USERS of the online review site Yelp - where anyone can become a critic of restaurants, nightclubs and stores - started branching out from their foodie focus by writing reviews of New York City's jails, the New York Post reported Monday.
According to Yelp, Rikers Island is the pick of the prisons, getting an average rating of 4.5 stars. "I had a terrific getaway on this luxurious island retreat," a Yelp critic named Diane B wrote. "Thank you, Rikers Island: It took me just a few weeks to realize I would never drink and drive again."
Manhattan Central Booking only averaged a paltry two stars, according to Yelp users. "I didn't try the food, but the single-serving cereal boxes make for an acceptable pillow," according to reviewer Paul K., who gave the place one of its better write-ups. "Third star is for not strip-searching me."
While some of the commenters may be internet pranksters, most of the reviews seemed to have been posted by people who actually spent time as invited guests of the police. "I wrote [a review] sort of as a laugh," 42-year-old Davisha Badone, of Manhattan, said after spending a night in jail on an assault rap after a bar fight. "It was spontaneous."
A lot of NYPD precinct houses are also reviewed on the site. Several got positive marks.
"They didn't serve me delicious vegetarian food or pour me any wine, but they were efficient and just plain nice in helping me file a report for my stolen wallet yesterday," reviewer Cara A. wrote of the 19th precinct, in Manhattan.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Mom's tough love: Won't bail troubled son from Rikers, so he can learn lesson
Holed up at Rikers Island, Steven Mercado awaits his fate as he faces robbery and crack-dealing charges stemming from three separate arrests in the past two months.
He's 16 years old - and looking at 15 years in prison.
His biological aunt, legal guardian and "mom," Debbie Earhart - who's raised him since birth - wants Steven to learn his lesson, but not by losing more than a decade of his life.
Earhart, 45, of Bedford Park won't post the teen's $3,000 cash bail, believing the only way Steven will stay out of trouble and finish school is if he's locked up.
"He needs to be in a program, he needs therapy - he has ADHD [Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] and behavioral problems - he's afraid," she said.
Earhart said Steven called her, telling her he had to change cell blocks after jailed members of the Trinitario gang threatened to choke him because he doesn't speak Spanish.
Short and slight, Steven is due back in court tomorrow, when his Legal Aid attorney will try to downgrade his 10 felony and six misdemeanor charges to a youthful offender status, which would land him just one year in jail.
The teen's parents have been in and out of prison and absent from his life, Earhart said.
"I think that's why he's so rebellious and angry," she said.
Steven failed all his classes last year at special education Lewis and Clark High School.
He will have to repeat the ninth grade, after he missing 37 days and being late 46 times.
But Earhart said, "He would do anything for his grandma. If she needed him to go to the store, he would drop everything and go for her."
Steven was first arrested on May 11,near Public School 54 on Decatur Ave. He is accused of selling four Ziploc bags containing crack cocaine to an undercover Bronx narcotics officer, according to a criminal complaint.
The teen was released on his own recognizance after he was arraigned on charges of criminal possession of and sale of a controlled substance.
On June 28, he was arrested along with Marcus Quattlebaum, 17, and Elijah Davis, 18, for allegedly robbing a man of his iPod on Hoffman St. near Middle School 45 - the school Earhart's daughter, an honors student, attends.
According to the criminal complaint, Steven also snatched two gold chains from the victim's neck.
As the baby-faced, scared-looking boy stood before Acting Supreme Court Justice William Mogulescu at his arraignment on June 29, Earhart reeled in the audience.
"They'll eat you alive in state prison. . . . Your mom is tired of seeing you locked up - do you think she likes sitting here?" Mogulescu asked, pointing to a visibly stressed-out Earhart.
Before releasing him into Earhart's custody , Mogulescu issued the boy a stiff warning that if he were caught doing anything wrong again, he'd be thrown right in the clink.
Earhart tried to enroll him in the Fortune Society - a nonprofit social service and advocacy program dedicated to formerly incarcerated individuals - but he got into trouble again.
