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Holden: Call in National Guard to offset Rikers chaos
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
Congress members Grace
Meng and Adriano Espaillat
(D-Manhattan) announced on
Wednesday, Sept. 22, that they
secured over $11 billion in federal
relief to help New Yorkers
recover from the devastation
caused by the remnants of
Hurricane Ida.
According to Meng, the
havoc that Ida wreaked on
her congressional district in
Queens, and the New York region,
has continued to devastate
many of her constituents,
as they remain in need of help.
“As I have said, New York
needs as much federal aid as
possible to assist with recovering
from this catastrophic
storm, and in addition to the
emergency and major disaster
declarations, these funds will
go a long way towards providing
needed relief, and building
back better. I thank Rep. Espaillat
for partnering with me
to obtain this vital funding,”
Meng said.
Espaillat said Ida marked
the second time in two months
that communities were flooded
as a result of the climate
crisis, and it demonstrated
New Yorkers’ need for support.
“While we continue to
survey the economic toll this
storm took on our communities,
it’s clear that our people
needed immediate and tangible
relief — and I’m proud to
have secured this much needed
funding so that our communities
can begin to rebuild
from this crisis, and build
back better, and stronger than
ever before,” Espaillat said.
Earlier this month, Meng
and Espaillat spearheaded a
bipartisan letter to the leaders
of the House Appropriations
Committee asking them to
include the highest amount of
federal funds possible for New
TIMESLEDGER | Q 16 NS.COM | OCT. 1 - OCT. 7, 2021
York in the Extending Government
Funding and Delivering
Emergency Assistance Act,
which continues vital federal
funding through Dec. 3.
The committee, of which
Meng and Espaillat are members,
is the panel in congress
that is responsible for allocating
emergency disaster funding.
Meng and Espaillat were
able to secure additional funding
for several accounts, the
majority of which will provide
disaster relief.
They include $5 billion for
HUD Community Development
Block Grant Disaster
Recovery Program, of which
the maximum funds would
support large-scale resiliency
projects and grants to homeowners;
continued access to
the FEMA Disaster Relief
Fund, the funding would support
general reimbursement,
Building Resilient Infrastructure
and Communities grants,
and Hazard Mitigation Grant
Program; $50 million for
FEMA Emergency Management
Performance Grants,
the funding would help with
emergency planning for future
extreme weather events;
$2.6 billion for the DOT Federal
Highway Administration,
of which the funds would support
street design and flooding
remediation; and $3 billion
for USACE Construction
Funding, of which the funds
would support existing resiliency
projects and additional
ones that may be needed.
Reach reporter Carlotta
Mohamed by e-mail at cmohamed@
schnepsmedia.com or
by phone at (718) 260–4526.
BY JULIA MORO
Queens elected officials
have been adamant about the
reform needed at Rikers Island
after 12 inmates have died just
this year — among them is
Councilman Robert Holden,
who is calling on Gov. Kathy
Hochul to activate the National
Guard in order to alleviate the
dangerous conditions brought
on by a “lack of leadership and
poor policies.”
This past week, another
inmate, Isaabdul Karim, died
just after the governor announced
nearly 200 detainees
at Rikers on minor parole violations
would be released. The
order stipulated that technical
violators could go home if
they had been incarcerated for
30 days — Karim, who would
have otherwise qualified, was
at Rikers for 29 days.
On Sunday, Sept. 19, Karim
died after a medical emergency,
which has been credited to a
lack of medical or mental health
services for weeks. Hochul had
just signed the Less is More Act,
which would result in the issuance
of a written notice of violation
and a court date as opposed
to someone being automatically
incarcerated.
Even before Karim’s death,
Holden encouraged the governor
to call upon the National
Guard to provide more security
at Rikers.
“The mayor has already
checked out, abandoned our
hardworking Department of
Correction Officers and broken
his promises,” Holden
said. “They’re still being
forced to work triple shifts,
making their jobs even more
dangerous. A lack of leadership
and poor policies have
made the Rikers Island facility
dangerous, not the location.”
Holden said that inmates
and officers are in danger of
being hurt or killed with the
current conditions at Rikers.
Last week, elected officials,
including Assembly member
Jessica González-Rojas and
state Senator Jessica Ramos,
visited Rikers Island, where
they say they witnessed an inmate’s
attempted suicide.
González-Rokas said she
wonders how many lives it
will take before decisive and
effective action is taken.
“Since visiting Rikers Island
a week ago, two more
deaths have happened on our
watch and it’s exactly what
we said would occur without
necessary action. Rikers is
beyond reform and several legislators
who have visited the
island now know it,” González-
Rojas said. “The people who
are incarcerated and the staff
who work there are no longer
safe from the severe neglect
and violence that have been
escalating. We need the mayor
and district attorneys to act if
we are going to prevent more
death.”
Twelve detainees have died
at Rikers this year, several
from suicide. The jail’s reputation
for violence and chaos
has been exacerbated by the
COVID-19 pandemic, which
infected more than 2,200 employees.
With staff out sick in
record numbers, the conditions
at Rikers began to get
even more dire.
But while some elected officials
in Queens are calling for
people in Rikers to be released,
Holden criticized the state’s
decision to release nearly 1,500
people to curb the spread of
COVID.
“Releasing more dangerous
criminals onto our streets is
not the answer and will make
more New Yorkers the victims
of crime,” Holden said.
“Inmates slated for release
include career criminals with
multiple prior sentences. Seventy
percent of inmates at
Rikers are recidivists.”
Councilman Robert Holden QNS fi le photo
Congresswoman Grace Meng File photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Meng helps secure billions in disaster relief
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