Testimony on the Preliminary Budget for Fiscal Year 2023

Like other forms of policing, the family regulation system meets struggling families with surveillance and punishment and engenders fear in heavily impacted communities. It is designed to investigate and separate families and is therefore ill-suited to simultaneously provide the basic resources that are fundamental to family well-being. As the City Council seeks to invest in families through its FY23 budget, the NYCLU urges it to fund community access to healthy food, affordable housing, child care, health care, and other supports that alleviate burdens on families, not in the systems that tear them apart. It should further adopt measures to protect families from unwarranted and harmful ACS intrusion, allowing them to maintain their peace and integrity.