26 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Title: Oakland Gardens middle school named 2021
National Blue Ribbon School
Summary: An Oakland Gardens public school was
recently recognized as one of the best in the nation,
along with 18 other institutions in New York state.
Reach: 22,576 (as of 09/27/2021)
Leaving
a mess
Th e protesters who want Rikers Island
closed and the union representing the
Corrections offi cers who work there
share little common ground when it
comes to the future of the jail facility.
But that common ground is fi rm footing.
Th ey agree that Rikers Island’s current
state is inhumane, safe for no one,
and demands immediate remedy.
Twelve inmates have died on Rikers
this year. Inmates live in fi lthy conditions
amid close quarters as a deadly pandemic
rages on. Corrections offi cers are subjected
to the same conditions and physical
violence, working double and triple
shift s as many of their colleagues have
walked off the job.
Rikers Island isn’t fi t for the worst
criminals or our worst enemies. It’s an
embarrassing, shameful failure of an
administration that lost its way.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has publicly
acknowledged the untenable situation
on Rikers. He’s promised all kinds of corrective
action to address the chaos —
from adding NYPD offi cers to courts to
move more Corrections offi cers to the
island; to speeding up the intake process;
to ordering emergency repairs where
required.
De Blasio has also gone to war with
the Corrections Offi cers Benevolent
Association (COBA), alleging that the
union orchestrated an illegal job action
by allowing many Corrections offi cers
assigned to Rikers to go AWOL.
Th e mayor also said the city’s longterm
plan to shutter Rikers by 2026
and move to a community-based jail
system will go on to the end, leaving
much of that responsibility to his likely
successor, Brooklyn Borough President
and Democratic mayoral nominee Eric
Adams.
But in less than four months, likely-
Mayor Adams is going to inherit a Rikers
Island in complete turmoil. De Blasio’s
short-term solutions are mere bandages;
the wound won’t heal between now and
the time the next mayor takes the oath of
offi ce on New Year’s Day 2022.
Adams is going to have to take immediate
steps to end inmate abuse, isolation
and death; protect Corrections offi -
cers working on the island; repair the
city’s frayed relationship with the offi -
cers’ union; and institute other reforms
to ensure no future inmate or guard taking
that long drive over the Rikers Island
Bridge is subjected to harm.
Th e next mayor is going to have to do
that because the current mayor doesn’t
seem particularly interested in leaving
Rikers in better shape for his successor.
Human rights activists protest outside Gracie Mansion demanding the closure of Rikers Island.
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