EMERGENCY
BLOOD DRIVE!
Wednesday,
February 6th
10am-7:45pm
Donate blood with
other members of
HALEY’S
COMETS
10 am – 7:45 pm
Greenhouse Cafe, 7717 3rd Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11209
2 Busmobiles on premises
Haley Gray understood the importance of helping others. She would explain the
importance of giving blood to people because she knew first hand that it had
sustained her life. A life that was full of happiness, unconditional love, laughter,
extraordinary courage and bravery.
Local group urges Bed-Stuy
to oppose jail expansion
Caribbean L 18 ife, Feb. 1–7, 2019
PATIENTS’
CHOICE
RATED & AWARDED BY PATIENTS
SM
NYBC Eligibility Line 1-800-688-0900
www.nybloodcenter.org
A Photo or Signature ID Required.
Eat well balanced meals before giving blood.
718-833-8200
By Alexandra Simon
Dozens of Bedford-Stuyvesant residents
and community organizers
turned out for a public forum about the
city’s impending plans to expand jails at
Restoration Plaza on Jan. 26.
At the event arranged by Black Alliance
for Just Immigration (BAJI),
organizers from the group and other
advocates detailed to guests on the
uncertainty of the Rikers Correction
Facility actually closing, and the city’s
plan to construct four new jails in place
of its expected shutdown. The possible
outcome will not only continue to harm
communities of color, but the multibillion
dollar budget for a jail expansion
project could be better utilized in programs
and efforts that could positively
affect the community, said a BAJI community
organizer.
“What’s going on is the city plans on
building more jails and is going to spend
billions of dollars on this, and there’s
no real guarantee that Rikers is going
to close in 10 years and they may only
be partially closing it,” said Albert Saint
Jean. “This money is going to be invested
in a police state and not in education, not
in housing for the homeless, or mental
health and it doesn’t make sense.”
Last year, Mayor DeBlasio unveiled a
$10 billion-dollar plan to build four prisons
in each borough except The Bronx.
In addition, to the uncertain closure,
he said an overwhelming number of the
city’s existing prison populations are a
result of much needed prison reform
because many detainees are in prison
awaiting trial. Of the 8,000 incarcerated
on the island, about 6,000 are counting
down the days until their day in court,
according to Saint Jean.
“The majority of the people in there
are there because there’s no quicker
process, so why is the city planning to
build more jails and talk about decarceration?”
he asked. “More than 80 percent
of the people in Rikers are waiting for
trial and that’s the problem.”
The construction of new jails will
not reshape the current system, and in
fact, areas of major concerns like public
housing and racial disparity in arrests
will continue go unaddressed.
“It wouldn’t change anything regarding
the status quo because those funds
are going to create more jails and people
are still going to get locked up — it
won’t address anything or the criminalization
of the black community,” said
Saint Jean. “But when we look at what’s
going with public housing, those same
funds could go towards that.”
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