Press Room

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams today emphasized the need to redefine public safety and combat the root causes of the recent rise in gun violence to make New York City safer. In his comments at an oversight hearing of the Committee on Public Safety focused on the mayor’s recent Blueprint to End Gun Violence, the Public Advocate stressed that the city cannot simply police its way out of longstanding issues and repeated his calls for investment in the communities that face the most violence.

“I know the pain that these shootings can cause in communities that know too well the shock and trauma from this epidemic. We cannot accept this as normal, and we cannot go numb to the violence in our streets,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “I do appreciate that Mayor Adams’ administration acknowledges gun violence as a public health crisis. I agree that this issue is a public health issue. At the same time, I do not believe this Blueprint, and the parts that have been most focused on, goes far enough to provide immediate relief and long-term transformational changes that are needed.”

The Public Advocate analyzed the mayor’s Blueprint to cite both areas of agreement and elements that could negatively impact New Yorkers. He explained that the expanded Summer Youth Employment Program as well as the mayor’s proposed investments in mental health programming would bring positive change. At the same time, the Blueprint also in part attributes the rise in gun violence to bail reform and Raise the Age legislation, which data refutes. He emphasized that, “We can’t use excuses of the past that result in overpolicing of communities of more color and mass incarceration is unproductive and dishonest. We can and should do better to stop the violence in our communities.”

Alternatively, the Public Advocate recommended his own framework to combat gun violence and reimagine policing in New York City. Among many proposals, his plan suggests increased investment in the Mayor’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention and providing expanded social, educational, vocational, and health care services to the communities hardest hit by gun violence. “The neighborhoods that see the highest rate of shootings are the same neighborhoods with the highest rates of unemployment. They are the same neighborhoods that saw the highest COVID-19 cases during the height of the pandemic. They are the same neighborhoods facing a housing crisis and without access to education facilities that are properly funded and resourced.”

In pushing for a greater budgetary focus on services, many of which are cut in the preliminary budget, than on enforcement agencies who are set to have their budgets increase, the Public Advocate said, “I understand that there has to be accountability for violence in our communities. None of these things are about excuses. The problem is that we spend more on getting accountability than actually addressing these structural issues in the first place … I hope that this administration does not rely on the strategies that saw Black and Brown New Yorkers overpoliced and jailed … We need to make sure people, especially young people, can get a chance to succeed rather than face the trauma and stress seen across previous administrations.”

In closing, the Public Advocate reminded the administration, “Communities have the solutions and the answers, and the administration should make sure to listen to these ideas.”

The Public Advocate’s full comments as delivered are below.

TESTIMONY OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS

TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SAFETY - OVERSIGHT - MAYOR’S BLUEPRINT TO END GUN VIOLENCE

MARCH 30, 2022

Good morning,

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. I would like to thank Chair Kamillah Hanks for holding today’s hearing and for allowing me some opportunities to speak on the Mayor’s Blueprint to End Gun Violence. I’m thankful to see Commissioner Sewell as well.

The devastating rise in gun violence is alarming and a tragedy, with 28 people shot over a weekend this month alone. I know the pain that these shootings can cause in communities that know too well the shock and trauma from this epidemic. We cannot accept this as normal, and we cannot go numb to the violence in our streets. I do appreciate that Mayor Adams’ administration acknowledges gun violence as a public health crisis. I appreciate the work that both of us have done together over the years on this issue. I agree that this issue is a public health issue. At the same time, I do not believe this Blueprint and the parts that have been most focused on goes far enough to provide immediate relief and long-term transformational change that are needed

There are very great spaces of agreement in the Blueprint. An expanded Summer Youth Employment Program is the right step to offer long-overdue resources to young people. In addition, the administration’s desire to invest in mental health programs that offer direct need to people is a welcome announcement. The fact that we will be trying to structuralize the Crisis Management System into other agencies. The fact there was an agreement to get other agencies to look at COMPStat numbers instead of just the NYPD. I’m not sure those have moved along yet. Those are some areas of agreement that need to be built out much more. The issue is that this Blueprint does not go far enough on some of the other areas, and the emphasis on change doesn’t seem to be in the areas that need the most transformation.

In some areas, it takes a step back by using false narratives that drive gun violence. Focus on bail reform that we know is not the reason for the rise in gun violence in New York State nor across the nation. Raise the Age is not the reason for the rise in gun violence. I would love to see not just the age change of people who are shooting, but people not to shoot to begin with. We need an honest conversation to make meaningful changes, to stop violence, and to save lives. We can’t use excuses of the past that result in overpolicing of communities of more color and mass incarceration is unproductive and dishonest. We can and should do better to stop the violence in our communities.

