Article On Gothamist Today Explains Antonio Battle's Situation
First, an update on Antonio. In short, he's not doing well. After waiting 90 days at EMTC as the court delayed and delayed, he was released on the Friday night, April 19, with no notice and none of the money he'd earned working there while detained. For new friends, Antonio was picked up in February at Beach House shelter in Far Rockaway after transferring from his shelter in Queens with his girlfriend. He failed to immediately report his transfer, so his parole office sent officers to arrest and detain him. Every plan we'd made for his reentry went up in smoke because of this decision by his PO. Some of you very kindly donated him some petty cash over the weekend (thank you!) but with no place to stay, no documents, and no immediate cash, he was on the street. I finally got a voicemail from him last night after not hearing from him for a week:
"I know you're probably wondering where I am, I'm alright, this is Antonio. I'm ok, been in a hospital for awhile. I don't know John, my whole world's caving down on me, because I can't stay in these shelters and I refuse to stay on the street. And I don't have no help to help me get off the street, so I don't really know what to do. I'll figure it out sooner or later."
So there's that. There's more, but I can't yet get into it simply because I don't fully understand some particulars. But more importantly right now, I implore you to read this Gothamist piece by JB Nicholas published yesterday, which explains in detail the administrative decisions made at the city and state level that have led to hundreds and hundreds of cases like Antonio's of re-incarceration for technical parole violations. Please read it in its entirety, but here are some salient points:
The mayor's office has a stated goal of an average of 5,000 detainees to close Rikers Island.
While the population at Rikers has now declined over the past two years from an average of 9,400 people to around 7,000, the number of people detained on technical parole violations has actually increased substantially: "There were 811 New Yorkers held on Rikers for technical violations in February 2019 [when Antonio was picked up], the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services reported. That's 80 more technical violators than were held on Rikers just one month before, and a 7.7 percent increase since February of 2018, according to the Division."
This increase is directly attributable to the 2017 appointment of Rhonda Tomlinson as Chief Administrative Law Judge at Rikers Island. According to "a current official on Rikers Island with first-hand knowledge of the parole proceedings": "She's stripped the judges of their independence and discretion and biased the revocation system in favor of re-incarceration."
This reporter has now documented in detail a number of examples of Tomlinson exercising extreme judicial bias in favor of Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) who have wanted to re-incarcerate. ""That's not the way the process should work. There shouldn't be any lobbying, or discussions off-the-record or outside the hearing process," said Hon. Raymond E. Kramer, an ALJ and director of ALJ training in New York City's Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings." "That calls for an Inspector General investigation," says Vincent Schiraldi, co-director of the Columbia University Justice Lab and former Commissioner of New York City Probation.
After reading this, we act. Please don't send money right now; I need your hearts, your minds, and your talents. Many of you have followed Antonio's travels and travails for over a year now. (For those of you new to the game, you can catch up here.) We have now identified, thanks to Mr. Nicholas's brave and intelligent reporting, a clear bureaucratic cause to this injustice against Antonio Battle and hundreds of our other fellow citizens. Now, what are we going to do?
I want your ideas. How do we address this systemic injustice? I have a friend, an amazing musician and lawyer who is on this mailing list, who will be recording some weekly conversations we have over beers in his studio about this work. Our next meeting is this Thursday. Here's what you can do:
Give me your ideas and questions, and we'll talk it out.
Offer to be part of the team to solve this problem.
Put this message and article out into your networks. Feel free to give out any of my tags:
Email: johnproct@gmail.com
Twitter: @johnproc
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Let's make this democracy work!
Re/Creation is now running a fundraiser from July 12-31 with limited edition t-shirts and coffee mugs featuring Antonio Battle’s work. Please considering buying one (or more!). All funds will go to Antonio as he continues to struggle and strive in his work and in his reentry.