NYC NOW - January 22, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

New York City Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie defends Mayor Adams' move to veto a City Council bill that would prohibit solitary confinement in city jails. Meanwhile, the MTA is testing new barriers on the platform at the 191st Street subway station in Upper Manhattan to keep riders from falling or being pushed onto the tracks. Plus, a new law in New Jersey was signed by Governor Murphy this month that gives domestic workers more rights and protections. WNYC’s Mike Hayes has the latest. Finally, with the 2024 national elections just around the corner, Democrats running the statehouse in Albany have a choice to make: keep pursuing progressive criminal justice policies or avoid more backlash from critics who claim reform  measures have made New Yorkers less safe. WNYC's Samantha Max reports.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, January 22nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. New York City Correction Commissioner Lina McGinley-Liddy is defending Mayor Adams' move to veto a city council bill that would prohibit solitary confinement in city jails. Adams vetoed the measure on Friday a month after it passed in the city council. Council with a super majority. McGinley-Liddy told New York One, sometimes corrections officers must isolate inmates. Separating persistently violent individuals in general population is necessary to ensure that everyone in our care are safe. The commissioner says New York already has a rule that

banned solitary in New York. Watchdogs say corrections officers call it something else when isolating inmates for extended periods. City Council members say they, plan to override the mayor's veto. The MTA is testing new barriers on the platform at the 191st Street subway station in Upper Manhattan to keep riders from falling or being pushed onto the tracks. They're shaped like mini gates and are bolted into spots on the platform that don't obstruct riders from entering and exiting trains. The MTA says they'll test the equipment at three other stations later this year. Officials are also looking at to test larger screen platform doors at another three subway stations. The agency came under pressure to keep riders

from falling onto the tracks two years ago when a man shoved and killed a woman onto the tracks at Times Square. Transit officials say the infrastructure should help prevent unauthorized people from going onto the tracks as well. Just about freezing now, 33 and partly sunny. Sunny and 37 today. Tomorrow chance of afternoon rain, mostly cloudy and 40. Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC. New Jersey's minimum wage now tops $15 an hour, but that does not apply to house cleaners or home health aids.

They and other domestic workers also don't get guaranteed meal or rest breaks. A new law aims to change that. And as WNIC's Mike Hayes reports, for many of the advocates behind it, this is personal. Evelyn Saz arrived in New Jersey from El Salvador seven years ago. She found work as a home health aid, but as an immigrant, she sometimes faced verbal abuse from those families. She says one family insisted on calling her Maria. Because her employer said, that was the name of all their other domestic workers.

Stories like Saasers resonated with state senator Brittany Timbering and not Maria, and insisting to say only Maria. Stories like Saazes resonate with state senator, Brittany Timberra. Lake. Her grandmother, Mary L. Whitley, grew up in the South, and when she came north during the Great Migration, she settled in Harlem. To make money in New York City, she did domestic work. She was a baby nurse and was very sought after. She was very good at her work in what she did. She particularly specialized in helping women postpartum for the first six months after giving birth to get a handle on motherhood. But there were drawbacks to Mary's line of work, long hours, low pay, and no benefits. She was on the clock, basically 24-7,

and when she would go on a job, you know, we wouldn't see her for months. That's the family history that Timberlake had in mind when she sponsored New Jersey's domestic workers' Bill of Rights, which she helped pass while still an assemblywoman last year. Governor Phil Murphy signed it into law this month. Along with guaranteeing rights such as minimum wage and meal and rest breaks, the law says employers must enter into a contract. with their domestic workers and no longer pay them off the books. Evelyn Saas is now an organizer with the National Domestic Workers Alliance. They were one of the bill's major backers.

She says they encountered some resistance during negotiations, particularly concerning meal and rest times, but were able to reach a consensus. A past of the moment critical and the challenges that we've had to get a accord. For Senator Timberlake, she's proud of what this does to our honor her grandmother's legacy. Her shoulders are what I stand on, and that is what this bill was about for me. It was Mary L. Whitley, my grandmother. New Jersey is the 11th state in the country to establish a domestic worker's bill of rights. The law is set to go into effect later this year.

Mike Hayes, WNYC News. With the 2024 national elections just around the corner, Democrats running the state's House in Albany have a choice to make, keep pursuing progressive criminal justice policies, or avoid more backlash from critics who claim reform measures have made New Yorkers less safe. WNIC's Samantha Max reports. Five years ago, state lawmakers passed two high-profile progressive laws that drastically changed the criminal court system, bail reform and discovery reform. Since then, there's been no shortage of fierce opposition from law enforcement, tough-on-crime

politicians and New Yorkers concerned about the lasting effects of a pandemic-era crime spike. We should not be passing any more pro-criminal laws. And we see recidivists being captured and released time and time again. That after the NYPD has arrested them, the criminal justice system fails to hold them appropriately accountable for their actions. After Republicans blamed crime on policies like bail reform in 2022, they flipped several of the state's congressional seats. And the crime debate contributed to an unexpectedly tight gubernatorial race.

Now, even as crime levels drop, some experts and legislators say they don't expect progressive criminal justice policy to be a priority this year. Julian Harris-Calvin is a program director at the Vera Institute of Justice. The fatigue and the negativity around criminal legal system reform that is kind of built up over the past few years, I think, is making it more challenging than it should be. otherwise would be. This year, progressives are again campaigning for a long list of measures they say would make the system more fair. But it's unclear if they'll have the votes to pass. Senator Zelnor Myrie is a Democrat who represents central Brooklyn.

He says it's tough to predict what criminal justice reform policy will prevail in any given legislative session. You have to be willing to have conversations with people that disagree with you. Republican Senate Minority Leader Rob Ord is one of the lawmakers. who's often critical of reform measures. He says many New Yorkers want more conservative criminal justice policies because they're afraid of crime. Someone who moved out of a neighborhood of somebody who was victimized.

Or it says those stories resonate more than crime statistics. And he says he expects them to drive voters to the polls to. Samantha Max, WNYC News. 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 guys. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.