The Mayor’s Blueprint should not result in something that appears like broken windows. 

That type of policing has not, does not, and will not work to curb violence in our City. What we’ve learned in the past years that officers are not needed to fix a broken window. A broken window doesn’t always take the police to fix it. The Mayor’s Subway Safety Plan is an example of sending police to eject or arrest people in the transit system. Addressing the problems seen across communities in the City, or in our transit system, should not solely depend on police and should not have police going there first.

I recommend my Office’s newly-updated Redefining Public Safety platform released in January. The platform’s recommendations alone do not solve the epidemic of violence. The platform is designed to create a base to redefine, protect, and promote public safety in our City. The City should invest more in the Mayor’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention to target young people directly impacted by gun violence. Crisis Management System programming should be embedded with City agencies, as the Mayor said back in January this year. Law enforcement’s role in public safety is also important. It should involve community stakeholders in COMPStat meetings and policing strategies for transparency purposes and so other folks can provide the services they know they can in the same areas of the zip codes being focused on.

We have said for so many years that we know the concentration of gun violence and where it is occurring. The neighborhoods that see the highest rate of shootings are the same neighborhoods with the highest rates of unemployment. They are the same neighborhoods that saw the highest COVID-19 cases during the height of the pandemic. They are the same neighborhoods facing a housing crisis and without access to education facilities that are properly funded and resourced. It’s all going to be in the same community. 

I understand that there has to be accountability for violence in our communities. None of these things are about excuses. The problem is that we spend more on getting accountability than actually addressing these structural issues in the first place. If we want to get this right, we need to address those issues. We have an opportunity to get it right, now, and this administration needs to reimagine public safety for our City. So we’re not apologizing for decisions we’re making in a few decades like we did 40 years ago when we tried to address the same issues.

I hope that this administration does not rely on the strategies that saw Black and Brown New Yorkers overpoliced and jailed. We have a preliminary budget that gives too much for the Department of Correction and the NYPD while defunding agencies like the Department of Education. We need to make sure people, especially young people, can get a chance to succeed rather than face the trauma and stress seen across previous administrations that deployed abusive strategies like the abuses of stop, question, and frisk.

I look forward to the administration’s testimony in explaining its vision and goals to stop this epidemic of gun violence. Communities have the solutions and the answers, and the administration should make sure to listen to these ideas. I’m proud to be a leading voice on these issues for over a decade. Even though many people fought tooth and nail, we were able to show that you can lower arrests, lower incarceration, lower shootings, lower use of force by police, lower people actually accusing police of use of force. In 2018 and 2019, when people were saying the same things, we actually showed the City was the safest it has ever been. If you are a victim of crime, that would mean absolutely nothing to you. But many of us would say crime would go up as we saw the pandemic impact. We should focus on what is working, what works, and understand the police are our law enforcement partners. We have to stop asking them to do the work of others. It’s unfair to them because they don’t have the tools. It’s unfair to the community.

I hope we can come together and get this right because we have to. Thank you so much. Peace and blessings.

"Maternal healthcare inequities, particularly for Black and Brown women, have been a key focus for my office, and a personal issue for so many New Yorkers – until recently, I never realized how significant it would be to me and my family. Maternal mental health, maternal mortality, birth equity – these are issues that have been too long ignored, raised by voices too long silenced.

"Birth equity is a social justice issue, and today’s announcement will help bring care to communities often underserved, and lower the economic barriers that have prevented some pregnant people from seeking critical care. This initiative will also strengthen the ties between hospitals and community based organizations, meeting people where they are.

"I thank the administration for making this issue a priority – together with my maternal health legislative package and other, previously announced initiatives, these programs will help to change the unjust systems that have long denied women of more color in our city the care they need and deserve."

"The 2019 criminal justice reforms represented a long-overdue move toward justice, away from a predatory cash bail system. The real and concerning rise in some crimes is not a reason to return to the harmful, unjust, failed policies of the past, which have already failed both here and in cities across the country. As the comptroller’s report today makes clear, calls to do so are divorced from the data, and ignore the both harm that these laws were created to prevent and the history our country has of instituting, then apologizing for, unjust systems of criminalization.

