23 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 8, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Backing bail rollbacks? You haven’t seen Rikers up close
BY STATE SENATOR JESSICA RAMOS
We can’t talk about bail reform without talking
letters & comments
A JOB WELL DONE
I have just read in Th e Queens Courier a
most profound article about their publisher
Victoria Schneps.
She has dedicated the great part of her
life helping the mentally disabled. I praise
her not for publishing a newspaper but
for helping the mentally disabled. I understand
that only too well.
I am Grand Knight of St. Anastasia
Knights of Columbus in Douglaston,
and once a year we have a fundraiser to
help the mentally disabled and the Special
Olympics. Our slogan is, “Please help the
disabled who can’t help themselves.”
But let me speak of Victoria Schneps,
who founded an organization known as
Life’s WORC 50 years ago with the goal of
helping people with autism, developmental
disabilities and special needs.
Victoria’s own daughter suffered brain
damage and seizures. She was sent to Willowbrook
State School on Staten Island
for she needed much care. The conditions
there were deplorable and was exposed by
a reporter named Geraldo Rivera, which
shocked the world and led to the facility
shutting down.
That led to Victoria founding Life’s
WORC, which, 50 years later, has helped
thousands of lives being cared for with
dignity and improved the quality of life
for many.
Victoria Schneps needs to be praised
for helping children and young adults.
Victoria, let me say that your voice has
made things right for those that needed
acts of kindness and compassion. Thank
you, Victoria Schneps.
Frederick R. Bedell Jr., Bellerose
MAYOR ADAMS IS
RIGHT TO LIFT VACCINE
MANDATE FOR SOME
Mayor Adams is getting a lot of pushback
about his decision to lift the vaccine mandate
on athletes and entertainers before lift ing the
vaccine mandate on city workers. However,
his decision confi rms the importance and
value he places on city workers to keep the
city running on a day-to-day basis.
Th ere would be no sports or other live
entertainment contributing to the city’s
economy without NYC workers operating
effi ciently.
Th e venue that workers operate in is also
important in assessing the mayor’s decision.
Athletes and entertainers operate on baseball
fi elds, stages and basketball courts, and
not in direct contact with their audiences, who
make a personal choice to attend. On the other
hand, the city employees’ venue is the whole
city, and, in most cases, citizens encounter
city employees in a far more extensive range,
such as in offi ces, on transportation, on the
streets, in their homes and in hospitals, and,
most times, without optional choice.
Th e vaccine mandate not only protects citizens;
it also protects city employees. Without
the mandate, many more NYC workers might
have been lost, unavailable or incapacitated
when the city needed them most.
Judging from the high percentage of city
employees who have been vaccinated, that
response indicates most city workers understand
the importance of getting vaccinated
not only to keep the city operating, but also
to keep themselves, their families and fellow
workers safe.
Glenn Hayes, Kew Gardens
about the crisis at Rikers Island and dozens
of other local jails across the state.
People lying on the fl oor, packed in tight
together. Denied the chance to fi ght the charges
against them while keeping their jobs or schooling,
even as a surging rate of death behind bars
climbed even higher. Denied medical care, even
as their broken bones throb with pain. Denied
mental health support, even as their symptoms
overwhelm them and, in desperation, they attempt
to hang themselves. Th is is just part of what
I saw when I visited people in pre-trial detention
on Rikers Island. Th is is what most of my colleagues
have not seen, even as they are confronted
with calls to replace bail reform laws with policies
even more regressive than what New York had in
place before reform.
Th e horrid facilities I saw were haunted by
many ghosts, including that of Kalief Browder.
At age 16, Kalief was falsely accused of stealing
a backpack. Th e judge set bail beyond what his
family could aff ord, and he was caged at Rikers.
For three years, he languished behind bars — two
of them in solitary confi nement — as a teenager.
It’s an open secret that prosecutors use pre-trial
jailing to coerce guilty pleas, and oft en it works,
but Kalief held on. Finally, when prosecutors
admitted they had no case, the charges were
dropped, but they off ered nothing to address the
trauma that young Kalief had suff ered. Two years
later, he died by suicide.
Unfortunately, Governor Hochul has a new
plan to condemn more people to Kalief’s fate,
expanding pre-trial jailing and allowing prosecutors
to hide evidence. We must reject it.
Rather than improving public safety, jail itself
is a public safety hazard to our communities.
Just one night in jail is enough for a person to
suff er the destabilization of lost housing, work or
child custody, regardless of case outcomes. And
the data is clear that those detained for longer
stretches are eff ectively coerced to plead guilty,
oft en in exchange for release.
When tabloids trot out a New Yorker with a
long history of low-level arrests, their rap sheets
always date back to before bail reform. Whatever
your political leanings, we should agree that cycling
low-income people in and out of jail with no
support for mental health, substance use, housing
or other needs does not work to prevent violence
or make us safer. (Also, contrary to misinformation,
judges can still set bail in many cases
involving repeat arrests, but sometimes make
case-by-case decisions not to do so.)
Still, we need urgent and sustained action to
improve safety. Th e chaos of COVID-19 has triggered
an uptick in crime across the country. Many
of the loudest voices blame progressive criminal
justice reforms, but eight of the 10 states with the
highest murder rates are red states. Republicanled
cities of similar size had more murders than
their Democratic counterparts, and murder rates
were far higher in smaller Republican-led cities
like Anchorage and Lubbock. Moreover, under
New York’s bail reform, judges retained discretion
to set bail in gun cases, so changing bail laws
won’t change gun enforcement.
In fact, a new report from New York City
Comptroller Brad Lander evaluates law enforcement
data and fi nds that, contrary to what many
politicians have said in the press, bail reform
defi nitively did not cause the recent increase in
shootings we’re all grappling with.
BODEGA AT NIGHT IN RIDGEWOOD // PHOTO SUBMITTED BY KATRYN GRUSZECKI
Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper!
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tweet @QNS or email editorial@qns.com (subject: Queens Snaps).
Partisan politics and bail reform smears aside,
blaming the wrong cause distracts from real and
urgent solutions. Let’s scale them up.
Th at’s why we need to pass my legislation,
the Treatment Not Jail Act, to expand access to
mental health and drug treatment courts, which
connect people with proven treatment options
rather than simply cycling them through jail.
Th is law would empower judges to off er courtmandated
treatment to people with mental health
and substance use challenges as an alternative to
incarceration. Th ese structured diversion programs
already exist in many counties throughout
the state, and in those places have proven highly
eff ective at reducing recidivism and making our
communities safer, while saving money. Th e
Treatment Not Jail Act would simply expand on
what works, and open access to these treatment
courts to connect thousands of New Yorkers with
underlying mental health and substance use issues
to the treatment that they need, rather than
sending them to jail.
Th e Senate and Assembly one-house budget
resolutions make the right call: Th ey follow
facts, not fear and invest in needed communitybased
services and supports. Together, we have
proposed millions of dollars for pretrial services,
gun violence prevention, community safety and
restorative justice programs. We are also fi ghting
for universal child care, expanded access
to health coverage (including mental health
coverage) and robust education funding, all of
which are key to vibrant and safe communities.
Some of these investments will pay off overnight
while others will require more time and eff ort,
but increasing pre-trial jailing will never bring
about the community safety gains that we all
want.
Our communities deserve true public safety
and it’s on us to deliver.
State Senator Jessica Ramos represents Astoria,
Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights
and Woodside.
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