Putting the Pieces Back Together: Overcoming Fragmentation to ...

populations.‖ 38 Governing these agency mergers was a business-like belief in efficiency through
consolidation, and likewise, through collaboration. Other events also laid the groundwork for
collaboration. Looming in the background of the initiative just as it was conceived was the recently
settled lawsuit, Brad H. vs. the City of New York, which through consent decree, requires the City to
provide discharge planning to mentally ill inmates of Rikers Island. More recently, both the City‘s
authority, the Economic Development Corporation, as well as the New York City Council, funded pilot
initiatives around discharge planning on Rikers. In sum, the time was ripe for reform and innovation.
Within this context of reform and collaboration, Commissioner Horn and DHS Commissioner
Linda Gibbs has already begun conversing about the problems facing both of their agencies. In particular,
it was in a previous interagency collaborative undertaking called the ―One City‖ Initiative that Horn and
Gibbs began to recognize more concretely the need to work collaboratively. An attempt to examine
inefficiencies in the City‘s social service and case management systems, the ―One City‖ Initiative led
various agencies to begin integrating client data systems to track usage of services across systems. It was
a data analysis matching City jail data with City shelter system data that Gibbs and Horn first saw the
overlap between their system in real numbers.
In a early attempt at a collaborative approach, Gibbs convened on February 14, 2003 an
‗Advisory Breakfast‘ of experts in government and in the field of housing and homelessness assistance to
discuss ways to prevent the entry of formerly incarcerated persons into the shelter system. At this
meeting, which was attended by City and State officials, as well as a few leaders and experts in the field
of criminal justice and homelessness, debate arose quickly regarding whether or not homelessness could
be prevented by either improving Corrections-based programming (i.e. improved discharge planning) or
the development of new community-based programs. From this discussion, it was evident that neither
solution was solely capable of addressing the problem, and that finding a solution demanded further
deliberation, if not indeed collaboration. Two months later, DOC and DHS convened the first of what
was to be a series of planning sessions.
Setting the Stage: Structure of the Initiative
From the outset, the collaborative planning effort by the New York City Department of
Correction and the Department of Homeless Services was designed as a process spanning several months,
punctuated by three strategic planning ―retreats.‖ The initial purpose of the initiative, as stated in the
concept paper attached to the invitation, was to ―assess the current state of affairs, taking an inventory of
available resources, determining who does what best, allocating and taking responsibility.‖ Out of this
38 Newsday, ―Commish‘s Double Duty; Probation chief to fill correction post in merger strategy.‖ December 27,
2002.
20