Reuven Blau

1 week ago | thecity.nyc | Reuven Blau

When Andrew Yang won endorsements from an array of Brooklyn-based Hasidic Jewish sects before the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary, his campaign, and multiple political insiders, touted that support as a possible game changer that could put him over the top in a tight election. It was not enough. Yang was trounced in the primary that June by Eric Adams and finished a distant fourth behind Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley.

2 weeks ago | thecity.nyc | Reuven Blau

Over the past four years, an unlikely alliance of advocates for people behind bars and former Department of Correction commissioners joined forces to urge the federal judge overseeing Rikers Island to appoint an outsider to run it. They argued that it is impossible to turn around the beleaguered department without giving the person in charge more power to make sweeping changes.

3 weeks ago | thecity.nyc | Reuven Blau

Five days after the state budget passed, elected officials Wednesday began a legislative push for measures that would let people out of prison early if they meet educational and behavioral requirements, make it easier to fire rogue correction officers, and allow an oversight group to make surprise visits to lockups. During a nearly five-hour joint-session hearing in Albany, lawmakers and advocates repeatedly cited the beatdown deaths of Robert Brooks, 43, at Marcy Correctional Facility on Dec.

3 weeks ago | thecity.nyc | Reuven Blau

New Yorkers have heard a lot about the Democratic Primary for mayor coming up in June. But voters in Manhattan and Brooklyn will also soon be able to select their borough’s top prosecutor. And they’ll have to choose just one candidate, not their top five. The district attorneys in New York City serve within the state court system — not as elected officials for the city — so their races are done via traditional, one-vote ballots, not by ranked choice voting.

3 weeks ago | thecity.nyc | Reuven Blau

After nearly a decade of ineffective oversight by a court-appointed monitor, the federal judge overseeing the city’s Department of Correction announced Tuesday she will appoint an independent “remediation manager” who will have broad powers and report directly to the court to enact long stalled reforms on Rikers Island. Laura Taylor Swain, the chief district judge for Manhattan federal court, ruled that the outside remediation manager should work in conjunction with the city’s DOC commissioner.