"The Governor is wrong to try to pull back from progress, a move which would criminalize low income New Yorkers and communities of more color and send more people into the crisis conditions she has refused to see at at Rikers Island, where dangerous conditions for everyone have led to pre-trial detention becoming a death sentence. I urge the Legislature to reject this attempt to give in to loud, fearmongering voices, and instead advance a model of true public safety that includes immediate and long-term investments in the same communities that already have the burden of both an increase in crime and inequitable incarceration that has yet to solve the problem."

"Happy, blessed Easter to Christians celebrating around the city today!

"On this holy day, the Easter promises of redemption and resurrection are proclaimed and realized, reverberating in our lives. Easter evokes themes of rebirth, of rising from sorrow and looking toward joy. This rebirth is reflected around our city as we work to recover from the pandemic that persists.

"Amid the challenges we face in this moment, in our world and in our personal lives, I am reminded that Easter Sunday is also about hope - the hope that amid loss, in the face of trials, good can and will come. The triumph of Resurrection Sunday comes only after the trauma of Good Friday.

"In that spirit of unity and hope, I wish New Yorkers and their families an abundance of joy on this holiday.”

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams today re-introduced two bills aimed at combating the maternal mortality crisis in New York City and supporting maternal health and wellness. The legislation, which is particularly focused on reducing Black maternal mortality and deep disparities in maternal health, includes measures for both during and post-pregnancy. The bills were originally introduced in 2021, and can now be considered, heard, and voted on by the current City Council. Together, they are a model for the ways in which local legislatures can address maternal health inequities and injustices.

“Birth equity is a social justice issue – one too often ignored, facing people too often unheard. It’s one that is personal to so many New Yorkers – I never knew how personal it would be for me and my family,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “Creating a maternal health bill of rights with dedicated and sustained outreach to inform people of those rights, we can help ensure that rights are respected, requests heard, and resources granted. When someone is ready to return to work, we need to make that pathway clear and minimize barriers to reentry. These bills are common sense, their impact could be lifesaving, and we need to pass them this year."

Last month, after a long fertility struggle, a difficult pregnancy, and premature delivery, the Public Advocate and his wife welcomed their newborn daughter, Amani Elisadora. They have shared their story publicly in recent weeks and months in the hopes that it helps other New Yorkers feel supported, heard, and receive the care they need.

The Public Advocate’s office has long been engaged in efforts to combat maternal health inequity. His office released a report on the issue last year, entitled Equitable Pregnancy Outcomes for Black and Brown New Yorkers, which analyzes systemic issues and outlines potential policy solutions.

In New York City, Black women are 8 to 12 times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts. This is often rooted in medical personnel overlooking, minimizing, or dismissing the health concerns of Black patients. The first of the two bills, Intro. 86, establishes a maternal health bill of rights, and provides that pregnant individuals are informed of those rights through a public education campaign. Information is essential to body autonomy and empowering people to seek the care they deserve, and being informed of one's rights gives power to pregnant individuals as patients and as employees.

The second, Intro. 84, is aimed at addressing inequities and issues that primarily arise post-pregnancy during re-entry into the workplace. It would require employers, under guidance from the NYC Commission on Human Rights, to hold an onboarding meeting to discuss an employee's reintegration back into the workplace after parental leave. Employees returning from parental or medical leave often struggle during their return to work, lacking critical information about changes to the workplace or projects that have occurred while they were away. This bill would help correct that information gap.

Maternal health is an issue of racial inequity. Action on these issues is decades overdue, and while the current administration has taken some steps to address this inequity, maternal mortality and morbidity remains a problem – especially for Black women and pregnant persons.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams today continued his call to address mental health needs and crises more holistically and by funding non-police alternatives in the city’s upcoming budget. He also emphasized the need for greater investments in city services for disabled New Yorkers. In testimony submitted to a hearing of the Committees on Health and on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction, the Public Advocate outlined several programs and initiatives that need expanded city funding to best serve the community.

“New Yorkers have experienced an unprecedented crisis over the past two years, with many in our city experiencing heightened stress and trauma,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams in his testimony. "Many have become newly disabled by the effects of long COVID. Combined with the high numbers of people who already needed mental health resources and treatment and accessibility services prior to the pandemic, it is critically important to prioritize accessible, affordable services for people with mental health needs and disabilities."

