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In New York City, there has been a different problem that has plagued the city for decades and the Amsterdam News has covered it accurately step by step for quite sometime. In fact, their commendable persistent reporting has led me to the conclusion that society has no clue what justice really means. The filtered reporting of politicized news rooms has placed society in a category of being visually impaired stopping thoughts of questioning actual truths. For several years talks of closing Rikers Island has filled these pages with a targeted date in mind. Whether the goal is reached or not, is a notion that seems to trouble many politicians who just want to stop the barrage of law suits that drain the citys funds. The conditions on the island have been horrible for years and its closing draws near each day. However, one question looms in my mind like a predictable movie ending with a plot twist right before the credits.

Why were they there?

Back in January, the Amsterdam Newspaper reported an insightful history lesson on the island and explained how its origins was founded and grounded in racism. Richard Riker, was a former enslaver and judge, who would prosecuted black people without due process. Sending them to the South as slaves after only hearing the charges against them. Yet still, New York City purchased the land over 100 years ago, then had countless black men and women to be housed on the island each day BUT never changed the name. Now its closing is the result of the horrible treatment and living conditions, NOT because of history. Maybe your thinking they deserve to be treated like that look at what they did. Again, justice says, innocent until proven guilty, so that argument does not line up with the definition of the word. Then, somehow the treatment of New Yorkers journeying through Rikers aligns with the name of the island it not coincidence. It should be a wake up call to the point where society reviews its steps towards tomorrows paths. Why were they there? An island, named after a heinous person whos actions were deliberate and precise holding an official position in New York City.

Hopefully, reading this you not only ask the question mentally but take a look into how there is a problem and you can help fix it. As always you need to be in the know where you understand that places like Rikers Island should concern you. Think of a caged dog being sleep deprived, malnourished, full of fear and constantly having to fight for their life. Could a dog like that be adopted? The same happens to detainees housed in jails awaiting to go to trial and suffering at the hands of the environment. These damaged individuals rides on public trains or simply walks down the street with the internal mental damage hidden from view. Society does not understand why people go back and forth to jail or prison, when it similar to a person who suffers from Stockholm syndrome. As a whole, we need to do more for the mental of health of those around us, detained and incarcerated before someone we love, you or me become a victim at the hands of a tormented mind. We are quick to detain and provide no mental health assistance something has to change. Your Voice Matters

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Remembering 9/11 - The Days Following - An Editorial By: J. Joseph

Growing up in New York City, I learned to love being around the Twin Towers at an early age. I would walk up to the buildings and look up as if in some strange way I owned them. As a teenager in the 90s, I had worked for a travel agency and had made deliveries in the Towers. The elevators were the craziest part of the journey moving at speeds I was not used to feeling in my stomach. To see the towers crumble to the ground was sickening, I felt that same strange motion in my stomach an elevator ride that did not end. The day of the attacks I was minutes from being 5 blocks always when the desire to check my email made me late and discover the first plane. And yet, I still was going to school that day until while walking towards the area the second plane hit and I turned around. The explosion caught me off guard because I saw the fire and smoke but I did not see the second plane until I was home watching the replay on TV.

I purposely did not write and post prior to 9-11 out of providing substack readers with a real connection to the vision of this piece. Days after 9-11 was some of the best days of my life and showed America at its best with pride. The city and the country was at a level a peace that has not been duplicated since. New York City had a prayer service at Yankees stadium where multiple leaders of faith came together to pray. As a college student my classes were cancelled for a month due to the campus being 5 blocks from the site. We had a service at the Lambs Church in Times Square where we had communion together as a school. After the service a group of friends and I began to worship in the train station causing the entire subway shutdown. There was a shrine of pictures all over the wall of missing people a sense of mental and spiritual numbness reigned all over.

We started singing.

Onlookers circled around us as train conductors watched closely negating their job as hundred of voices harmonized as one huge choir. People began to cry as emotional baggage that filled heavy hearts were opened and mended as prayer filled a subway station. After 9-11, New York City was on one accord, crime was at its lowest point, prayer was an acceptable practice as churches were filled regularly. It should not take the death of thousands to bring us closer unless we look back on that day to re-ignite those days.

Think. Relive. Come Together. Share Pain. Never Forget

In Memory of Mario Santoro, No blood no foul

J. Joseph is the Host of Reason to Live Podcast and Co-host of Trey and Jay on You Tube. He is Motivational Speaker, Life Coach, Paralegal, Criminal Justice Advocate, Business and Defendant Consultant, Author, Writer and Not-For-Profit Strategist. Subscribe to the Reason to Live Podcast, A Look Behind True Crimes Curtain JJosephRTL@gmail.com @Reason2Live.podcast

If you have not read, What the Eye Omits By: Woodz , you have missed the start to a new series the RTL Podcast will upload soon, False Hope. Real Pain. Heres a quote, Parole Boards feel obligated to hold the victim's families of said crimes, tightly to their bosom, which is expected of them by law abiding citizens. But, what most citizens are oblivious to is the other side of the fence. In this series we will journey into criminal cases that ended with a sentence that has the individual go before the parole board in New York State and is denied. The affects of such denial can be harmful mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically to a prisoners who receives anywhere from 1 to 2 years added onto their sentence. Only to be send back to the parole board to undergo the same mental uncertainty exhaustion again. All of that is coupled with the pain and suffering due to false hope in seeing their loved one home.

At no time can we forget some of the physical and emotional pain victims and their families endured at the fault of those incarcerated. However, the system does not want to also admit, how after conviction the focus of the case only shines on the defendant. Those incarcerated should have every right to pursue their freedom especially after being rehabilitated. It is no secret, that a person who is incarcerated finds pout quickly that it is not easy. Being around some of the worst people, living in harsh conditions, eating quick chilled food and sleeping on horrible mattresses. These are just a few of the low level standards a person in New York Prisons must face whether deserved or not. To say they deserve such harsh conditions and stay in prison forever is see yourself on a high horse that can buck any minute now. It is to protest that once a person takes a cookie from the cookie jar they would end up with a life sentence in prison. Society tends to forgets that how we are all flawed individuals who cannot be perfect no matter how much money we have or the color of our skin.

To rehabilitate prisoners it is encourage that they take college courses and special programs while under regular and sometimes outrageous prison conditions which is never taken into consideration. Harvard students may have stress and some fears surrounding their lives daily in the course of obtaining a degree. Families of those incarcerated are able to see loved ones excel by changing their views of life, obtain a degree, and learn coping skills to stop from being triggered. They are proud of how time away has been well used and has transformed their loved one into a better person. To bring them home would equate to placing the icing on the cake with decorations. Having all of those feelings taken away with a parole denial is heart breaking for the family no matter the crime.

They get emotional and upset because they can see the work put in day and night to become who they are at that moment. Only to be denied a chance based on their previous actions from 20 to 30 years ago. After being denied the parole board would give a new sentence anywhere from 12 to 24 months. At that time, the person will have another chance to prove that they have changed and ready to be released. In most situations, the prisoner is not taking more programs and there are no more opportunities to acquire another degree so they literally sit and wait until their next hearing. The family hurts in ways unexplainable to those who never experienced the side affects of the parole board.

In upcoming episodes of RTL we will talk to people who were denied parole and learn of how the affect touched their family. If you have questions or comments you want to include please email JJosephRTL@gmail.com. Subscribe Now! Love on Life Podcast on Substack.

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