Current Events > NYC Mayor De Blasio bashes AOC's proposal to release all Rikers inmates.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://nypost.com/2021/09/22/de-blasio-slams-aocs-rikers-island-reform-proposal/

Mayor Bill de Blasio rebuffed demands by fellow Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for an instant release of all Rikers Island detainees due to increasingly dangerous conditions at the jail, refusing to just open up the gates. Thats not going to happen, de Blasio said Wednesday during his daily press briefing, held remotely from Queens Borough Hall. I respect the Congress member and her colleagues who signed that letter, [but] couldnt disagree with them more. Its not going to happen, its not the right way to handle things. On Tuesday, AOC along with Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Nydia Velazquez and Jerrold Nadler all Democrats representing parts of the five boroughs in Congress sent a letter to the mayor and Gov. Kathy Hochul requesting that the executives immediately let out inmates held at the out-of-control Rikers Island. We strongly believe that those who are detained at Rikers should be immediately released and the facility shut down, reads their letter. It has become evident that conditions at Rikers are deplorable and nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. When asked by The Post Wednesday about his thoughts on the radical request, de Blasio touted his plan to close the jails on Rikers Island by 2027 by which time he will have been out of office for five years and replace them with four smaller facilities in each borough except for Staten Island, while categorically dismissing the proposal offered by the four House reps.

In the end, the real thing we have to do as a city is close Rikers once and for all, said the mayor. Rikers needs to close once and for all, but when we have new modern, redemption-oriented community jails for inmates to go to. The answer is not to just open up the gates. Releasing everyone there is not the right way, obviously, [and] doesnt make sense. Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa predicted that if the left-wing members of Congress get their wish it would lead to more crime, more violence, anarchy and more chaos. It would probably cause a reaction against them, in which people are going to want to build more prisons, incarcerate more and then really crack down in terms of law and order, he said during Wednesday afternoon during a press conference near Rikers Island. Recent deaths and fed-up absent guards have prompted local elected officials to tour the jail facilities and call for reforms to improve conditions there. During a recent tour of the jail, local lawmakers witnessed an inmate attempting to hang himself, according to an assemblywoman. A top Department of Correction staffer revealed at a recent City Council hearing that about one in five Rikers Island employees called out sick. On Monday, City Hall filed a lawsuit against a correction officer union for allegedly allowing or even encouraging guards who work at Rikers Island facilities to stay home. That came after on Sunday Isaabdul Karim became the 11th person to die at the lockup this year. On Wednesday afternoon, the Department of Correction announced the death of the 12th person who was in custody at a city jail.



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if AOC says let them go then let them go. I await further orders my queen.

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What?!



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Is AOC working with the Nine Trey Bloods?

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Cokewave posted...

Is AOC working with the Nine Trey Bloods?

Working for?

She is queen, do you not understand what the word queen even means.

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Feels like this is something out of Batman
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If people are dying in the institution then you need to do something to prevent that. They're supposed to serve their sentenced time not fucking die.

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sometimes i wonder if aoc is a republican plant
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g980 posted...

sometimes i wonder if aoc is a republican plant

so my suspicions arent so far out there

now were two

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voldothegr8 posted...

Feels like this is something out of Batman

It really does.

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Dakimakura posted...

if AOC says let them go then let them go. I await further orders my queen.

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Some context here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-23/new-york-city-wants-more-funding-to-fix-rikers-jail-after-deaths-staff-shortage

A raft of inmate suicides and deaths at New York Citys largest jail has reignited calls to shut down the complex ahead of a planned 2027 closure. Instead, city leaders are now sinking more dollars into the Rikers Island Correctional Facility.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said recently he wants to direct more money into a jail he pledged to close because the jails inhumane conditions need to be rectified immediately. Recent mitigation plans include adding 600 new correctional officers to make up for the thousands of jail employees who arent showing up to work. Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams, who recently toured the complex and is favored to win the November election, has also urged immediate investments in staffing and other resources.

Already, New York City spends $1.2 billion a year to keep its jails running, excluding pension and health-care expenses. Accounting for all expenses, the city spent $447,337 per incarcerated person in fiscal 2020 across its 11 facilities, 8 of which are on Rikers Island, according to a March report by city comptroller Scott Stringer. Thats more than double the agencys fiscal 2015 outlay, according to the report. Jails in the rest of New York state spend an average $82,000 a year per person, according to a 2019 analysis of county jail spending by nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, which has advocated for closing Rikers.

