Panel Discussion Following Screening Of Film Documenting Injustice Of Parole Release Hearings - Story Screen Theater - Happening Tonight

THE FILM, WHICH FEATURES FORMERLY INCARCERATED ADVOCATES AND FORMER PAROLE COMMISSIONERS WHO EXPOSE THE BOARD’S LAWLESS ADDICTION TO PUNISHMENT, MAKES THE CASE FOR REFORM 

WHAT: A screening of “The Interview”, a short film exposing the injustices of parole release hearings, followed by a panel featuring people directly impacted by New York’s prison system and unjust Parole Board. The film features members of the Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) Campaign, and other formerly incarcerated advocates, who each faced as many as ten parole denials despite having transformed their lives while behind bars many years earlier. In addition, two Parole Commissioners appear in the film and, in very different ways, articulate how the Parole Board makes decisions about the release of people based solely on the nature of their crime, even after they have already served a minimum sentence.   

The Q&A after the film will feature panelists who have been directly impacted by incarceration and the parole process in New York. 

WHERE: Story Screen Theater, 445 Main St, Beacon, NY 12508

WHEN: Thursday, September 29th at 7pm

HOW TO GET TICKETS: Click here >

WHO: The screening is hosted by Beacon Prison Rides Program and Beacon Prison Books Project, in partnership with the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign and the People’s Campaign for Parole Justice. Panelists include RAPP Executive Director Jose Saldana, RAPP Westchester Community Leader Greg Mingo, Beacon Prison Rides member, Ms. John, and After Incarceration Co-Director, Jose Pineda. 

The Beacon Prison Rides Project is a volunteer-run organization providing free rides for families between the Beacon train station and Beacon-area prisons. Since November 2017, Beacon Prison Rides has provided an alternative to costly taxis or prison vans, providing more than 1,800 rides for more than 200 people visiting their incarcerated loved ones. Find out more about the project and about how to request rides, volunteer, or donate here >

The Beacon Prison Books Project is an organization that provides books to incarcerated persons throughout New York State, by request. People who are incarcerated in NYS use free postcards or simply write to us at our P.O. Box to request books or book recommendations. Then we order the books, connect with individual sponsors, pack up the books, and send them to the person who made the request. Most of this activity happens through Binnacle Books in Beacon, NY. Learn more here >

The People’s Campaign for Parole Justice is a new, statewide, grassroots campaign pushing for parole reform in New York State. The campaign platform is supported by over 350 organizations across New York State and led by a coalition of the state’s biggest and most influential social justice and criminal justice groups, including the Release Aging People in Prison Campaign, Parole Preparation Project, VOCAL-NY, Citizen Action, New Hour for Women and Children, NY Communities for Change, Center for Community Alternatives, Osborne Association, NYCLU, FWD.us, #HALTsolitary Campaign, Legal Aid Society, Center for Justice at Columbia, CUNY Law Defenders Clinic, and NYU Law's Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law. 

BACKGROUND:
Nearly 1 in 4 people from Dutchess county incarcerated in New York State prisons is over the age of 50, which many departments of corrections across the country define as “older” due to accelerated aging behind bars. About 63 percent are people of color, even though people of color only make up 23 percent of the general population of Dutchess county, and many are serving long sentences with few opportunities for release based on their rehabilitation and current readiness for release. Without parole reform, many will never make it out of prison.

Racism infects the parole release system just as it does every element of the criminal legal system. A white person in a New York prison is significantly more likely on average to be released on parole than a Black or Latinx person and the disparity widened in 2020, according to a Times Union analysis of the nearly 19,000 parole board decisions over the last two years. The data, which spans October 2018 through October 2020, shows the Parole Board granted parole release to 41 percent of white people, compared to 34 percent of Black people and 33 percent of Latinx people. Importantly, these racial disparities are not new. In 2016, the New York Times conducted an investigation of parole release data and similarly found Black and Latinx people were significantly less likely to be released than their white counterparts.

The People’s Campaign for Parole Justice is calling on lawmakers in Albany to pass two bills that will address this pandemic behind bars and prevent similar tragedies in the future: 

Elder Parole (S.15/A.3475) would allow the State Board of Parole to provide an evaluation for potential parole release to incarcerated people aged 55 and older who have already served 15 or more years, including some of the state’s oldest and sickest incarcerated people. 

Fair and Timely Parole (S.1415/A.4231) would provide more meaningful parole reviews for incarcerated people who are already parole-eligible. 

The Campaign is also calling on Governor Hochul to fully staff the Parole Board with 19 Commissioners who come from communities that have been directly affected by mass incarceration and who have professional and clinical backgrounds in areas such as social work, nursing, reentry services, and other fields that allow them to evaluate incarcerated people for who they are today. The Board currently has three vacancies.