Just a week later, on July 6, the troubled teen - along with "five unapprehended males" - allegedly kicked a man in the ribs and took his backpack and iPod from the man's pocket.
"There are people that commit murders and only go away for eight or nine years," Earhart said. "Why is he looking at 15?
"I don't condone what he did - he was wrong and he needs to pay for it - but he really needs help above anything."
BY Sarah Armaghan
DAILY NEWS WRITER
He's 16 years old - and looking at 15 years in prison.
His biological aunt, legal guardian and "mom," Debbie Earhart - who's raised him since birth - wants Steven to learn his lesson, but not by losing more than a decade of his life.
Earhart, 45, of Bedford Park won't post the teen's $3,000 cash bail, believing the only way Steven will stay out of trouble and finish school is if he's locked up.
"He needs to be in a program, he needs therapy - he has ADHD [Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] and behavioral problems - he's afraid," she said.
Earhart said Steven called her, telling her he had to change cell blocks after jailed members of the Trinitario gang threatened to choke him because he doesn't speak Spanish.
Short and slight, Steven is due back in court tomorrow, when his Legal Aid attorney will try to downgrade his 10 felony and six misdemeanor charges to a youthful offender status, which would land him just one year in jail.
The teen's parents have been in and out of prison and absent from his life, Earhart said.
"I think that's why he's so rebellious and angry," she said.
Steven failed all his classes last year at special education Lewis and Clark High School.
He will have to repeat the ninth grade, after he missing 37 days and being late 46 times.
But Earhart said, "He would do anything for his grandma. If she needed him to go to the store, he would drop everything and go for her."
Steven was first arrested on May 11,near Public School 54 on Decatur Ave. He is accused of selling four Ziploc bags containing crack cocaine to an undercover Bronx narcotics officer, according to a criminal complaint.
The teen was released on his own recognizance after he was arraigned on charges of criminal possession of and sale of a controlled substance.
On June 28, he was arrested along with Marcus Quattlebaum, 17, and Elijah Davis, 18, for allegedly robbing a man of his iPod on Hoffman St. near Middle School 45 - the school Earhart's daughter, an honors student, attends.
According to the criminal complaint, Steven also snatched two gold chains from the victim's neck.
As the baby-faced, scared-looking boy stood before Acting Supreme Court Justice William Mogulescu at his arraignment on June 29, Earhart reeled in the audience.
"They'll eat you alive in state prison. . . . Your mom is tired of seeing you locked up - do you think she likes sitting here?" Mogulescu asked, pointing to a visibly stressed-out Earhart.
Before releasing him into Earhart's custody , Mogulescu issued the boy a stiff warning that if he were caught doing anything wrong again, he'd be thrown right in the clink.
Earhart tried to enroll him in the Fortune Society - a nonprofit social service and advocacy program dedicated to formerly incarcerated individuals - but he got into trouble again.
Just a week later, on July 6, the troubled teen - along with "five unapprehended males" - allegedly kicked a man in the ribs and took his backpack and iPod from the man's pocket.
"There are people that commit murders and only go away for eight or nine years," Earhart said. "Why is he looking at 15?
"I don't condone what he did - he was wrong and he needs to pay for it - but he really needs help above anything."
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Rikers Island Fire Forces Evacuations
A quick-spreading fire in a Rikers Island jail, George Motchan Detention Center, Sunday night destroyed 200 beds and forced the inmates to evacuate. Several of the dormitories were destroyed, according to NY Daily, and the prisoners are being held in other facilities on Rikers Island. A spokesperson for the correction department said it started in a heating unit, but the cause is still under investigation. Over a hundred firefighters battled the two-alarm fire, and the incident caused no injuries.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Bed-Stuy Bandmate Robber Speaks: It Was The Weed, Man
By Christopher Robbins
Last week we learned that despite the best of intentions, Bed-Stuy can be a scary place to settle down. Now, the man who police say jumped out of a second-story window after stealing musical equipment from a house of Brooklyn College bandmates explains what happened: it was the weed, man. From a Rikers Island jail cell, 23-year-old DuJuan Marshall tells the Times that he doesn't remember storming into the boys' apartment and pistol whipping them while his accomplices unloaded the stolen equipment, because an angel-dusted joint did him in. "I feel their pain," he says, echoing another famous truth-teller.
