New York World reporter Jie Jenny Zou stopped by WNYC’s All Things Considered to discuss the challenge the state faces in effectively enforcing residency restrictions for sex offenders while still assisting their reentry into society.
Clusters of sex offenders living in boarding houses, cheap motels, and homeless shelters have become all too common in the decade since New York first implemented statewide residency restrictions for many sex offenders under parole supervision. These clusters can place additional burdens on low-income communities already struggling with high unemployment and poverty rates. And many don’t provide the stable, safe environments research has shown to be critical for successful reentry.
New York State corrections officials reversed course and released more than 200 pages of documents detailing operations at a prison nursery program after claiming earlier that only a single page could in located in response to a New York World records request.
Many New York hospitals struggle to ensure that newborns are vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus prior to leaving the hospital, potentially putting those who are not vaccinated at increased risk of contracting a virus that kills more than 700,000 people worldwide each year. Photo: Christopher Brown/Flickr
A review by the New York World found the commission often does not remove judges even when they’ve violated the constitutionally guaranteed right to due process or manipulated the outcome of cases. In addition, much of the commission’s work is conducted in secret. New York is one of only 15 states that conduct judicial disciplinary hearings in private. And in many cases, the name of the sanctioned judge and the nature of the misconduct are never made public. Photo: Flickr/ssalonso
New York State correction officials don’t maintain basic information on the state’s own landmark prison nursery, including how many women have applied to the program or how long it took staff to review those applications.
The homeless count represents a 10 percent jump during Mayor de Blasio’s first year in office. Despite his vows to turn around the problem and ditch the use of cluster units, the city is still forced to house families in these much-criticized apartments, which have often been cited for hazardous code violations. Photo: AP/Mark Lennihan
More than 22,000 medical and religious exemptions were granted to students for the 2013-14 school year, up 27 percent from 2010-11, according to the state Health Department. Public and private enrollment over the same period remained largely flat.
In 2006, the New York State Department of Education reinstated the license of a Long Island-based psychiatrist despite the strong opposition of a state health official. Now that psychiatrist, Marshall Hubsher, is facing criminal charges including the third-degree rape of a patient and conspiracy to sell prescription drugs.
The New York City Department of Correction has released data confirming that the Rikers Island jail nursery is little used and that upward of half of all applicants are denied entry.