From the film:
Former Parole Commissioner Carol Shapiro said, “The research is so clear on this, and has been for years,” regarding low reincarceration rates in New York State among people convicted of murder who are subsequently released on parole. Keeping people incarcerated for decades—well into old age—has changed the very nature of prisons, she says: “We are running geriatric institutions in America right now.”

Beacon City School District Superintendent Landahl Responds With Support To Student Community Regarding Imagery At The U.S. Capitol After The Insurrection

During the Remote Learning life of the pandemic, many kids of all ages are at home with parents or a caregiver, and were home during Wednesday’s storming of the U.S. Capitol Building, and watched the events happen in real time. Videos from inside of the Capitol from people participating in the swarming were also circulated.

Parents needed to speak with their children about events and meanings of symbols as they happened. Beacon City School’s Superintendent Matt Landahl sent an email to the community the following day, offering encouragement to parents and caregivers that the district community was there to give support.

His email statement is below:

Dear Beacon Community:

The events yesterday in our nation’s capital were disturbing, to say the least. We are open and ready today for students in-person and online. Knowing that many of our youngest students may not even be aware of the events that took place, we will emphasize safety and community today and always. Thanks again to our educators and staff for doing this every day.

Images have been widely circulated on social media and television of the confederate flag and clothing celebrating the Holocaust being brandished in our Capitol building yesterday. It has always been our practice to not allow these images in school and it was put officially into our Code of Conduct by the Board of Education last year. We want to reassure a sense of safety on that level as well because of how disturbing these images were to us all.

If you have any specific concerns for your child, please contact your child’s teacher, principal or guidance counselor. We are prepared to offer support to everyone who needs it.

I wish I could be more eloquent in times like this and words often fail me. I know our school community will continue to offer strong support for our students during what has been an incredibly challenging year. As I often say, I am inspired on a daily basis by the resilience and strength of our staff, families, and students this year. Thanks as always for your support.

Sincerely,

Matt Landahl

Beacon4Black Lives Community Responds To Attempted U.S. Election Certification Block At Capitol Building

After the sun went down on the blocked Election Certification attempt at the nation’s Capitol, Beacon4Black Lives organized an impromptu and peaceful vigil at Pohill Park, Beacon’s destination for public gatherings. They brought a projector and screen to project the news onto a screen. Stefon Seward, one of the original members of Beacon4Black Lives and current committee member on Beacon’s Police Chief Search, was one of the first to speak about the difference between the white people storming the Capitol who seemed to do it with ease and no punishment, versus Black people who get shot in the back sometimes in front of their children.

A handful of speakers spoke, including Xavier Mayo, a founding member of Beacon4Black Lives, sharing a story of him getting pulled over yesterday twice for a tail light being out, and of the two different emotional experiences he went through when pulled over by two different police officers. The experience with the first officer was normal and helpful as to how to fix a tail light, yet the second experience invoked fear as the officer smirked and laughed at Xavier when the he said he felt afraid.

Justice McCray, who is also a founding member of Beacon4Black Lives, spoke about how Black people are treated differently and how basic needs for some Beaconites are not being met, and how the Black community in Beacon does not feel safe with police. Justice is connected to several food insecurity initiatives like the Community Fridge, and is an advocate for community safety in new ways. “We’re here to build something better. What’s happening now is not OK, and is a slap in the face of democracy.”

Paloma Wake also spoke, who is a member of Beacon4Black Lives and has been involved in several Beacon based organizations including the Beacon Farmers Market when she was its manager. She currently holds a seat and is the Vice Chair on Beacon’s Human Relations Commission.

Other speakers included former regular participants of past protest marches down Main Street over the summer in favor of Black lives mattering more, as well as the protest of the Beacon 2021 budget.

One speaker was new to the group, after moving to Beacon recently. He said that having been down in the dumps earlier, he turned to his wife and they agreed to come down to the vigil. He expressed happiness that he came, and sadness at the new life navigations he needed to make with his family who are Trump supporters and he is not. He expressed dismay at not being able to communicate with them because of their political differences, which was a choice he made, after not being able to tolerate tolerance any longer.

Beacon Councilperson for Ward 4, Dan Aymar-Blair, spoke about his experience during the day with his child at home who was asking questions about democracy. Dan has a BA in Political Science and Government and stated that while watching the events unfold, he expressed desire to explore his own relationship with democracy, as he tried to answer his son’s question.

The day seemed to have launched a deep dive for many as events developed. Listen to all of the stories and speeches at the vigil here at Beacon4Black Lives Instagram.

