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Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
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Mar 29, 2020 • 3 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: There are currently 253 people on Rikers Island who have tested positive for COVID-19, up from 236 yesterday.

114 are corrections staff and 139 incarcerated people. abcn.ws/2ylfIkl
The numbers (which do not include people who contracted COVID-19 on Rikers, but have been released) are increasing, even as the jail population decreases by hundreds each day, as the approx 1,000 people ordered released by the governor, mayor & courts are gradually being freed. Image
The table above, by @MollyGriffard of @LegalAidNYC, shows that Rikers has the highest rate of coronavirus infection in the world.

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More from @DrRJKavanagh

Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Feb 14
That someone could understand media report through the lends of law enforcement - even get that there are clear disparities in enforcement - and then conclude that prosecutors don't prosecute nearly enough people, is mind-boggling.
Honestly, while I appreciate the recognition of the symbiosis between law enforcement and media, there is so much that is problematic with this thread.

Crime is a technical legal term. It's not only inappropriate to use casually, it's inaccurate.

If you want to point out that someone should have been charged with a crime, for instance within the Trump administration, you report on that and quote criminal lawyers pointing out that the conduct fits the definition of a crime and past cases where people have been prosecuted.
Read 5 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Feb 10
The reality on Rikers Island is that there are 5 corrections offers for every 3 incarcerated people.

That's 7 times the national average.

It is a myth perpetuated by @NYCCOBA1 that Rikers is understaffed used to justify the hiring of more jail guards.
Of course almost 2,000 of them call in sick or are AWOL every day, so that reduces their numbers, but that still leaves a ratio of 1 corrections officer per incarcerated person, four times the national average. thecity.nyc/2021/7/11/2257…
Rikers guards have left housing units with almost no staff, have left their posts and watched as people have died by suicide to justify their campaign to get the city to employ more guards. nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-c…
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Feb 9
It's an unpopular opinion, but I believe the judge presiding over the federal trial of the three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery should have honored the government's and McMichaels plea deal.

Not because I think proving that the defendants were motivated by racism isn't important.
In fact I think it's vital. The state trial whitewashed that those men lynched Ahmaud Arbery. Maybe that was necessary to gain a conviction. States' failure to secure convictions in these cases are one of the reasons federal civil rights cases are brought. vox.com/22801394/racis…
My feelings are rooted in a few things.

1. Knowing that the men would have had to admit that they killed Ahmaud because of racism if they pleaded guilty. That's powerful. If they are convicted at trial they won't because they will appeal.
Read 11 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Feb 9
A few years ago, with the assistance of the amazing doctors at Rikers Island, a judge agreed to the medical release of our terminally ill client.

A week after he was released, he was arrested twice for shoplifting. The judge put him back in jail. He died three weeks later.
The client had a drug addiction. He shoplifted to get drugs. He was in horrible physical pain because he was dying, but the ADA was completely unsympathetic.

I remember the judge saying there was "nothing he could do" in these circumstances, even tho he had complete discretion.
Our client was only in jail in the first place because he had shoplifted and the ADA had charged that case as a felony burglary. He had a substantial record for drug and petty theft cases. He couldn't afford bail.

Today in NY that case would not be eligible for bail.
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Feb 8
Today the US Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act protections against racial gerrymandering.

Joe Rogan's use of the n-word is unconscionable racism. This too, but it will do so much more to deprive Black people of political power.

w/ @Shugah
It's almost like the media's saturation coverage of Rogan is a distraction from the sort of racism we see in decisions like the second.

slate.com/news-and-polit…
And I am *not* making this trash argument. White people, comedians or otherwise, never have the right to use the n-word. They should be called out. Image
Read 7 tweets
Rebecca Kavanagh Profile picture
Feb 7
Police are 40 times more likely to kill civilians than they are to be killed by them.

Nationally about 60 members of law enforcement are killed each year.

By contrast, police shoot and kill as many as 2,000 people in an average year

Another 300 are killed in car police chases.
Law enforcement deaths: cnn.com/2022/01/13/us/…
Police killings of civilians (vastly underestimated count according to @nytimes).
Read 8 tweets

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