STATEMENT FROM BOROUGH PRESIDENT DIAZ RE: Rikers Island Vote & Borough-based Jail System

  "The de Blasio administration has weaponized the land use process in a manner designed to steamroll any opposition to their plans to build a new Bronx jail on the wrong site—the Mott Haven tow yard.

 

"Without a doubt, Rikers Island must be closed. I am glad that this long-awaited outcome will finally be moving forward in a meaningful way following today’s City Council vote. On the other hand, I remain troubled by the precedent set in making such a monumental urban planning decision by lumping all four sites into one ULURP process.

 

"The closure should have been handled in the right way, with elected officials and stakeholders in all four boroughs having substantial input to ensure that future generations do not suffer from the consequences of poor planning and political expediency. I want to thank those elected officials and borough activists, especially New York City Council Land Use Chair Rafael Salamanca and the residents of the Diego Beekman Houses, who have understood throughout this process that the city has selected the wrong site in The Bronx and have worked to open the eyes of the administration to select a more appropriate site for this jail.

 

"Throughout this process I have been advocating to build the new jail Bronx adjacent to the existing Bronx Hall of Justice. With our citywide inmate population at a historical low, the Mayor’s Office has already admitted that the size of these jails can be reduced, which further validates that the Bronx jail could be moved to its proper location next to the court system, like the other boroughs.

 

"I sincerely hope that the city’s failure to engage with the community on site selection for such a major infrastructure project will not adversely impact this borough for decades to come," said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

DE BLASIO ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES RECORD INCREASES IN SCHOOL INTERNET CAPACITY

Ten-fold increase in minimum speeds at all schools will support advanced instruction

  Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza announced record increases in internet access in schools. Now, more students can take advantage of online resources and tools without interruption, including conducting research and engaging in coding and design programing.

“If we want our kids to be prepared for the 21st century, we must give them 21st century tools,” said Mayor de Blasio. “Under this administration, we’re ensuring that every school – regardless of zip code – has access to high speed internet so that our students have everything they need to succeed.”

“Our New York City public school students need access to high-speed internet and WiFi so that they can engage with the newest technologies, learn computer science and robotics, and be prepared for the careers of the future,” said Schools Chancellor Richard A. Carranza. “Better internet connectivity is foundational to these efforts, and I’m thrilled to see we’re making significant strides towards providing all of our students with the 21st century, high-tech classrooms they deserve.”

Access to technology is essential to prepare today’s students to be 21st century leaders, and bandwidth is foundational to bringing more technology into schools. Upgraded bandwidth and increased access to technology are essential to advancing equity and the expansion of Equity and Excellence for All initiatives, including Computer Science for All, AP for All, and College Access for All.

Since 2015, the Department of Education has boosted citywide core internet connectivity by 15 times, from 9 Gbps to 140 Gbps. Between Fall 2017 and Summer 2019, the DOE also performed a “fiber infrastructure upgrade” at all of the DOE's approximately 1,300 school buildings -- increasing each school’s circuit capacity from 10 Mbps in 2015 to a minimum of 100 Mbps citywide.

With 100Mbps, schools can support 50 concurrent standard definition video streams, while 10Mbps supported five. 100Mbps can support 1000 devices for general web browsing, while 10Mbps can support 100 devices.

These improvements to citywide and school capacity are necessary for faster Internet and more computers at schools. The City is also updating hardware and software including routers, switchers, and firewalls to ensure schools can take full advantage of the infrastructure improvements. Each school will have a “School Tech Refresh” with hardware and software updates every five years. The Chancellor made the announcement at JHS 259 William McKinley in Bay Ridge.

   

Since the start of this administration, the DOE has committed $650 million in capital funding to upgrade technology. This investment includes the ongoing replacement of school-level equipment, including routers, switchers, firewalls, and wireless access points that enable schools to take full advantage of the increased internet capacity. Schools will receive upgraded equipment every five years.

Additionally, through the 2020-24 School Capital Plan, the DOE will invest an additional $750 million in technology, including bandwidth upgrades, with the goal of increasing the total citywide DOE core internet connectivity to 240 Gbps by the end of the 2020-21 school year.

Computer Science for All will bring Computer Science (CS) education to every elementary, middle, and high school by 2025. During the 2018-19 school year, a record approximately 160,000 students received CS education, a 72 percent increase from 2016-17. To date, Computer Science for All has trained approximately 1,900 teachers across 800 schools in all five boroughs. In the first two years of the initiative, the number of students who took an AP Computer Science exam has quadrupled – 5,190 students compared to only 1,137 students in 2016. New York City had a higher percentage of female, black, and Latino students take an AP Computer Science exam in 2018 than nationwide figures.