Racist Zoom Bombing Targets Desmond-Fish Library Bake-Off Awards Ceremony While Black Employee Hosts

During the holiday season of December, 2020, the Desmond-Fish Public Library in Garrison held a month-long bake off contest for kids, who could bake at home and submit their entries. The submissions would be presented in a video montage Awards Ceremony on January 2nd, 2021, where participants could gather on a Zoom call, hosted by Justice McCray, a well known lover of books and creative programming, having worked at Beacon’s Howland Public Library, and currently works at the Desmond-Fish Public Library, as well as Split Rock Books in Cold Spring. Justice is also an emerging local activist in the social revolution to make Black lives matter more, and has been a leader in most of the protest marches down Beacon’s Main Street and educational story circles held at Memorial Park and Pete & Toshi Seeger Riverfront Park.

The bake-off program was well marketed in advance across social media channels and in the local press. As the program got started, with eager children, parents and caregivers on the call to look at delightful attempts at baking, the The Great Desmond-Fish Public Library Bake Off award ceremony was interrupted by people or a person masquerading as participants on the call - using participants’ names like a wolf in sheep’s clothing - typing words such as the N-word dozens of times in all caps across the screen. The Desmond-Fish Public Library Director Jen McCreery confirmed to A Little Beacon Blog: “The interloper appropriated the identities of several program participants, which is how they were able to access the program through the waiting room.”

The program had been “hacked by one or more interlopers who used the platform to spread racist and sexist messages” the library director explained in an email press release sent soon after the incident, and on the library’s Facebook page, in a message from the library’s Board of Directors, posted 2 days after the event, and after the authorities had been notified, and participants began to process what had happened. As to if the library or Justice himself were targeted, Jen emphasized: “I do want to clarify that we have no way of knowing whether this was a targeted or random attack on the library and Justice specifically.”

The program’s host, Justice McCray, expressed in his social media that he wasn’t sure what to do after the targeted incident. He has since co-hosted an evening vigil at Pohil Park in Beacon, in honor of finishing the Election Certification that was derailed at the Capitol yesterday (1/6/2021) by people, some of whom were armed, climbing the building and breaking windows to get inside to sit in offices and put their feet up on the desks of people who had evacuated.

This was the first time that the Desmond-Fish Public Library had ever been Zoom Bombed, Jen confirmed. Library staff was able to handle the breach “as quickly as possible in the moment, but, sadly, the Zoom participants were exposed to this hateful and illegal behavior,” Jen told A Little Beacon Blog. In their message to the public, the library Board expressed: “The Library Staff and our Board of Trustees are horrified that a program created as a positive and joyful celebration of our community was derailed by one hateful individual, We are especially sorry that this attack was witnessed by children. No family should have to encounter such hate speech.”

According to Jen in response to A Little Beacon Blog’s questions, the library notified Putnam County Sheriff's Department. “They have taken our full report and it's my understanding they are looking into what charges might be brought against the perpetrators.”

In terms of moving forward, “we are looking into alternate online platforms as well as additional security measures we can take for future online events,” Jen told A Little Beacon Blog.

Jen also expressed: “Everyone at the library is grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support we've received from local organizations and families and we hope that, going forward, we can channel that support into creating programs and educational resources to help our community members come together in addressing the larger systemic issues that contributed to this incident.”

Justice McCray told A Little Beacon Blog in response to an email asking him if he had comments he wanted to share regarding his and this experience: “This was a traumatic incident for me. There’s no way for me to not take this personal. To be the first Black staff member at my job to host an event and to have this happen cuts deeper than I can explain. I’m glad the library and community aren’t sweeping this incident under the rug. It’s necessary to center to voices and needs of those most impacted by this event. It’s also equally necessary not to center them in a way that amplifies the trauma.

“The work ahead is as vital as it is difficult and painful. Now is a necessary time for or communities, especially Philipstown, to reflect on the impact its history of racism has on its dreamed future of inclusivity. The next questions that need to be asked are not “how can we improve security on our events to prevent this from happening?“ but rather, “How is this something that can happen in our communitiy? What behaviors have we dismissed or ignored that led to this escalation? How can we create a community where harm like this doesn’t continue?”

Beacon Police Chief, Lieutenant, and Captain Participate In City Council Meeting To Answer Questions About Policy - But Avoids Racism

After receiving inquiries from the public about police policy, the City of Beacon’s City Council hosted the Beacon Police Department during their weekly Monday night City Council Meeting this week. The meeting happened to be a Workshop, which means that by rule, members of the public cannot speak or submit comments, as they can during the other type of City Council Meeting, which is when members of the public can speak within one of two Public Comment sessions.

