St. Joseph’s College’s Law and Justice Society hosted a discussion Monday during Common Hour about the closing of New York City’s Rikers Island.
“Closing Rikers Island: Now What?,” a talk led by Jennifer Wynn, Ph.D., associate professor of Criminal Justice at Laguardia Community College, examined the positive aspects of closing the infamous correctional facility, one of the largest jail complexes in the world.
“We are going to have a fairer, more humane system in the city,” said Dr. Wynn, who was joined by SJC Brooklyn students, faculty and staff in the Tuohy Hall Student Lounge. “This initiative shows when brave leaders get together and say ‘No More,’ change can occur.”
Dr. Wynn is a preeminent correctional scholar and author of “Inside Rikers: Stories from the World’s Largest Penal Colony.”
“Closing Rikers and opening four new borough correctional facilities sounds like a great way to improve life for the inmates, correctional officers and everyone else on that island,” Jonathan Arroyo ’19, a criminal justice major, said after the event.
Joseph Pascarella, Ph.D., associate professor and associate chair of St. Joseph’s Department of Criminal Justice, also attended the event.
“We are glad that we have such an eminent correctional scholar to discuss a historic initiative in New York City’s criminal justice history,” Dr. Pascarella, a retired captain of the New York Police Department, said.