Computer Science for All, College Access for All, and AP for All are part of Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza’s Equity and Excellence for All agenda. 3-K for All and Pre-K for All are strengthening foundational skills and instruction earlier; Universal Literacy is working towards ensuring every student is reading on grade level by the end of 2nd grade; and Algebra for All is improving elementary- and middle-school math instruction and ensuring that all 8th graders have access to algebra. Equity and Excellence for All is also offering students more challenging, hands-on, college and career-aligned coursework – Computer Science for All brings 21st-century computer science instruction to every school, and AP for All is giving all high school students access to at least five Advanced Placement courses. Along the way, they are giving students and families additional support through College Access for All, Single Shepherd, and investment in Community Schools.

“All New Yorkers deserve access to reliable, high speed internet - and that starts with making sure our City’s classrooms are equipped with the cutting edge technology students need to succeed,” said Interim DoITT Commissioner and CIO Seb Formoso. “I thank Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carranza for spearheading these critical technology upgrades and look forward to our continued work to bring universal broadband to our City.”

   

CB 10 District Needs Public Hearing TONIGHT - WHERE IS THE DOCUMENT?

BRONX COMMUNITY BOARD #10 MEETING

October 17, 2019 at 7:00 P.M.

Riverbay Corporation

2049 Bartow Avenue, Rm. 31

Bronx, New York 10475

AGENDA

1. Call to Order Joseph Russo, Chairman

2. PUBLIC HEARING – 2021 CAPITAL AND EXPENSE BUDGET PRIORITIES

A public hearing with respect to the 2021 Capital and Expense Budget Priorities. Members of the Bronx Community Board #10 community are encouraged to bring forth ideas/suggestions for the Board's 2021 Capital and Expense Budget Priorities and present them at this public hearing.

2b. Public Participation for 2021 Capital and Expense Budget Priorities

2c. RESOLUTION for 2021 Capital and Expense Budget Priorities

“Resolved...at the recommendation of the Executive Board of Bronx Community Board #10 that the District Manager submit the annual District Needs Statement for Fiscal Year 2021 to the Mayor of the City of New York and Department of City Planning as part of our annual Charter requirement and that this be forwarded to the Full Board for its approval.”

Having been a Budget Committee Chair of a community board I was charged with creating that years District Needs Statement. It took weeks to prepare said statement, working with the Chair, Vice-Chair, and District Manager of the community board. 

I visited the Community Board 10 office on Tuesday October 15th 

I asked to see the CB 10 District Needs Statement for Fiscal Year 2021. 

I was told the District Manager did not make it up yet. Thus I could not view it.

Here are three questions to CB 10 Chair Mr. Joe Russo, and to Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz's Community Board office. 

1 - How can you ask for public participation on something that was unavailable to view?

2 - How are your members of the Executive Committee going to know what your District Manager submits, unless it is going to be the same from the previous year with only the date changed?

3 - Is that why the FY 2020 CB 10 District Needs statement was sent out?

Will I be cut off again Mr. Russo if I question you on the CB 10 FY 2021 District Needs Statement?

State Senator Gustavo Rivera - Health & Housing Halloween Fair

Dear Neighbor,

I am pleased to invite you to our Health & Housing Halloween Fair! I hope you will join me to learn how to protect yourself from unscrupulous landlords, dangerous vermin, mysterious charges, and looming health hazards. Bring the whole family for some spooky fun!

Senator Rivera's Health & Housing Halloween Fair

What's Haunting Your Home & Health?

When: Saturday, October 19 from 12pm to 2pm

Where: Bronxworks Morris Innovative Senior Center

80 E 181st St, Bronx, NY 10453

RSVP: Email RSVPSenatorRivera@gmail.com or call 718-933-2034.

We hope you will share the attached flyers with your community to let them know that they can get free health screenings, free housing assistance including consultations with lawyers, giveaways and to go trick or treating at the event. See you there!

 

JAILS TO JOBS: CITY EXPANDS RE-ENTRY SERVICES AND TRAINING FOR JUSTICE-IMPACTED INDIVIDUALS

City pledges $19M annually to fund comprehensive job training and re-entry services for all people leaving City jails through its Jails to Jobs initiative

  The City announced an expansion of its Jails to Jobs initiative with a $19 million annual commitment to re-entry services for formerly incarcerated individuals. In addition to providing job readiness workshops, therapeutic and other social services, qualified Jails to Jobs providers will now be able to offer transitional employment to all individuals leaving City jails, regardless of sentencing.

Jails to Jobs, launched in April 2018, provides individuals leaving City jails with one-on-one peer mentors, workforce training, educational subsidies, and short-term transitional employment. The program also requires all workforce providers to be trained in issues and laws related to working with people with criminal records. The initial Jails to Jobs was offered to approximately 5,200 individuals per year. Today’s announcement will expand these resources to all individuals leaving City jails, and will grow to be able to offer programming and services to approximately 9,000 people. Previously, paid transitional employment was only offered to individuals serving a city sentence.