Attending and participating were Chief Kevin Junjulas, Lieutenant Figlia and Captain Fredericks. The video of the meeting has been published here in this article. Scroll down and press Play.

Brief Recap Of The Presentation

Mayor Kyriacou started the meeting by reminding the council and video viewers about the Department of Justice’s investigation into the Beacon Police Department that started at least in 2010, and concluded in the summer of 2016. The City’s attorney recalled that the Beacon Police Department went through an audit of the department, and a review of policy. It was not stated if there were personnel changes after the audit, or what was learned from the audit.

The Chief read a statement about training the police department receives, and acknowledged that he was open to “perhaps identify some things that we can seek to improve in the future, to offer the best level of service possible.”

Speaking To #8Can’tWait - Which Does Not Address Systemic Racism

Mayor Kyriacou asked the officers to go speak to their methods as they compare to “8 Can’t Wait,” which is a campaign from Campaign Zero to reduce police violence. However, that campaign does not address systemic racism, and focuses on physical actions of law enforcement. Additionally, Campaign Zero issued a statement and apology, which they published on their “8 Can’t Wait” website: “And while we are proud of the impact we were able to make, we at Campaign Zero acknowledge that, even with the best of intentions, the #8CANTWAIT campaign unintentionally detracted from efforts of fellow organizers invested in paradigmatic shifts that are newly possible in this moment. For this we apologize wholeheartedly, and without reservation.”

Racism was not discussed in this meeting. Some nitty-gritty types of violence were, like that a choke hold is not “banned” because it may be needed if nothing else is available, or that pointing a weapon is considered a “use of force.”

Complaints Against An Officer

The Council wanted to know about how complaints come in. The Chief answered that for 2019, of the 13,000 calls made for service, 5 personnel complaints came in. In 2020, so far 4,000 calls for service have come in, and 3 personnel complaints have been generated.

When asked about how to complain, the Chief answered that during the federal investigation, the Department of Justice required that the Beacon Police make a complaint system available. The Chief said: “People can do it through a number of ways….I don’t have them right in front of me, but they are on the website I believe.”

One complaint link is on the City’s website in the Police Department section, which is here. The form to file a complaint is here. However, there are no directions on the form or the website as to how to file the form. There also does not seem to be a list of police officer’s names on the website. During the meeting, it was stated the complaint makes its way to the Captain who conducts an investigation. The Captain conducts an interview with the officer and the person who made the complaint. The Captain then makes a decision as to if the complaint is Unfounded or not.

Requirement Of 60 College Credits

One item that the Captain wanted changed was to open up the qualifications to be a police officer in Dutchess County, which currently requires 60 college credits. This is not the same for every county. The Captain did not feel that attending college “in an un-related police subject” was useful to hiring a police officer. He also doesn’t think it fair to kids who can’t afford to go to college. On another hand, sometimes employers pay for an employee’s continuing education while they are working, like in the Army or in the corporate world.

Diversity In The Police Department

When asked about how many white officers were in the Beacon Police Department, the Captain did not know how many “off the top of my head, I’d have to go out there and count.” The Chief responded that out of 36 officers, he thinks that 5 officers are Hispanic, 2 Black and 2 Female White officers. The female officers, he said, are white, so they would “need to subtract from that.”

In Conclusion: Community

The meeting concluded with Councilperson Amber Grant suggesting that more issues be raised and that the conversation continue about the community relationship with the Police Department. Councilperson Terry Nelson suggested conducing community forums. Councilperson Jodi Grant recalled the “Coffee and a Cop” concept, and liked that.

Dan Aymar-Blair noted that he heard “powerful and painful” stories at the protest last Saturday, and had 50 and 60 emails about policing in Beacon, with very few having to do with #8CantWait. He mentioned that “training wasn’t the problem with George Floyd’s or Eric Garner’s murders.” He wished to garner the conversation from the 3rd protest in Beacon last Saturday.

A discussion continued about how a community forum could be put together. The Mayor suggested that Beacon’s Human Relations Commission “be leveraged’ to do this, and serve as an anonymous destination to talk. Dan disagreed, saying that there were 1,000 people at the protest, and that he wanted the City Council to take the lead on it. Jodi recalled her time serving on the Human Relations Commission, and said that the commission had been unprepared to handle the scope of what was required when it was handed something the first time. From the meeting, it was unclear which instance in time she was referring to. A Little Beacon Blog can follow up.

A community forum did get put together towards the end of the Department of Justice investigation of Beacon’s Police Department in 2015/2016, which you can read about in depth here.