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NYC Department of Correction Correction News Dateline newsletters maintained by the NY Correction History Society in the archives at the NYC Correction Academy. |
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NYC Department of Correction Correction News Dateline newsletters maintained by the NY Correction History Society in the archives at the NYC Correction Academy. |
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graphics & texts from the December 1994 issue of Correction News Dateline Below this italicized introductory note are the texts of that issue's stories as well as its graphics and two photos. First is the story -- "Commissioner's Holiday Celebration Dec. 9th" -- that appeared on Page 1 of the newsletter. That text here begins beneath an image of its orginial headline that was set in an Optima typeface. Also on that page were a holiday greetings graphic and a photograph of New York City Department of Correction Commissioner Anthony Schembri with the then City Council Speaker Peter Vallone during the latter's visit to Rikers Island. Dateline -- its name appeared next to the Volume Number on the left side of the Correction News nameplate -- was a grayscale 4-pager published monthly. Correction News itself contained many more pages and was published seasonally. The small Dateline edition usually featured one main front page story, a monthly calendar of DOC-related scheduled events, often a Commissioner's Report, a Quicky Quiz, a cartoon, brief notes of interest, and personnel items.
 DOC’s annual yule observance,
the Commissioner’s Holiday Celebration, will be held Friday, Dec.
9th, at the Correction Academy in
Middle Village.
The festivities will include music provided by a disk jockey (CO
Garret Buckley, AMKC), dancing, plenty of food and drink.
The celebration will begin at 7
PM and run to midnight.
The event is open to all Correction Department employees, uniformed and civilian.
Each employee is invited to bring a guest.
Admission will be without charge
but employees will be required
to show identification.
City transit bus routes Q54 and Q58, Queens Surface bus route 67 and Triboro Coach bus routes 38 and 39 also stop near the Academy. Among those working on arrangements are: ADW Thomas L. Holley, COs Edward Aswad, Lewis Cash, Louis Dixel,and Evan Rivera, and civilians Maureen Serge, Rente Harper, and Freddie Wallace- Rakis, electronic graphics support co-ordinator, all Central Office; ADW Joseph Patrissi and Capt. Ellen Cooper, RMSC; ADW Allen Kozich, Industries; CO James Corrigan, MDC.
The heading over the days of the week identified it as published by the NYC DOC Office of Public Information and provided the unnamed editor's work phone number. Only six columns were allotted for the days of the week, with Saturdays and Sundays both sharing the sixth column. Three dollars in a date box signified "pay day." The calendar did not limit itself to Departmental events but also included events planned by recognized DOC affiliated organization.
If an affiliated group's events were missing from a particular month's calendar, the cause often could be traced to that organization not comunicating the information in time for publication.
The date boxes shared by Saturdays and Sundays were not always divided evenly. The division depended on which day had the more events to note. Below the Page 2 calendar were a Quicky Quiz, its answers printed upsidedown, and the latest cartoon in the "Officer Lock-In" series, C.O. drawn, that had begun with the November 1993 issue. Since turning the computer monitor upsidedown or standing on one's head to read the Quicky Quiz answers would be impractical, clicking the upsidedown answers image will access them right-side-up. Use your browser's back button . Usually the Quicky Quiz questions were historical in their subject matter. They might be viewed in retrospect today as the first steps that led unwittingly to the eventual emergence of the correction history web site on which this is being presented . . . again.
 Below is the banner graphic for the Commissioner's Report that overarched the text on Page 3 of the December 1994 issue of Correction News Dateline. The graphic included a small grayscale h&s photo of Commissioner Schembri. For layout design purposes, three small boxes with brief news items were inserted to relieve the too-solid look of the main text.
 Recently I spoke before a City Council committee about the Financial Plan. I want to share what I said with you. The plan calls for a $31 million DOC reduction in this fiscal year. That will annualize to $58 million in subsequent fiscal years. These are significant reductions, but they will not disable this Department. Meeting these reduction targets will be accomplished, in part, through the elimination of 897 uniformed positions and 403 civilian positions and through lowering Other Than Personal Services expenditures by $1.8 million. These cuts, while difficult, have forced us to re-examine priorities and more creatively manage limited resources. We are learning how to do more with less.
First, to incorporate the proposed reduction of uniformed staff, Chief of Department Taylor has initiated a comprehensive survey to identify uniformed posts which can be eliminated. We are also aggressively seeking ways to incorporate advanced technology as a means both to reduce the need for staffing and to increase facility security. Let me emphasize that in no way will we compromise security of staff, the public or inmates. Second, we will petition federal court for relief from various burdensome mandates. Example: DOC is under a court order to wash all windows in our facilities four times a year. This costs $400,000 annually and exceeds reasonable expectations as a minimum standard. To help reduce uniformed posts, we will petition the court to allow us to change the inmates’ lock-in schedule, and reduce law library hours -- all currently governed by court decree.
I realize these programs have merit. In fact, I had once hoped to expand such services to inmates. However, we can no longer afford to do everything we would like. We must determine priorities. For DOC, as a public safety agency, these priorities begin with performance of our core responsibilities - that is, to maintain a safe and secure environment for the care and control of inmates in our custody. In evaluating programs, it is significant to note that the average length of stay per inmate has dropped from 66 days in fiscal year 1993 to a current 49 days in October 1994. In fact, over 50% of inmates stay less than seven days in DOC custody. As a result of this trend towards shorter stays, the potential impact of programs is diminished. As this happens, the role of the city and the private sector must be expanded. Deputy Commissioner for Programs, Fred Patrick, is currently working with the DOC’s Community Advisory Board members to identify appropriate community-based services for released inmates.
Together, we will manage the department with the resources available. Unfortunately, at this time, resources are limited. We have been forced to make some difficult decisions. For my part, I assure you, in making decisions, my first priority is safety in our jails. Staff safety and public safety are essential elements of jail safety, not just inmate safety. Below is the banner graphic for the Correction People feature that overarched the text and illustration on Page 4 of the December 1994 issue of Correction News Dateline. The Santa illustration, while including within itself a list of DOC-related holiday season parties, encouraged having joyful spirits but cautioned against having too much alcoholic spirits.
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