Politics

AOC Opposes de Blasio Plan to Replace Rikers Island “We Shouldn’t be Building New Jails”

5 години преди

Freshman rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on the opposing side of a plan endorsed by fellow Democrat Bill de Blasio to replace Rikers Island new jails that are said to be more humane.

AOC opposes the plan and said “We shouldn’t be building new jails”

“We shouldn’t be building new jails,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the post. “This plan is presented as what’s necessary to #CloseRikers, but the plan itself doesn’t even include the closure of Rikers.”

https://twitter.com/MariaBeattyfilm/status/1179521042907164672

In the past, AOC argued Rikers should be shut down and replaced with green energy solar panels.

WATCH:

Politico reports Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a standard-bearer of the progressive left — is opposing the de Blasio administration’s plan to replace Rikers Island with four borough-based jails, as the City Council prepares to vote on the controversial proposal later this month.

The city’s plan calls for closing the notoriously violent jail complex by 2026, and housing a dramatically reduced jail population in four newly constructed facilities.

The administration has argued the effort will result in a smaller, safer and more humane city jail system, and the plan has the support of a broad coalition of criminal justice activists who see it as the only viable way to finally end longstanding atrocities committed on Rikers.

But Ocasio-Cortez appears unconvinced, according an Instagram story she shared with her four million followers on Wednesday.

“We shouldn’t be building new jails,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the post. “This plan is presented as what’s necessary to #CloseRikers, but the plan itself doesn’t even include the closure of Rikers.”

She was referring to one of the core criticisms of the No New Jails NYC group, who contend the plan does not include a legal guarantee Rikers will actually close. Neither Ocasio-Cortez’s office nor her reelection campaign commented further on her position.

She said in the post she was on her way to meeting with constituents about No New Jails NYC, a group that’s been mobilizing against the administration’s plan and opposes the construction of any new jails, even those replacing existing facilities.

The city’s plan would shutter the jail complex on Rikers, build new facilities in place of existing jails in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, and build a new facility in the Bronx. The current population of Rikers is around 7,000, and officials estimate it will fall to 4,000 by 2026.

The stated purpose of the politically arduous move to build new jails has always been to close Rikers.

Leaders of the #CLOSErikers campaign — a coalition of 165 criminal justice and other advocacy groups organizing in support of the plan — expressed disappointment in Ocasio-Cortez weighing in on the proposal without seeking to understand the complexity of the issue.

“To just discredit this as a decision between building jails and not building jails is irresponsible for someone who has such a massive platform to create change across this country,” said Brandon Holmes, campaign coordinator for the group.

This article was written by the staff of TheConservativeOpinion.com 

By Kambree Nelson

Source: theconservativeopinion

See more here: news365.stream

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