Ask The Mayor, the Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC

FRIDAYS at 10 AM

Mayor Bill de Blasio has to answer for the deplorable conditions and human rights abuses across city jails. When the crisis isn't under his jurisdiction--like with MDC--he likes to take a strong stand. But what about the conditions on Rikers and in The Tombs, The Barge, and the Brooklyn House of Detention? Help us pressure de Blasio to answer our questions on his weekly radio hour with WNYC's Brian Lehrer.

How to get your question on the air:

1. Hashtag questions on Twitter anytime during the week with #AskTheMayor
2. Call: (212) 433-WNYC (9692)
3. Listen online: https://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl

#NNJ Questions for Ask the Mayor

1. Mr. Mayor, you have taken a strong stand against the human rights abuses at the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, yet NYC’s jails, which are under your jurisdiction, are notorious for perpetuating the same conditions and treatment of incarcerated people. Why can’t you guarantee safety for people who are currently incarcerated in NYC?
2. Mr. Mayor, your administration has recently proposed to build four new jails in NYC as part of your “promise” to close Rikers in the next ten years. Yet, building new jails to address the humanitarian crises at old jails is as old as jails construction itself, as the history of jailing in NYC shows. Why do you think your plan is any different than this failed record of jail reform?
3. Mr. Mayor, over the past weeks, incarcerated people at MDC have faced intolerable conditions, surviving without heat, light, medication, hot water, warm meals, mobility, and contact with their loved ones. The acute crisis at MDC has drawn attention, again, to longstanding patterns of abuse in detention facilities. Given the failure of the BOP and NYC DOC to keep detained people safe, why are you investing 11 billion dollars in new jails instead of investing in the resources NYCers need to stay out of jail, like affordable housing, low-threshold mental health and substance use treatment, high-quality education, universal basic income, and transformative justice projects that help communities heal from harm?
4. Mr. Mayor, even as your administration has taken credit for lowering NYC’s incarcerated population, 90% of people detained in city and federal jails in NYC are Black and Latinx, and almost 80% of them are caged while awaiting trial. Racial disparities in arrests for misdemeanors like farebeating and MJ possession have increased, not decreased, during your tenure as Mayor. How does your plan to build four new jails in Black and brown working class communities address racist criminalization and incarceration in our city?

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