The Public Advocate pointed to the need and opportunity to expand several successful city programs that serve New Yorkers struggling with mental illness. He cited the successes of Mobile Crisis Teams, which provide non-police alternatives for New Yorkers experiencing acute mental health crises; and NYC Well, which provides support to prevent those crises in the first place. He also argued for more Respite Care Centers, which “provide an alternative to hospitalization for those in crisis… Developing a new center in an area with high volumes of 911 calls would provide these critical services to those who need them.” In addition to expanding already successful programs, he argued the city should create a three digit number for individuals to call for non-police alternatives for a New Yorker in crisis.

When police do engage with individuals in a mental health crisis, he called for a prioritization of Support and Connection centers, which he said “provide police officers with alternatives to arrests and hospitalization for people with mental health needs who do not pose a risk to public safety ... When police interact with people in crisis or people for whom mental health needs appear to be the cause of unusual behavior, police can bring them to these 24-hour diversion centers to receive services, and they will not be arrested or booked."

These calls build on the Public Advocate's 2019 report on mental health crisis response, which centered non-police alternatives.

New Yorkers with disabilities have faced disproportionate obstacles throughout the pandemic, and so the Public Advocate called for expanding “programs like NYC: ATWORK, an employment program that recruits, pre-screens, and connects New Yorkers with disabilities to jobs and internships, and EmpoweredNYC, which provides free and confidential financial counseling for people with disabilities.” He also asked for additional resources for children who lost access to disability services while quarantined at home.

The Public Advocate's full testimony is below.

TESTIMONY OF PUBLIC ADVOCATE JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS

TO THE NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL HEALTH COMMITTEE JOINT WITH

COMMITTEE ON MENTAL HEALTH, DISABILITIES AND ADDICTION

MARCH 9, 2022

Good morning, 

My name is Jumaane D. Williams, and I am the Public Advocate for the City of New York. Thank you to Chair Linda Lee, Chair Lynn Schulman, and the members of the Committees on Health and on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addiction for holding this hearing today.

New Yorkers have experienced an unprecedented crisis over the past two years, with many in our city experiencing heightened stress and trauma. Many have become newly disabled by the effects of long COVID. Combined with the high numbers of people who already needed mental health resources and treatment and accessibility services prior to the pandemic, it is critically important to prioritize accessible, affordable services for people with mental health needs and disabilities. 

I request that New York City invests in expanding its Mobile Crisis Teams and NYC Well, allocating $26 million for 18 new teams and a 50 percent increase in NYC Well resources. The city should also invest $7 million for two new Respite Care Centers. Respite Care Centers provide an alternative to hospitalization for those in crisis. Offering stays for up to one week in supportive settings that allow individuals to maintain their regular schedules and have guests visit while receiving services that resolve crisis situations. Currently there are only eight centers operating in the city. Developing a new center in an area with high volumes of 911 calls would provide these critical services to those who need them. The city should also fund a three-digit number that New Yorkers in crisis can call to receive emergency mental health services from trained non-police providers.

HealingNYC directs government efforts to address the opioid crisis and provide substance use treatment. I recommend $5 million to expand this program. Support and Connection centers provide police officers with alternatives to arrests and hospitalization for people with mental health needs who do not pose a risk to public safety. When police interact with people in crisis or people for whom mental health needs appear to be the cause of unusual behavior, police can bring them to these 24-hour diversion centers to receive services, and they will not be arrested or booked. The budget should include $20 million for four new Support and Connection Centers. 

These investments will expand resources and services for some of New York City’s most vulnerable, who need them now more than ever—for example, Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul recently announced their plan to remove people experiencing homelessness from the subways, many of whom will need to be connected with mental health and substance use treatment services in addition to housing. 

With this new budget, New York City has an opportunity to prioritize its disabled residents, who face numerous challenges at work, school, in the community, and on public transportation. The city should expand programs like NYC: ATWORK, an employment program that recruits, pre-screens, and connects New Yorkers with disabilities to jobs and internships, and EmpoweredNYC, which provides free and confidential financial counseling for people with disabilities.

School- and preschool-age children with disabilities and other health needs experienced significant disruptions to their services due to the pandemic, with many not receiving any services to which they were entitled for many months or even years. The budget must specifically address early intervention services for young children with disabilities and fund compensatory services so children can begin making up for the time they have lost.

It is imperative that our city’s new mayor and City Council make those with disabilities and mental health needs a priority. For too long these New Yorkers have been overlooked and underfunded. I hope that we can work together to ensure that the budget reflects our commitment to the most vulnerable in our city. 

Thank you.