Currently, the City neglects a housing-first solution in favor of jailing people. More than 2,500
people held on Rikers Island each year need access to supportive housing. The city spends
$1.4 billion to incarcerate them, while it would cost just $108 million to provide them with
supportive housing—less than 8 percent of jail expenses. By expanding supportive housing
beds, and deploying DCS officers to help direct people experiencing homelessness into
them, we can greatly reduce homelessness and save money.
Sounds good if it was fact based. Sounds like it cost $1.4 Billion to house more than 2500 people at rikers and he has a plan to place them in housing for only $108 Million a fraction of the cost, less than 8% of jail expenses.
This is when you don't take any politicians plans at face value. Rikers budget for the year is $1.4 Billion. Each year, approximately 87,000 inmates are admitted to Rikers Island. The average daily population is around 10,000 inmates, with a large majority (85%) being pretrial detainees.
His plan says more than 2500 and that more than is the 87,000. Now we come to the $108 million what exactly is that number refer to. $108 million divided by the yearly average at Rikers is $1241 per inmates per year. I don't think it's the whole Rikers population his plans is referring to.
So more inductive deductive reasoning and ask Zohfran if you don't know what that means. So I will use 2500 number used. $43,200 per inmate at 2500 comes to $108 million.
So that's rent of $3600 per month. Now I don't know what type of housing his plans is. Is it an apartment, rooming house, open dorm. I don't know if that figure includes food, clothing,medical. So sounds good until you start breaking it down.
The cost to house an average inmate at Rikers Island is approximately $556,539 per year. This figure includes not only the direct budget of the Department of Correction, but also additional expenses like employee fringe benefits and health care costs for inmates. The cost has significantly increased, nearly quadrupling since 2011.
So that fraction of the cost at 8% is a arbitrary number. $108 million is 12% of $1.4 Billion so even the 8% doesnt make sense.
Make it Make Sense Mandimi?