Vickie Paladino, New York City Council member Interview

Mendte in the Morning talks to Vickie Paladino about a federal judge that has taken over Rikers Island.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk to Vicki Palladino, New York City council member.
She represents District nineteen of Northeast Queens. Good morning, Vicki,
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
How are you today.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm doing really well. There's a whole lot going on.
Let's start. Let's start with the federal judge taking over
Rikers Island. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, it's an unknown thing. I mean, is this was
really I was shocked yesterday when I heard this uncharted
waters yet again concerning Rikers Island. You know the fact
that we're going to be turning over, turning over complete control.

(00:42):
We will no longer as elected officials, the mayor, the
correction officers, we will no longer have anything to say
when it comes to managing this jail. Okay, this is
all going to go directly to a liberal judge in
the City of New York. They are going to appoint

(01:05):
a h a new UH monitor, and that monitor where
everything is going. They will take it to the judge.
The judge will then determine what needs to be done
on Rikers Island. It's absolutely unprecedented. We've never seen anything
like this before. So you know, to have someone appointed

(01:26):
by a judge who answers only to a judge, not
the mayor, not the directions, you know, Department of Corrections commissioner, nothing,
And there's a lot of questions, okay, and a lot
of costs to task payers. This is going to cost
billions of dollars. So once again we're in a situation where, uh,

(01:47):
you know, we have no how is this possible?

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Larry, I don't know. I don't I don't understand it
at all. I don't understand many of the federal judges rulings.
They seem to be out of control. It's like federal
judges running a monk across the country.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
And then understand this too, because when I first heard,
I heard federal judge. No, the federal judge has got
nothing to do with the DOJ. This has got nothing
to do with the Trump administration where he could step in, well,
the DOJ could step in and have control over rikers. No,

(02:22):
this is completely and totally separate. Okay. So they've been
doing this now, it's been going back and forth, back
and forth. You know, punitive housing, you know, the solitary
confinement issue, all of this. Now the judge is going
to be able to determine whether or not you know,

(02:44):
we had these things happening. It's ridiculous. We only have
seven thousand, close to eight thousand prisoners right now in Rikers.
Rikers used to have twenty five thousand inmates and we
cannot organize this. This is absurd, absolutely absurd.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Because you handle the money to the city council and
the mayor. They handle the money. So can she now
force you to spend money because she's taking it over
that It's wrong, It's absolutely wrong. I hope it's being
a people.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
He is the question. Will the receiver be able to
control the do you know the Department of Corrections budgets?
Will the receiver be required to adhere to the current
laws and policies? Will the receiver be able to use
punitive segregation to control the violence? Like I said, these
are really really valid questions. It only happened yesterday, but

(03:42):
it puts it's the questions that you know were screening.
I mean I am, and I know my colleagues and
council some of them will be saying it will be
asking all these very very important questions. This is unprecedented.
I cannot speak more on it because it's just as
I just laid it out, these are all very serious

(04:05):
questions that we do not have answers to.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
No, you know, city council loves to sue people. I
hope they're going to appeal this. I hope they get
involved with that, because it's isn't.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
That our city council really pushed to have a federal
monitor and they got their wish of a federal monitor,
but that wasn't good enough, so they took it to
court and the lawsuit allowed this to happen. So we're
this is not good and the court to the taxpayers

(04:37):
warry once again. Okay, and let me preface this, rikers
should not be closed periods. Neighborhood jails is not what
we want, period Okay. This is billions and billions of
dollars to build burrow jails that will probably be in

(04:59):
neighborhood that already have their fair share of problems, will
only house a little over three thousand and cost billions
to build. We could take billions of these dollars that
we're spending ridiculous on stupid things, and our site stupid
and really refurbished. We're only using two buildings right now

(05:22):
on Rikers. We could rebuild and refurbish Rikers and make
it what it should be. So you know, this is
this is absolutely ludicrous. Okay, as you can see, it
actually took my breath away last.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
I absolutely agree with you. It's unbelievable. And I do
think the broader point is the power that federal judges
are taking. It's unprecedented across the country. It's as if
they believe they run not only the federal government, but
they run the city of New York. And someone's got
to stop in and I hope it's Congress and just
stop this. The Constitution doesn't give them this power to

(05:59):
do all this. Uh, Vicky, I know we had a
lot of other things to talk about, but this was
the most important one. Come back and let's talk about
all the other stuff. Vicky Palladino next week.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
Thank you so much. Having a great Jay