Notorious jail eliminating solitary Immigrant living in church gets reprieve
NEW YORK — This week, officials unveiled reforms at Rikers Island, the notorious New York City jail complex, that Mayor Bill de Blasio asserts add up to a groundbreaking abolishment of punishing unruly prisoners by isolating them.
One provision would require inmates who have been removed from the general population to still be out of their cells at least 10 hours a day.
“I came to the conclusion that we could end the confinement entirely, something that has been done in few places in this country,”î the mayor said.
The announcement was greeted with skepticism by a guard union and public defenders, for different reasons.
Benny Boscio Jr., head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Associations, has called the proposal “a recipe for disasterî that would deny guards a key tool for dealing with a surge in violence on Rikers.”
The Legal Aid Society said the plan doesn’t go far enough to put an end to what it calls a “punitive segregationî system that lacks transparency.”
The solitary reforms come as the city is pursuing a sweeping plan to shutter Rikers by 2026 and replace it with four smaller jails intended to be more modern and humane. They also follow other measures eliminating bail for many lesser offenses as a way to address inequity and incarceration rates.
BEDFORD, Mass. — A Guatemalan woman who has been living in a Massachusetts church for more than three years to avoid deportation has been granted a reprieve to remain in the country for now.
Maria Macario was issued a one-year stay of her deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials earlier this week, according to Rev. John Gibbons of the First Parish church in Bedford.
The stay allows her to seek a work permit, pursue legal options and come and go from the church without fear of being apprehended by immigration officials, the pastor said in an email to supporters.
The 55-year-old was ordered to leave the country years ago when her family lost their asylum case. Her husband and eldest son were deported, prompting her to take sanctuary at First Parish.