Restler criticizes prior DOP mismanagement and asks about restoring eliminated programs

and we can get a better read and evaluation about our work.

Thank you.

Councilmember, if you have more questions, I can bring you up after Councilmember.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

Thanks so much, Chair Brooke Powers, and it's great to be with you here at this committee and great to be with the leadership of the Department of Probation.

Over the last four years, I received many, many dozens of complaints.

Lots were anonymous of cronyism, corruption, incompetence at the Department of Probation.

I will tell you of all of the agencies that I think were badly mismanaged during the previous administration, none more so than the Department of Probation.

And so the scale of the turnaround that you are charged with is greater than any other commissioner in city government.

And it's really tragic to me what the previous administration did because over your 40-year career, the Department of Probation had been a model of reform and innovation in city government.

From the Bloomberg to the de Blasio administrations, we had great leaders who were doing really compelling and innovative things.

And that all came to a really harsh stop in recent years.

And so I'm heartened by your testimony today.

I'm impressed by your plan to be fully staffed up at the end of next year.

You know, it takes– when somebody hollows out an agency, when somebody–

encourages, when somebody, I think, does such a poor job of leading an agency and people leave en masse and programs are eliminated, it takes time to build it back up.

It doesn't happen in a day.

I really want to focus my questions today around some of the programs that Commissioner Holmes eliminated and get an understanding of where they are and how you're repairing and restoring.

I'm particularly concerned about youth incarceration.

During the Adams administration, we went from about 150 kids in our juvenile detention facilities to well over 370.

That number more than doubled.

And part of the problem is that the Department of Probation was nowhere to be found and was not a partner.

We heard from leaders across city government that they could no longer rely on DOP.

And so we're keen to see how DOP is now stepping up to help solve these problems.

Under the past administration, there were over $5 million in cuts to evidence-based programs that serve at-risk young adults, cuts of $700,000 to the impact program, $2.6 million to next steps, $1.6 million to arches,

and DOP stopped making referrals to the AIM program, the Advocate Intervene Mentor Program.

The Intensive Community Monitor Program, ICM, was reportedly hollowed out, and probation officers were joining ARCHES meetings, which goes against every best practice that I've ever come across.