The situation on Rikers Island is a public health emergency and a moral disgrace and it should not be a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the growing humanitarian crisis in city jails, Stringer said in a statement.

The city has continued to sink resources into an ineffective and harmful system, said Stringer, who lost a June primary run to replace de Blasio as mayor. According to his report, the cost to incarcerate individuals on Rikers has exploded as rates of violence climb, calling out a 27% rise in violent incidents in jails from a year ago that rose alongside spending increases. In October, a federal monitor assigned in 2015 to the city's corrections department said the city hadnt made sufficient progress in improving its use-of-force policies.

The conditions are hellish, and if any other country engaged in this inhumane treatment against their own people, the United States and New York State would be the first to call it out, said State Senator Alessandra Biaggi, who toured the jail this month.

Isaabdul Karim, 42, died on Sunday at a Rikers Island facility. Three days later, 34-year-old Stephen Khadu, who was in custody at the Rikers complex, died. The Department of Corrections said he was the 11th person to die in its custody since January, although a 12th person died after sustaining injuries at the jail and being transported to the hospital.

I am devastated to see that we have yet another death in custody, and determined to stop this heartbreaking trend, Corrections Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said in a statement. We are doing all we can to remedy the unprecedented crisis we are experiencing in our jails.

State and city officials have toured Rikers over the past few weeks and reported appalling conditions at the jail complex. Some witnessed a suicide attempt and said they saw garbage and feces covering the floors. They called out a lack of food, water and medical care and said the failing infrastructure combined with the staffing shortages have resulted in incarcerated people being locked in solitary confinement in narrow shower stalls.

Adams called the conditions at Rikers unbelievable, in an interview last week. He said he walked through Rikers and saw posts abandoned by correctional officers, exposing inmates to dangerous situations.

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But critics say that de Blasio, who hasnt visited Rikers since 2017 and will step down from his post at the end of the year, should move faster to shutter the jail. They say hiring additional staffers wont solve the systemic problems at city jails a point addressed in a May report from the federal monitor overseeing the city Department of Corrections.
In most cases, it appears the staff and supervisors on the unit are simply unwilling or unable to accept and execute their core responsibilities, such as to provide basic services and resolve interpersonal conflict, and instead seek more staff to address the problem, the monitor said.

Many of those at Rikers haven't been convicted; one of the deaths came after staff refused to accept the inmate's $1 bail.

https://news.yahoo.com/gay-man-dies-rikers-while-212029627.html

The family of 24-year-old Esias Izzy Johnson is seeking answers after the gay man died at New Yorks Rickers Island prison September 7.
Johnsons family says jail officials ignored his pleas for help. Hed spent a month trying to get out of jail on a $1 bail, according to Gay City News.

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Inmates came forward saying he had been complaining of stomach pain for days, Johnsons mother, Tracy Johnson, told Gay City News. Inmates said he had been screaming all night for help, and come morning time, he couldnt get out of bed. He never got out of bed for breakfast.
The New York Daily News reported the death could have been due to an overdose something Johnsons family disputes.
I think they put a drug overdose to cover up that they werent taking care of him or helping him, Tracy Johnson said. She said her son had Aspergers syndrome and had social anxiety.
He had been awaiting court dates for several misdemeanor charges. A lawyer for the family, Jamie Santana, said inmates heard Johnson screaming in pain and that his calls for help were known to Rikers Island officials.
We do believe that Rikers Island was negligent with respect to the duty of care, Santana said. It certainly appears they failed at providing any medical attention.
Johnsons family said he should have never been at Rikers.
Tracy Johnson told the Daily News earlier this month, We tried paying the bail online, but they said we couldnt. He had commissary money and could have paid, but they said he still needed to be seen by a judge. But they werent bringing him to court.
He said he had problems with his court dates, she told Gay City News recently. He wasnt being taken to them. He had a date on the 18th of August and I gave him all the info. He passed all the information to the appropriate people. It was a phone court appointment, but they never set it up for him. He said, Im missing court dates like crazy, Mom, theyre not doing anything.

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