Prosecution vs. solution
Bronx DA’s urgent plea for youth & mental health funding
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark made an impassioned funding plea this past week to the City Council with a difference: She wants more money for housing and mental health services rather than a more routine request for more direct money for her own office.
Clark noted that crimes like a running subway gun battle that left five wounded and one dead Feb. 13 had to be addressed through programs for at-risk populations.
“Instead of asking for additional funding for my office, today, I am calling you to action, to take a bold step toward correcting decades-long neglect of the Bronx,” Clark said.
“The lack of resources for youth and mental health are driving violence, subway crime and retail theft. I cannot prosecute my way out of this. … We must invest in communities.”
But by the time she testified Wednesday only Public Safety Committee chair Yusuf Salaam of Harlem and Queens Councilman Robert Holden were present to hear what she had to say. The other nine members of the panel including its two Bronx members had departed.
Clark went on to the note the Bronx has the city’s highest unemployment rate, the largest share of fatal drug overdoses and a third of kids live in poverty. One-third of the city’s shootings in 2023 took place in the borough.
“We need more jobs, good schools, housing, health care, community centers, youth development, thriving local businesses and effective drug treatment programs,” she said.
“We need additional mental health resources and problem-solving courts. The Bronx has more defendants in need of mental health treatment than the one court we have can handle.”
Clark called specifically for a community court like those in Midtown and Red Hook, Brooklyn, to be built to handle low level arrests and an additional drug court. The borough has just one accredited rape crisis center, where Manhattan has six hospital-based rape crisis centers.
“The Bronx DA and NYPD should be the last resort, not the first to solve society’s ills,” she said.
NYPD crime stats for the Bronx through March 17 show major felony crime is up in four of seven categories compared the same period in 2023, including an 11% jump in robberies and 25% increase in grand larceny. Murders are down by 17, but shootings are up by 21%.
Holden said her remarks were “surprising but welcome.”
“She was telling it like it is,” he said. “What you’re seeing is they (DA’s) are all overwhelmed. It was kind of depressing. I felt like we’re losing the battle to save our quality of life and losing the drug battle.”
As for his missing colleagues, Holden said, “It’s par for the course. Most Council members leave. I’m usually the only one listening. But it was important for everyone to hear, but it falls on deaf ears.”
Holden said he would recommend the Council hold another hearing to address specific ways it can deal with the issues that Clark raised.
“I think she’s frustrated that we aren’t making any headway,” Holden said. “We have to do more.”
Darren Mack, co-founder of the advocacy group Freedom Agenda, also said he was pleasantly surprised by Clark’s remarks.
“It was a good thing — she echoed what advocates have been calling on the city to invest in for years,” Mack said. “And it shows the mayor is becoming more and more alone in his calls for more police and more criminalization.”
Part of the issue may have been that the NYPD’s testimony defending its new social media stance and the encrypting of police radios on Wednesday consumed nearly two hours more than planned. The Civilian Complaint Review Board then followed with a detailed plea for more funding. “A lot of hours were spent on questioning the NYPD, but you expect that,” Mack said. “It’s important the chair was there for Clark’s remarks, it was documented and the public heard it. Council members are stretched thin.”
Bronx Councilwoman Diana Ayala said in an email she had to leave to pick up her child, but said she appreciated her remarks.
“The need for true mental health care is growing increasingly and we are seeing it spill out onto our streets,” she said. “Arresting our way through mental illness is not only not the answer, but it is unfair to the local community.”
A staffer for the other Bronx Council member on the panel Althea Stevens did not immediately reply to an inquiry from The News. Salaam’s office also did not reply.