NYC NOW - December 11, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: December 11, 2023

State lawmakers are trying to get rid of a longstanding property tax break enjoyed by Columbia University and NYU. The ACLU announced that it will represent the National Rifle Association in a Supreme Court case against New York state. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill talked with reporter Jessy Edwards about New York City’s newly appointed Department of Corrections Commissioner, Lynelle Maginley-Liddie.

Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae P. It is time that these institutions pay their debt to the working class of New York City. State legislators are introducing a bill this week that will get rid of a lucrative property tax exemption enjoyed by NYU and Columbia. The proposed bill would have the two private universities pay hundreds of millions in combined taxes each year. The payments would go to CUNY, the city's public university system. James Davis is president of the union representing 30,000 CUNY faculty and staff. He says the money would help some of the school's longstanding financial woes.

CUNY is definitely in a financial crisis at the moment, and some of that has to do with years underfunding and years of deferred maintenance on the physical infrastructure at the university. Last month, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced severe city-wide budget cuts, including CUNY. Both NYU and Columbia did not respond to requests for comment. The American Civil Liberties Union will represent the National Rifle Association in a Supreme Court case against New York State. But WNYC's John Campbell reports the organization's New York affiliate isn't on board. Donna Lieberman is the longtime executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. She says the ACLU's decision to represent the NRA.

is short-sighted. The ACLU doesn't have to prove its First Amendment bona fides by standing up with the NRA that we all hate. That's antithetical to everything we stand for. The NRA is suing the state of New York, arguing that it violated the organization's First Amendment rights by warning insurers not to work with it. The ACLU says the state, quote, can't blacklist an advocacy group because of its viewpoint. Stay close. There's more after the break. A change in leadership is underway at New York City's Department of Correction. Last week, Mayor Adams appointed Linnell Maginley Liddy to run the department, overseeing the city's jails, including the troubled Rikers Island jails.

Maginley Liddy is an Antigua native and becomes the second black woman to lead the department. Never would I have thought that as a child of a pastor from a small Caribbean island, I'd be standing here as commissioner of such a great institution. She replaces outgoing Commissioner Louis Molina, who becomes assistant deputy mayor for public safety. For more on the DOC's new leader, my colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's Jesse Edwards. Who is Linnell Magellanley Liddy? What should we know about her? The new commissioner is an eight-year veteran of the jails department.

She started out as an attorney and she worked her way up to assistant deputy. under the previous Dales boss. As we just heard, she is the daughter of a Christian pastor, and she says that gives her a healthy moral compass. The department and union leaders who I've spoken to told me they respect her experience, they think she's a good choice for the department right now, and that she cares about the people who work and live on Rikers Island. During the pandemic, she spearheaded a program to get correction officers vaccinated.

But she's coming in at a really difficult time, Michael. Last month, yeah, last month lawyers kicked off an historic legal process that could see control of the city jail system stripped from the Adams administration and taken over by an independent party. That's due to the increasingly dangerous conditions on Rikers. And I should add that advocates for people detained there say it does not matter who is at the helm of the Department of Correction. They say the problems on Rikers cannot be fixed with a change of leadership. Both Magdalene Liddy and Mayor Adams suggested she'd bring a humane approach to running the department.

What does that mean? What are they trying to convey here? Well, the city has vowed to fight the Rikers takeover. So the mayor is likely indicating that there's a new sheriff in town, someone who is both transparent and ethical, and therefore that a take-over-react-lawful. that a takeover might not be necessary. The mayor says the new commissioner brings the power of prayer and communication to the department.

We haven't yet heard any specific new policy she's introducing that would make the jails more humane, but I have seen a copy of her very first internal memo to staff, and in it she calls on every single member of the department to, quote, lead with care and compassion. How is this different from former commissioner and Molina's approach. What can you tell us about his tenure? Well, Molina started the job in 2022 when the jail system had seen a spike in violence during the pandemic. The mayor often says

Molina brought the department back from the brink of collapse with achievements like bringing down the number of fires and improving staff absenteeism. But the federal monitor, who's in charge of overseeing safety and security at Rikers, he's been putting out increasingly damning reports this year about violence at the jails, and not only about Molina's inability to stop the violence, but also his attempts to hide it. One recent report that the monitor put out, it looked at one single week in September of this year on Rikers Island. In this one week, the monitor reported there were 74 fights, 34 assaults on staff, 23 suicide attempts, 15 fires and one sexual harassment allegation.

Last year, the death rate was the highest it's been in 25 years. And city officials are now calling for an investigation into claims Molina hid violence from the monitor. And this is all playing out, Michael, as Molina is heading to this new job at City Hall. And Jesse, conditions at the jails on Rikers have been a real concern for New Yorkers who've been through them or those with loved ones locked up there. And we should know that most people at Rikers have not been convicted of a crime and they're awaiting trial.

What can a commissioner actually do to help alleviate some of those ongoing issues you described? Yeah, that's right, Michael. I looked up the statistics this morning and as of today, 86% of the people locked up on Rikers are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime. More than 50% have a mental health diagnosis.

So the new commissioner can start by following the federal court orders and the monitor's suggestions to make Rikers safer. And this includes things like making sure the cell doors lock as they should, that people are in their cells when they should be. Also, that officers are not using excessive force on detainees, like hitting them in the head, and that they're responding to emergencies in a timely manner. It's also getting a handle on weapons and drugs that are making their way into the jail. And just remind us, Jesse, what's the latest on the potential of a federal receiver taking over Rikers? Legal Aid attorneys last month took the first formal step towards a takeover. They filed a motion in court that asks a federal judge to appoint an independent jail manager who would have far-reaching power to change how Rikers runs.

A takeover is actually supported by the federal government, the state attorney general, and a host of city law firms and criminal justice leaders. Jesse, what would happen to the new commissioner if that happened? Well, legal aid attorneys told me, under their proposal, there would actually still be a Department of Correction Commissioner. She'd be in charge of running the day-to-day operations of Rikers. So making sure detainees are fed that they have their visitation, keeping the lights on as how they described it to me.

That's WMYC's Jesse Edwards, talking with my colleague Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.