Mayor tells courts to speed up, again
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Mayor Bill de Blasio called on the courts to speed up operations to help reduce crime and lower the population on Rikers Island on Thursday. Photo via the mayor’s office/Flickr
By Jacob Kaye
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city has made great strides in reigning in gun violence Thursday but still had choice words for one major part of the criminal justice system.
“Our recovery is going to help improve public safety – there's still a missing link though,” de Blasio said. “It is our court system.”
The mayor, who is camped out in Queens Borough Hall this week, called on the courts to kick their operations into high gear to help keep crime down on Thursday.
However, he did note that its processing of gun cases – which have been bolstered by a citywide program led by Queens Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters George Grasso – has improved in recent months.
De Blasio first called out the courts in late August, asking them to process gun cases faster.
“There has been progress on gun cases. I want to thank everyone in the court system for that, the DAs, the judges, everyone at the Office of Court Administration. That helps. That helps a lot,” he said. “That shows that more can be done, but what we're not seeing yet is enough progress overall. We still don't see a fully functioning court system and it's hurting us.”
The mayor specifically requested that the courts move non-gun related felonies and misdemeanors along at the same pace it's been moving gun violence cases.
“Treat all felony cases the way you're treating gun cases right now. Expedite, get the whole process moving. Same for misdemeanors,” he said. “We cannot have a partial court system.”
At the center of his plea for swifter justice is the deterioration of conditions on Rikers Island. This week, two detainees died in the jail complex, becoming the 11th and 12th people to do so this year.
The mayor requested that the courts help by scheduling cases of people on Rikers Island in order to help reduce the jail’s population.
“We can't have partial justice,” de Blasio said. “It's affecting public safety, it is affecting the situation on Rikers. We need a fully functioning court system.
A spokesperson for the OCA denied the mayor’s categorization that the courts are to blame for the violence in the jail.
“The City’s jail on Rikers Island is being equated to Devil’s Island and all the blame shifting Mayor can do is whine about felony trials that are happening in increasing numbers and in relative terms have little bearing on the effect they are having on the overall inmate population,” the spokesperson said.
On Thursday afternoon, de Blasio and Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi announced a series of additional reforms to help control the deteriorating situation.
Many of the items listed in the plan have already been mentioned in either the mayor’s five-point action plan announced last week and the commissioner’s New Day DOC plan announced earlier this summer.
Some of the initiatives include special payments for officers who work a triple shift, giving incarcerated people tablets and opening up a previously shuttered jail building that is already equipped with two clinics.
“All of these initiatives involve hard work, coordination, and partnering with City and jail workers who have already been fighting valiantly during pandemic conditions for 18 months,” said Schiraldi. “We cannot and will not rest until this crisis is over.”
The commissioner and mayor have blamed a large portion of the poor conditions on a historic correctional officer staff shortage.
At the beginning of the week, the city filed a lawsuit against the Correctional Officers’ Benevolent Association alleging that the union was encouraging its members to call in sick when they weren’t actually ill.
The lawsuit was withdrawn on Wednesday after the union promised to encourage its members to return to work as the two parties appeared in court.
“We went to court and immediately the union has changed their tune and now has issued a statement formally encouraging officers to show up at work, support their fellow officers, keep the environment safe for everyone,” de Blasio said. “We see real improvement, there's major challenges, but on the things that we can have an impact on, we're seeing major improvements.”
