The Prison-to-Shelter Pipeline Is Growing

Thousands of parolees from upstate prisons return to New York City every year once they are released, and increasing number of them end up in homeless shelters, according to an investigation by NY1.

Four years ago, 2,152 parolees went directly to shelters; by last year, the number had nearly doubled, to 4,122, more than half of the parolees released in New York City, according to the cable news station.

Christopher Kaminski is one of them. He told NY1 he has struggled with heroin addiction since he was a teen, and that living in the Brooklyn Atlantic Armory Shelter in Crown Heights did not help him stay clean.

"He heard another shelter resident say that he had a bag on sale for $6," said NY1 political reporter Courtney Gross. "And that's what sent him into a relapse."

The state corrections department counters that the population is fluid, and that there are about 1,600 parolees are in a city homeless shelter at a given time, according to NY1.

The parolees make up a substantial proportion of the city's homeless population. The Mayor's Management Report said that 19,800 single adults entered into the shelter system in 2017.