Wesley Caines (Bronx Defenders) on broken windows policing driving jail population

Good afternoon.

Thank you, Madam Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to testify before you today.

My name is Wesley Canes, and I am the Deputy Executive Director at the Bronx Defenders and a formerly incarcerated member of the Bronx community.

The Bronx Defenders is a public defender nonprofit that is radically transforming how low-income people in the Bronx are represented in the legal system.

Each year, our holistic defense teams defend more than 20,000 low-income Bronx residents in criminal, civil, child welfare, and immigration cases.

We appear before this council to testify on how the city can effectively reduce the jail population.

While discussions about court operations are important, we cannot meaningfully address the jail population without first acknowledging what drives people into the system in the first place.

The population at Rikers is driven by arrests, over-policing, and decades of underinvestment in the communities most impacted by our criminal legal system.

If the city is serious about reducing the jail population and closing Rikers, it must invest in communities.

and reduce unnecessary contact with the legal system before people ever reach a courtroom or a jail cell.

First, the city must end the continued and in fact renewed reliance on broken windows policing that we know does not make communities safer.

Far too many New Yorkers continue to be arrested and funnel into our criminal legal system for conduct that poses little to no threat to public safety.

Custodial arrests for offenses such as fare evasion and occupying multiple subway seats do not make communities safer.

After falling approximately 16% on average year over year from 2014 until a record low in 2020,

Low-level policing has been growing steadily ever since.

Low-level arrests in 2025 were up approximately 16.2% from 2024, approximately 55% from where they were in 2019.

And a staggering 193% from where they were in 2021, totaling the most arrests in a year since 2017.

Recent reports show that the number of people arrested for lying down or taking up more than one seat on the subway

went up 3,000% in 2025 compared to 2024.

2025 arrests for the possession of controlled substances were up 136% from 2022 totals.

Pedic-lossiny arrests in 2025 were up approximately 35% from 2022.

totals, and 2025 had the most pedic-lossing arrests since 2014 and the second most since 2006.

These numbers make clear that New York City is moving backwards, increasingly relying on police to respond to poverty, homelessness, treatment, and behavioral health needs.

Every one of these arrests represent a person whose lives were further destabilized by criminal legal system involvement,

often for conduct that poses little threat to public safety, but carries lasting consequences for employment, housing, family stability, and health.

We know firsthand from our experiences in arraignment courtrooms across this city.

For instance, arraignments for cases where the most serious charges is low-level drug possession have steadily increased every year since 2021 when this data became first available.

And are up.

over 200% citywide from 2021 to 2025, a 339% increase in the Bronx, the borough with the highest increase.

A majority of these low-level drug offenses are ultimately dismissed.

Which highlights that these are cases that should never have been prosecuted in the first place.

Prosecutions that disrupt lives, congest courtrooms, and divert resources from communities.

What is more, the negative impact of increased law enforcement focused on low-level drug offenses

is felt most harshly in black and brown communities.

Almost 80% of people arraigned for low-level drug possessions are black and are Hispanic.

The city must reject calls to increase the NYPD's headcount.

And instead invest in housing, education, youth opportunity, mental health services, and violent prevention programs.

I know I'm at time, so I'm going to conclude.

You wrapping it up?

Yes, I'm wrapping up.

Okay.

Ultimately, the most effective way to reduce the jail population is to reduce the number of people entering the system to begin with.

That requires ending unnecessary low-level policing, investing in communities, expanding access to community-based services.

and ensuring that support is available before a person reaches a courtroom or a jail cell.

Thank you.

Thank you.