborating on that example, to
substantively address the problem of violence it is imperative that we
investigate and address the underlying causes…the smaller problems and systemic
deficits that result in the huge illustration of violent acts New Yorkers
experience everyday. School violence,
subway violence, street violence, institutional violence, and other forms of
violence are all evident displays of poverty, over-incarceration, insensitive
policing, community alienation, archaic social services procedures, unfair
immigration policies, under-funded and under-cared for schools, inadequate
housing policies, and the lack of culturally competent measures to acknowledge
and de-stigmatize behavioral health. The violence we see…that cripple our
feelings of safety are a sequelae of these and other social ills. We must move beyond the
common thought that our young people are the sole problem, but, that, the
institutions they must interact with also shoulder the burden of being labeled
the problem.
Understandably , recent media attention to young people wantonly punching
passerbys evokes vitriolic feelings in most people. “These kids need to rot in
jail!” That, I am sure is a reaction of many. Yet, how much thought is being
given to what circumstances are leading young people to partake in such very
random acts of violence? According to US
Attorney Eric Holder, “We cannot simply prosecute or incarcerate our way to
becoming a safer nation.” He goes on to say,
“A vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too
many Americans and weakens too many communities; however, many aspects of our
criminal justice system may actually exacerbate this problem rather than
alleviate it.” For
example, in FY12 there were 84,754 new admissions to Rikers Island. In fact,
there are about 12,800 people on Rikers Island right now, and only 10% are
participating in any form of skills-building activities. Of the total population, 34% have a mental
health diagnosis, and those are only the known mental health diagnoses. This is
an increase of 5% from 2010. According to a Yale study by Andrew Papachristos
& Christopher Wildeman, “Geographic exposure to neighborhood violence is
associated with a range of negative outcomes such as PTSD, depression, and
decreased cognitive functioning” (Network
Exposure and Homicide Victimization in an African American Community,
2013). These issues are usually left unaddressed. This week alone, a young girl
in Harlem was kidnapped by her uncle who reportedly had mental health issues.
We do not feel enough is being done to support our young people who are simply
surviving in communities as marginalized persons with an array of trauma, i.e.,
incarcerated and deported family members, mistreatment in schools, stop and
frisked more times than they been said “hello” to by an officer, underfunded
extra-curricula activities, less opportunity to enjoy their communities because
of ill-thought bi-products of gentrification, and so on.
While
the City Council should be commended in its creation and implementation of the
Anti-Gun Violence Task Force, it is time to move one step further by passing
Prop. 1012. Yes, long gone are the days when we had over 2,000 murders in NYC
when we could dismiss the crime problem as a bi-product of the lucrative
underground drug economy. Paradoxically, today,
we are on pace to reach historical lows in homicides, yet we see a 2.4%
increase in felony assaults, according to the 11/18/2013-11/24/20013 Citywide
CompStat report. These assaults have long lasting traumatic effects on the
victims, witnesses. While some may see this as the calm before the storm, I
wish to frame this as the opportunity to do some substantive work around core
causes of gun violence and other forms of community violence, and steps towards
real solutions without the constant feel of panic, which only allows us to
provide band-aids.
Now is the time to start addressing
the systems that foster, and in some cases exacerbate community violence.
Undocumented immigrants, for example. In sections of the city like Flatbush,
where crime violent crime is increasing, policies like Secured Communities
(S-Comm) which gives the NYPD Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) powers,
that can place arrested, but, not yet convicted folks into deportation proceedings, increases alienation
and fear of law enforcement within our immigrant community. A son of
naturalized citizens from Trinidad, , my father was undocumented for almost 20
years, and would avoid interacting with the police at all costs; not because he
was committing crimes, but because he feared any interaction with police could
somehow begin a process of him being taken away from his wife and three
children. Immigrant distrust to of local
law enforcement encourages forms of street
justice that result in intra-community violence. While not excusing the violence committed, we
must begin the hard work of shifting our overwhelmingly punitive approach to
addressing community violence.
Lastly,
I encourage that this commission consists of persons impacted by violence on
both sides of the victim spectrum—the person harmed and the person that did the
harm. Inviting impacted persons to this commission invokes authenticity to the
cultural competence necessary to produce qualitative recommendations to the root
causes of violence. Impacted includes both victims and perpetrators (both
victims) from a trauma-informed perspective.
There is precedent for this in the Fortune Society, where approximately
half our of staff at all levels of the agency and one-third of our board of
directors were justice involved. These
persons, including myself, have excellent credentials and their
knowledge having lived through similar experiences “[serves] as a resource
rather than a liability, according to Criminologist Herbert Sigurdson (1969)
(Employing Your Mission—Building Cultural Competence in Reentry Service
Agencies).
The
points I have raised today are complex, maybe even overwhelming. Nevertheless,
the focused concentration of a group of personally invested people is needed to
begin this arduous task of addressing violence with new eyes. New York is known
for its innovation in the business and financial sector. We should expect
nothing less from our criminal and social justice contingent.
The
Fortune Society would like to express its full support for Prop 1012. As we have done in the past, we would like to
extend our expertise to the City Council in its examination and development of
a plan to address the root causes of violence.
Thank
you, once again, for this opportunity.