NY moves to close 6 prisons as their populations decline
Tribune News Service
The New York Legislature voted Monday to close six prisons across the state as part of the 2021-2022 budget, citing a declining prison population and savings to taxpayers.
The closures slated for March 10 include Downstate Correctional Facility in Dutchess County, the closest state facility to New York City in the current list. Downstate — long the first stop for city prisoners after being sentenced — is currently at just over half-capacity. State data shows there are 688 inmates at Downstate and 644 staff.
The statewide prison population as of Monday was 31,469, a drop of more than 41,304, or 56.7%, since a high of 72,773 in 1999. The current total is also the lowest number of people in prison since 1984, prison officials said.
Prison officials said they reviewed all 50 prisons before selecting the six to be closed. Nearly all of them have more staff than prisoners and are operating at well under capacity.
The closures will save the state an estimated $142 million.
Advocates have been pressing for prison closures for years, while the state correction unions and local pols have resisted because the institutions bring jobs and boost local economies.
The move was lauded by activist Jose Saldana, who said it didn’t go far enough. “New York’s prisons still hold roughly two times more incarcerated people today than in the 1970s, at the dawn of our nation’s mass incarceration era,” said Saldana, director of the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign.
“Therefore, Governor Hochul and the legislature must use their powers to safely release people from prison. The governor must use her clemency powers frequently, inclusively and transparently.”
—New York Daily News
California teacher under scrutiny over quiz question
A Northern California high school says it is investigating after an alleged inappropriate, politically charged question appeared on a quiz last week.
Justin Cutts, principal of Whitney High School in Rocklin, wrote in a letter to parents that “students, families and the Rocklin community have raised concern about the class assignment,” which was a quiz given by a social science teacher Thursday. The teacher was not identified.
“While personnel matters will remain confidential, appropriate disciplinary steps will be taken,” Cutts wrote in the letter, sent Friday.
The principal’s letter came shortly after an image — allegedly a screenshot of the quiz, which was administered electronically — quickly went viral on social media.
The post showed a multiple-choice question with the prompt: “A group of complete idiots.”
The four multiple-choice options were allegedly: “KKK,” “all of Florida,” “Fox news” and “Texans.”
Users sharing the image complained of political bias on the teacher’s part.
“As always, Whitney High School is committed to investigate any campus incident that may make a group of students feel uncomfortable so the Wildcat family can grow from them as we continue to become a strong family through shared experiences,” the principal’s letter concluded.
—The Sacramento Bee
Cubs co-owner Ricketts leaves RNC finance post
CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts has stepped down after nearly four years as the finance chair of the Republican National Committee.
Ricketts, who also was finance chair of former President Donald Trump’s reelection committee, was replaced by Trump’s ambassador to Spain, Richard “Duke” Buchan III, at a meeting of Republican National Committee members on Friday.
Ricketts, who lives in Wilmette and is part of his family’s ownership of the Cubs, said he was “privileged” to serve as national finance chair and having been entrusted “to advance our party’s values and promote our pro-growth, conservative agenda.”
“I’m excited by all the Republican candidates we helped elect during my tenure as well as the investments we made and the infrastructure we developed as a party,” Ricketts said in a statement. “I’m confident the RNC will continue to be an outstanding organization to serve Republicans across the country and I look forward to continuing to help the cause.”
Ricketts took on the party finance role after withdrawing as a potential deputy commerce secretary in the Trump administration because he was unable to unwind his family’s complex finances enough to satisfy the federal Office of Government Ethics.
In February, Ricketts was reappointed to the party post he held since January 2018. He has often been mentioned as a potential GOP candidate for office in Illinois, though he has previously denied any interest in that.
—Chicago Tribune
Pandemic produced tons of plastic waste, study says
BEIJING — The coronavirus pandemic has led to a significant increase in plastic waste worldwide.
According to an estimate, around 8.4 million tons of plastic waste in 193 countries have been generated by the pandemic up to August, as researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
By comparison, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), humanity produces a total of around 300 million tons of plastic waste per year.
The team led by the scientists Yiming Peng and Peipei Wu now assumes that a large part of the coronavirus waste — about 87.4% — originated in hospitals, especially in Asian countries.
Masks and other protective equipment for private use accounted for 7.6%, according to a study by the researchers published on Monday. Packaging for booming online retail accounted for about 4.7% of the extra waste, they said.
“Plastic waste causes harm to marine life and has become a major global environmental concern,” the researchers write.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increased demand for single-use plastics that intensifies pressure on an already out-of-control global plastic waste problem.”
Already, more than 25,000 tons of the coronavirus waste have entered the world’s oceans. This poses a longlasting problem for the marine environment.
Within three to four years, a large proportion of this waste will either wash up on beaches or sink to the bottom of the sea.
—dpa