- 05/09/2017 by Linda Perry (WBAI News)

NYC Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte responsible for Rikers, has come under fire for spending 90 work days out of the city last year. He went to Maine regularly with his official car. Other corrections officials also used their department cars to travel to Cape Cod, the Hamptons and elsewhere in violation of city guidelines.

This was all going on while an intensive independent investigation by the Lippman Commission into Rikers was underway, at the City Council's urging. The Lippman Report, which came out recently, says Rikers can’t be fixed and should be shut down in favor of smaller jails in each of the city's five boroughs and it suggests other criminal justice reforms, but Ponte said he has not read the Lippman Report. Critics are calling for Ponte's resignation. 

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