Today’s event was held at Exodus, a Jails to Jobs partner that provides job training, wrap around case management services and paid transitional employment—often involving peer work. They also provide hot meals and social services, and are currently in the midst of expansion.

Over the last 20 years, Exodus has served over 25,000 people, advocating for their rights, helping them to build the skills necessary to join the workforce in career focused jobs, and building skills with them and placing these resilient, hard-working, talented individuals in jobs all over New York.

This builds on previous funding commitments from the Department of Correction (DOC) and Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) for re-entry programming in City jails and re-entry services upon an individual’s release from custody. The RFP, issued by MOCJ, reflect the City’s continued commitment to provide programming based on best-practices for those in custody, as well as in the community, to provide stability for those leaving incarceration, while decreasing the likelihood of continued criminal justice system involvement.

The solicitation for re-entry services will significantly increase the breadth and coordination of services that help people find and maintain employment following their release from City custody.  Notable enhancements in this solicitation include:

·         Hybrid in-custody roles: To ensure the greatest levels of success, planning for release must begin while an individual is in custody. The solicitation creates specialized “hybrid” roles that connect service providers with people in custody prior to release. Providers will be able to assess the individuals’ needs and make connections to supports in the community upon discharge.

·         Enhanced day-of-discharge supports: Research demonstrates the period immediately following release is critical, particularly to ensure immediate needs are met during times of transition. The new solicitation aims to connect people with service providers at the point of release to provide basic needs and connect people to longer term services.

·         Peer mentors: People with lived experience in the criminal justice system are uniquely positioned to foster trusting relationships and promote service engagement for those with similar experiences, leading to increased stability upon release. To build on their expertise, the solicitation creates roles for credible peer mentors to assist individuals in their transition from jail back to the community.

·         Localized service provision: To ensure services are accessible to individuals released from jail, re-entry services aim to be localized in the neighborhoods to which most people return, including through partnerships with local organizations and institutions.

·         Expanded services: Comprehensive services, including paid transitional employment, job readiness workshops and supports, therapeutic services, and a variety of social services will be provided and coordinated as part of the solicitation.

“New York City believes in second chances. With Jails to Jobs, we are breaking the cycle of incarceration by making sure people in City custody have the opportunity to learn and grow while in jail and a pathway to stability as they return to their communities,”  said Mayor de Blasio.

“As the City jail population shrinks and our justice system looks to achieve safety through better means, it remains essential that we provide effective, empowering programming for people while in custody and as they return to their homes and neighborhoods,” said Elizabeth Glazer, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. “By improving programs and services, this Administration is continuing to demonstrate its commitment to creating the smallest, safest, fairest justice system possible.”

“The Jails to Jobs program affirms the value of what Fortune has learned over more than five decades:  jobs matter on the road to successful reentry,” said JoAnne Page, President and CEO of The Fortune Society. “When individuals emerge from the trauma of Rikers Island – even after a short incarceration – they have often lost their jobs, and too often jeopardized their housing as well.  The Jails to Jobs program gives Fortune participants an immediate opportunity to obtain paid work – work that helps put food on the table, support the family and most important, puts them on the pathway to permanent employment.  Employment is key to stopping the cycle of recidivism.  The Fortune Society is proud to partner with the de Blasio administration on this initiative as part of the commitment to reduce the jail population and, ultimately close Riker’s Island.”

Pelham Parkway Neighborhood Association invites you to our October 2019 Meeting!

Join us this Tuesday, Oct 15 2019 at 7:15 pm at Bronx House on 990 Pelham Parkway South as we welcome our guest, Borough Commissioner from the Department of Transportation Nivardo Lopez. Look forward to seeing you there!

Why I am Opposed to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Plan to Close Rikers Island

What You Should Know

By Councilman Rev. Ruben Diaz

District 18, Bronx County

You should know that after reading an editorial that was published on October 13, 2019 in the New York Post titled “The close-Rikers crusaders left reason behind a long time ago” I have decided to explain why I am going to cast my vote on Thursday against the construction of prisons in four boroughs and the closing of Rikers.

 

First, I would like to know why in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plans, Staten Island is not included in the construction of new prisons in New York City. The four other boroughs are included, while there is a lot of potential space in Staten Island.

 

Second: As of today, no one knows what is to be done with the prime piece of real estate where Rikers Island currently sits? There has been an incredible lack of transparency by Mayor de Blasio’s Administration about that valuable property, and no public hearings about that government-owned piece of land.

 

Third: Why does anyone think that housing inmates in skyscraper jails will ever facilitate the rehabilitation of incarcerated people?

