Caban corrects record on birth-in-custody and Rikers population
Caban corrects the record on the birth-in-custody incident, noting cuffs were removed only when the baby was crowning, and on the Rikers population, noting 397 people are held on misdemeanors and 7 on violations, not all felonies.
Councilmember Cabon, followed by Wong.
Thank you.
For my questions, I just want to address a couple things.
The woman who gave birth in cuffs in the courthouse in Brooklyn, and I'm going to say that because the cuffs were taken off when the baby was crowning.
And any mother will tell you that labor and birth is much more and much longer than those final few moments of when your baby crowns and is actually born.
So I would suggest that whoever's giving you all that line, whoever's working on the PR spin, rethink that one because that is a terrible answer.
I'm emotional just like even I can't believe that that was the answer that was given.
I did want to correct the record.
I know that there was a, it was testified to that the jail population on Rikers consisted of everybody being there on felonies.
I just want to say that as of yesterday, the population was 6,652 people, 5,652 of which are pretrial, meaning that they are not proven guilty of anything and they are simply there because they cannot afford their bail.
397 of them are there on misdemeanors.
154 of them are there on technical holds.
Seven are there on violations, not crimes.
Those are not felonies.
So I think that's important to have on the record.
Just if I can just add.
Well, no, that's not a question.
I'm stating that for the record.
I'm going to ask my question now.