Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring
Speaker 1: legal issues in the news. Today, Bloomberg Law host June
Speaker 1: Grossoe discusses New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to
Speaker 1: shut down the prison complex on Rikers Island. She speaks
Speaker 1: to Michael Mushlin, a professor at Pace University Law School,
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Blank's, a researcher at the Keto Institute. Let's
Speaker 1: begin with both of your reactions to do Blasio's plan.
Speaker 1: I think his plan is correctly identifies a lot of
Speaker 1: the problems with Rikers and jail's generally. It's not a
Speaker 1: perfect plan, but the goals, the goals that he lifted to,
Speaker 1: you know, find different ways to reduce the number of
Speaker 1: people that are going to be in there in the
Speaker 1: first place, is very laudable. Um. I think one of
Speaker 1: the things that isn't quite mentioned in the plan, but
Speaker 1: I think people need to think about, is do you
Speaker 1: think a cage as a remedy to social wills is
Speaker 1: not necessarily the best thing? It should be the last, uh,
Speaker 1: the last remedy uh for people who commit crimes. If
Speaker 1: people can be released on their own recognizance, as the
Speaker 1: people are. That's good, but there's still a very large
Speaker 1: population there that are subject to these abuses, and I
Speaker 1: think finding more and better ways, some of which were
Speaker 1: outlined in his plan are, is a very good step forward.
Speaker 1: The plan calls for reducing the inmate population down to
Speaker 1: five thousand. New York City had a record low crime
Speaker 1: rate last year. So Michael, how will that be done? Well?
Speaker 1: First of all, I think that it's important to point
Speaker 1: out that most of the people on Rikers Island have
Speaker 1: not been convicted of any crime. They're they're being held
Speaker 1: while awaiting trial. It's also important to note that that way,
Speaker 1: that's that over two thirds of them only spent about
Speaker 1: thirty days in Rikers Island. So the notion of this
Speaker 1: is we're not talking about a prison where people have
Speaker 1: been convicted and and they're being sent to They're being
Speaker 1: sent to prison for rehabilitations or punishment for for for
Speaker 1: safety of the community. So that's one thing to talk about.
Speaker 1: And so really the way so and that short period
Speaker 1: of time that so many people spend there may not
Speaker 1: seem that significant, but it's a highly disruptive, it's highly expensive,
Speaker 1: and we're punishing people who haven't been convicted. That's Michael
Speaker 1: motion And, a professor at Pace University Law School, and
Speaker 1: Jonathan Blanks, a researcher at the Cato Institute, speaking to
Speaker 1: Bloomberg lawhost in Grosso And. You can listen to Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Law week days at one pm all street time here
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio Now. Among the top legal stories from
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law, The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court
Speaker 1: to overturn a ruling involving Microsoft and emails. Last July,
Speaker 1: and Appeals Court decided Microsoft would not be forced to
Speaker 1: turn over emails stored in Ireland that the US wants
Speaker 1: for a drug investigation. The government maintains that would create
Speaker 1: a legal loophole to be exploited by criminals. Microsoft argues
Speaker 1: that if it is forced to produce the emails, other
Speaker 1: countries could force companies to turn over evidence stored in
Speaker 1: the US. And that's this morning's Bloomberg Lab Brief. You
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