NYC NOW - December 4, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

A group of Sunset Park tenants can finally return home after a two-year fight with a landlord who completely reshaped their fire-damaged apartments. WNYC's David Brand reports on how hard it can be for renters to get their apartments back after a disaster. Actor Jonathan Majors is facing a Manhattan trial on charges he assaulted his then-girlfriend earlier this year. He has pleaded not guilty. Finally, despite the city announcing it would cut many programs at city jails meant to help detainees, a new class at Rikers teaching detainees both practical law and skills like meditation will continue. WNYC’s Tiffany Hanssen spoke with public safety reporter Jessy Edwards, who visited the class’s first ever graduation.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Monday, December 4th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. A group of sunset parked tenants can finally return home after a two-year fight with a landlord who completely reshape their fire-damaged apartments. WNYC's David Brand reports on how hard it can be for renters to get their apartments back after a disaster. A fire left five families homeless in November 2021.

A judge told their landlord to have the place fixed up five months later. Instead, the tenants say the owners completely reconstructed the units and even started renting them out to new occupants. But limo driver Leonel Gomez says he isn't giving up the place he's lived for the last 35 years. I love this place. I love probably somebody else who would have to say, you know what, effort and walk away. I can't.

This is home. The landlord and their attorney didn't respond to calls and emails. Actor Jonathan Majors is facing a Manhattan, trial today on charges he assaulted his then girlfriend earlier this year. He has pleaded not guilty. The woman says Majors grabbed and hit her while they were riding in a private car. Prosecutors say Majors assaulted the woman after she saw a text message from another woman flash across his cell phone and snatched it. Major's attorney says the actor is innocent and a victim himself. It's 52 right now, a few clouds, 38 overnight and increasing clouds tomorrow. Not quite as warm,

around 45. This is WNYC. On WNYC, I'm Tiffany Hansen. This spring, the city announced it would cut many programs at city jails meant to help detainees find jobs and housing, to stay off drugs, and to reconnect with loved ones. At almost the same time, one new class started. It's a class that teaches detainees both practical law to research their cases and practical skills like meditation to help them get through their jail terms. WNYC's reporter Jesse Edwards went to Rikers to see the classes first ever graduation and she's here with us today. Hi, Jessie. Hi, Tiffany. So let's talk about what happened this spring first of all. Why were so many classes canceled?

The mayor ordered city agencies to slash their budgets by 4% back in April. For the Department of Correction, this meant cutting $17 million worth of programming that provided services to detainees at Rikers Island. Some of the programs that were abruptly cancelled included training in carpentry and plumbing, cognitive behavioral therapy, drug relapse prevention, and anger management. The Department of Corrections says it's now taken most of those programs in-house, but advocates I've spoken to say many detainees have been left with little to do. Well, there is one class that survived all of this, so tell us about that. Yeah, so this class survived the budget cut chopping block because it's provided at no cost to the city. It's a introduction to criminal justice course provided through LaGuardia Community College and the nonprofit college way. The program director at LaGuardia, Dr. Corey Rowe, told me the course is a labor of love, and it's pretty much entirely run by volunteers.

And the class itself, the people who took it, what can you tell us about that? Well, the class itself, it's a 12-week introduction to criminal justice course run through LaGuardia Community College. It's held in a Rikers Island jail facility that houses adult men who are charged with serious felonies and who are awaiting their trials or their sentencing. It's actually the first time a college program has ever been offered in this part of Rikers. Each of the 19 graduates earned three college credits, and for some of them, it made them the first. in their family to ever attend college. Many of the men who graduated that day say they now intend to go to college, and one man who was recently released has already visited LaGuardia and enrolled to get his GED.

The course is really unique because it combines procedural law with self-actualization classes. So, for example, the men learned about things like sentencing, how to exclude evidence in certain cases, at the same time as they were learning about meditation and mindfulness. You mentioned someone who graduated from the class. You were there for this first graduation. So tell us about that day. Yeah.

So this was a very moving experience for me. I cover Rikers Island, but I'd never been there. And initially, when I walked into the complex, I felt sad, sad to see the conditions that so many people live in and work in every day. But then I saw the effort that the course volunteers had put into this special graduation day and how proud everyone was. The graduation that was held in a converted housing unit, so the cells have been converted into classrooms.

And volunteers had come to Rikers Island early to put up streamers, black and yellow streamers all over the housing unit. They put out cakes and hot food. Someone's grandma, one of the ones, One of the volunteers' grandmas had spent the day before cooking six trays of chicken, four trays of mac and cheese, because the students had said they wanted a home-cooked meal for their graduation day. When the graduates walked in, because there was no sound system, the volunteers hummed the graduation song, pomp and circumstance. each of the detainees had written their own graduation speech and they got up one by one and they spoke about their dreams. Each of their plans to either go to college or open a business, reconnect with family.

Many of the men thanked their mothers, their grandmothers. And they also incorporated this language of self-actualization. So they were talking about discipline. They were talking about wisdom, resilience. So tell us about the future of the class. How safe is this class? Is it in danger of being cancelled as well or no? Yeah, so far so good, Tiffany. Thanks to the success of this first course, the Department of Correction has approved it for a second semester. So starting in March, the course will be offered in the women's jail at Rikers. Jessie Edwards, thanks so much for joining us today. We appreciate it.

Thank you, Tiffany. Jesse is a public safety reporter here at WNYC. You can read all of her reports. reporting right now over at gothamus.com. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

We'll be back this evening.