By: Charles Smythe
The revolving prison door keeps spinning – much to New Yorkers’ chagrin.
The New York Post is reporting that roughly 10% percent of criminals let out of Rikers Island jail since March because of the pandemic have gotten themselves sent back to jail again.
To date, an estimated 2,500 criminals have been released from Rikers. Of them, NYPD numbers show, 250 have gone on to practice their nefarious craft once more, resulting in almost 450 new crimes.
“Hundreds of prisoners released early from Rikers due to COVID concerns are being enabled to re-offend again and again without consequences, law enforcement leaders say,” nbcnewyork.com reported.
“We’re continuing to see people get arrested over and over and let right back out. And it really defies common sense,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in an interview with NBC New York.
Michael LiPetri, chief of Crime Control Strategies for the NYPD, told the station that police had no objection to letting older defendants and those with underlying medical conditions go. He was quick to add, however, that the larger-scale release of prisoners has resulted in crime rates skyrocketing.
Naturally, New Yorkers are disgusted by the releases. The debate over who should be let out “has become fierce in some places,” the New York Times has reported. “In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order barring the release of some inmates, arguing that it “would not only gravely threaten public safety, but would also hinder efforts to cope with the Covid-19 disaster.” The order was fought in Texas’ highest court, which ruled on procedural grounds in Mr. Abbott’s favor this week.”
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said during public comments that many defendants were being release “with nothing more than a Metrocard.”
“Whether it’s today, tomorrow or next week, we will allow people to protest and 99 percent protesting we must give a voice – we don’t have to agree, but we must allow them to have a voice,” Shea said. “The same thing with the press, and we have been criticized. We must make sure the press can do their job – they must photograph and video the good, the bad the ugly – we must let it stand where it stands.”
Shea continued, “The eyes of the world are on us, right at the start of the pandemic and still am. Turn on a news station, you might see policing using force, and there is a lot of rhetoric on this, but I think we have the best police department in the country. Turn on the TV and you hear about reform, but we’ve been reforming for six years, and some of those policies are now being recommended today. I will tell you, we have already policies on body cameras, de-escalation training, blue courage, a chokehold policy that exists already. We are far from perfect and we will have more conversations.”