Marshall says that the day in question began with a benediction, at a church on nearby Quincy Street. "The pastor told me, 'You have a blessing coming your way.'" Doing what anyone would do following that holy edict, Marshall bought a bottle of sparkling wine. He then says that one of the boys who was robbed approached him to ask for cocaine or ecstasy, and he told him he couldn't get any. However, 18-year-old Ian Harris claims that Marshall in fact "mumbled something" about drugs, and he was "just, like, talking to himself."
Then, our protagonist "was smoking with people I shouldn't have been smoking with," and doesn't remember much afterwards. Marshall claims he went to a party at the boys' apartment, and his theory (just level with him for a minute) is that "the police stormed into the apartment, threw him out the window and beat the musicians, forcing them to say that they had been robbed." Told this version of events, one of the victims said: "That's definitely not how it went down."
Regardless of his current status in Rikers, where his grandmother used to be a prison guard, Marshall is an aspiring real estate agent, who feels that Bed-Stuy still has plenty of potential. To someone who's interested in buying the building, he has some advice: "I'd say the values on the block are rising." He's a natural!
Last week we learned that despite the best of intentions, Bed-Stuy can be a scary place to settle down. Now, the man who police say jumped out of a second-story window after stealing musical equipment from a house of Brooklyn College bandmates explains what happened: it was the weed, man. From a Rikers Island jail cell, 23-year-old DuJuan Marshall tells the Times that he doesn't remember storming into the boys' apartment and pistol whipping them while his accomplices unloaded the stolen equipment, because an angel-dusted joint did him in. "I feel their pain," he says, echoing another famous truth-teller.
Marshall says that the day in question began with a benediction, at a church on nearby Quincy Street. "The pastor told me, 'You have a blessing coming your way.'" Doing what anyone would do following that holy edict, Marshall bought a bottle of sparkling wine. He then says that one of the boys who was robbed approached him to ask for cocaine or ecstasy, and he told him he couldn't get any. However, 18-year-old Ian Harris claims that Marshall in fact "mumbled something" about drugs, and he was "just, like, talking to himself."
Then, our protagonist "was smoking with people I shouldn't have been smoking with," and doesn't remember much afterwards. Marshall claims he went to a party at the boys' apartment, and his theory (just level with him for a minute) is that "the police stormed into the apartment, threw him out the window and beat the musicians, forcing them to say that they had been robbed." Told this version of events, one of the victims said: "That's definitely not how it went down."
Regardless of his current status in Rikers, where his grandmother used to be a prison guard, Marshall is an aspiring real estate agent, who feels that Bed-Stuy still has plenty of potential. To someone who's interested in buying the building, he has some advice: "I'd say the values on the block are rising." He's a natural!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Mexican inmate tries to escape in suitcase wheeled by wife after conjugal visit
Police say a woman was caught trying to sneak her common-law-husband out of a Mexican prison in a suitcase following a conjugal visit.
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A spokesman for police in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo says staff at the prison in Chetumal noticed that the woman seemed nervous and was pulling a black, wheeled suitcase that looked bulky.
Spokesman Gerardo Campos said Monday that prison guards checked the bag of 19-year-old Maria del Mar Arjona and found inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina curled up inside in the fetal position.
Ramirez is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2007 conviction for illegal weapons possession.
Arjona was arrested and charges are pending.
Spokesman Gerardo Campos said Monday that prison guards checked the bag of 19-year-old Maria del Mar Arjona and found inmate Juan Ramirez Tijerina curled up inside in the fetal position.
Ramirez is serving a 20-year sentence for a 2007 conviction for illegal weapons possession.
Arjona was arrested and charges are pending.
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