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Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice defends reentry, ATI and indigent defense increases; council presses for contract staffing and POA funding details
Summary
MOCJ Director Diana Logan told the council the agency is now a standalone department, outlined FY26 funding for alternatives to incarceration, reentry and public defense, and said the office will provide financial and timeline detail on Points of Agreement and supervised‑release expansions the council requested.
Diana Logan, director of the mayor’s office of criminal justice (MOCJ), described the office’s FY26 executive budget and priorities at the City Council hearing, emphasizing reentry programs, alternatives to incarceration (ATI) and legal services funding.
Logan framed MOCJ as a policy and contracting agency that now “is an agency on the rise,” saying MOCJ’s work spans reentry housing, supervised release and pilot programs that pair intensive case management with clinical services for high‑need participants. “We don't want anyone spending 1 day more or 1 day less in jail than necessary,” Logan told the committees.
Key MOCJ budget items discussed:
- Public defense: The executive plan includes a $20 million baselined increase for indigent defense support; Logan and the agency’s CFO said the funding is intended to help providers add trial and appellate capacity while MOCJ and OMB work with providers on how the funds should be allocated in practice. Council members asked why salary uses were being limited and pressed for clearer flexibility for providers negotiating contracts and labor agreements.
- Alternatives to incarceration and reentry: MOCJ reported ATI at roughly $54 million in FY26 and reentry funding at about $31.7 million. The office said the earlier FY25 restorations allow it to maintain provider services and that it is monitoring federal funding risks that could reduce Medicaid or other assistance used by providers.
- Supervised release and intensive case management: MOCJ proposed a $9.1 million new need to continue and expand an intensive case management pilot that augments supervised release for high‑need individuals. The pilot operates in Manhattan and Queens and provides experienced clinical staff to work with a smaller caseload per clinician.
- Contracts capacity: MOCJ said it now has 11 staff dedicated to contracts and procurement, with an additional onboarded staffer and one vacancy under recruitment, and that it expects to register FY25 indigent legal contracts on time and to repeat that performance in FY26. MOCJ said it will provide a fuller roster of titles for transferred positions and the 14 positions moved from other agencies into MOCJ.
Council questions and follow‑up requests
Council members asked for more transparent financial line items and asked MOCJ to publish dollar totals tied to the 2019 Points of Agreement (POA) updates; MOCJ said it will provide funding figures in the next POA update and committed to more frequent (monthly) POA postings. Council members also asked how Littmann Commission recommendations were considered; MOCJ said many Littmann priorities overlap with current MOCJ and Department of Correction projects and that weekly cross‑agency meetings were underway on case processing and other reforms.
MOCJ said it was monitoring federal grant uncertainty and working with the Office of Management and Budget to provide flexibility where possible to help legal providers cover salary pressures related to bargaining and retention efforts. The agency noted that some federal DOJ and DHS grant conditions are shifting and could impact long‑running multi‑year awards used by anti‑violence and reentry programs.
Ending
Logan concluded by asking the council to view the budget items as investments in community safety and services, and MOCJ committed to supplying additional breakdowns on contract staffing, POA finances, and the supervised release pilots that council members requested.