 

According to the Post editorial:

 

“So the city still has time to consider alternatives, like the rebuild-at-Rikers alternative drawn up by the architectural firm of William Bialosky and Partners…. Bialosky points out that the Rikers lot offers something pretty valuable for building a truly humane jail: space. Why pack detainees into high-rise buildings when you can use existing ones for a more diffused, campus-like environment incorporating better access to daylight and greenery? The 45-page prospectus even calls for plots where inmates can grow crops.”

 

There is ample space at Rikers Island for all sorts of activities, none of which will be possible in any high-rise cages. Mayor de Blasio’s proposal to close Rikers will not improve the lives of New York’s inmates.

My dear reader, don’t be fooled. 

Incarcerated people need programs to help them to become rehabilitated so they can return to their families and loved ones, re-enter society and get jobs, and not be tempted to a life of recidivism. Our focus should not be how to prosper real estate developers so they can create new correctional center complexes in our boroughs.

 

You should also know that Mayor de Blasio somehow intends to reduce the number of inmates down to 3,300, and he has built that dream into his plan, giving no consideration to any possible crime wave.

 

It is also important for you to keep in mind that these proposed plans are not expected to going to go into effect until 2026, otherwise known as “the out years,” in the distant future when Mayor Bill de Blasio will no longer be in office.  

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I urge my colleagues in the City Council to reconsider where our focus needs to be: not on new jails, and not on the closing of Rikers Island.

 

I am Councilman Rev. Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.

PROJECTED CITY JAIL POPULATION FALLS TO 3,300 BY 2026

New York City’s historic decarceration efforts to accelerate ahead of the closure of Rikers Island, resulting in 700 fewer people in the jail system than previously forecasted

  City officials have revised the estimated jail population to 3,300 by 2026, down from the earlier estimate of 4,000, Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson announced. The new figure will serve as the baseline for plans to build four smaller, safer, more humane facilities to replace the current outdated jails on Rikers Island and elsewhere. The revised population estimate will mark the lowest jail population in New York City in a century and is estimated to be the lowest jail population rate among the nation’s largest cities.

 "Mass incarceration did not begin in New York City, but it will end here, said Mayor de Blasio." With the lowest rate of incarceration of any major city, we are proving you don’t need to arrest your way to safety. New York is a telling a different story, one where we can keep fathers at home and kids in schools and still be the safest big city in America."

“Just a few years ago, the Lippman Commission’s projection of a 5,000 average daily population was considered by many to be overly optimistic. To now reach 3,300 is an extraordinary achievement, and the culmination of years of hard work to move away from the failed policies of mass incarceration. But we will not rest. We will keep fighting to bring this number down even further. New York City should be a model of progressive criminal justice reform nationwide,” said City Council Speaker Corey Johnson.

“The new city jail population estimate of 3,300 by 2026 reflects a new model of safety being built in New York City in which police, prosecutors and courts have lightened the touch of the criminal justice system while crime has continued to drop," said Liz Glazer, Director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. "The City’s successful diversion and alternatives to incarceration programs, such as the nationally recognized Supervised Release program, keeps people from entering  jail. Our robust reentry services such as Jails to Jobs help people from coming back. And our community-based violence interruption programs, such as the Crisis Management System, helps people steer clear of the justice system entirely. This foundation of reform, built over the last five years, will provide current and future generations of New Yorkers with an even smaller, safer, fairer justice system.”

The updated jail population estimate will allow the City to build new facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx appropriate for an even smaller number of detainees. Each facility will now anticipate an average daily population of fewer than one thousand people—less than half the population of the largest facility currently operating on Rikers Island.

The 3,300 estimate comes after City officials analyzed the impact of the City’s many successful reform measures, such as the award-winning, nationally recognized Supervised Release diversion program, which will now expand to further reduce the population of pretrial detainees that comprise the majority of individuals incarcerated in city jails. These estimates also reflect the major role bail reform and other state reform measures will have on the number of pretrial detainees in the city’s jails.

The lower population estimate is the latest announcement by Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson ahead of the Council’s anticipated Oct. 17 vote to replace the current dilapidated jail facilities on Rikers Island, as well as the old borough-based jails in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and the barge in the Bronx. Those aging jails will be replaced with four new facilities that prioritize safety for staff and detainees, as well as programming and services that will help individuals to reenter their communities.

Earlier this month the Administration and Council leadership committed to change the zoning of Rikers Island to ban its use for incarcerating individuals going forward. This land use proposal will guarantee the permanent closure of jails on Rikers Island.

The new 3,300 population update reflects the City’s ongoing efforts to end the era of mass incarceration by providing a new model of safety and progressive justice, both in city jails and beyond.