PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Christopher Leon Johnson on Sexual Assault in City Jails
4:05:58
·
3 min
Christopher Leon Johnson testified about the need to address sexual assault in city jails, emphasizing that the issue affects not only inmates but also corrections officers and employees. He argued for refunding the Department of Correction (DOC) and police, and incorporating sexual assault into domestic violence definitions for better funding and advocacy.
- Johnson criticized the focus solely on inmate victims, stating that female corrections officers and DOC employees who are sexually assaulted are often overlooked.
- He opposed closing Rikers Island, arguing it wouldn't solve the sexual assault problem and would only benefit developers.
- Johnson suggested adopting a resolution to include sexual assault and harassment in the definition of domestic violence to unlock more funding for advocacy and protection.
Christopher Leon Johnson
4:05:58
Alright.
4:05:59
Good afternoon.
4:05:59
My name is Christopher Leon, Johnson, in, Sandy, like I said on Twitter, I don't know my I lost some words about that situation you went through in Rutgers.
4:06:11
Nobody should go through that.
4:06:13
Let's make that clear.
4:06:16
Me let me say something.
4:06:17
I know this is a different panel if you want me to be on you'd be on the last one with the people that's against all the bills.
4:06:23
But what we have to do is we have to refund the DOC.
4:06:29
We have to refund the police we have to inter interject the sexual assault into domestic violence into domestic violence.
4:06:40
Because once we get that, we can start funding these organizations is more with domestic violence funding.
4:06:47
Let let me make this clear.
4:06:48
Right?
4:06:49
Look, there's a lot of sexual assaults in these jails like strikers.
4:06:53
I don't believe it should be closed because that's not but a land graph for developers.
4:06:58
But we need we gotta start talking about in the city council, especially in this committee, about the female corrections officers that get sexually assaulted.
4:07:06
The female employees of DLC that get that gets actually assaulted in the jails too.
4:07:10
Yeah.
4:07:10
There's a lot of inmates a female inmates.
4:07:12
And male inmates too, they get sexually assaulted, but those but the employees and the the correctional officers, they get left out of the equation.
4:07:21
And and what's going on, and I think it's I don't think it's just you, Sandy.
4:07:26
It's just a big bigger thing whole with these nonprofits is that they just make they just wanna make it all about inmates, inmates, inmates, Like, they're the only only victims of sexual assault in these jails, which is, yeah, they're not the only ones.
4:07:40
There's other victims in these jails like the like the the seals and the employees.
4:07:45
But that going forward, that the conversation go big wide is that you have to start recognizing these victims such as the employees and the corrections officers instead just the inmates.
4:08:01
Because let's keep it real.
4:08:03
There are inmates that are that shouldn't be there, and that's why God won't disclose because they shouldn't God shouldn't be there.
4:08:10
But there's a certain amount of people that should be a riker that should be in these jails.
4:08:15
And and I will make this clear just closing down rikers is not gonna fix this because you can close down rikers all you want.
4:08:23
You have to jail these people somewhere, and they're gonna build border based jails.
4:08:27
So is not gonna solve anything.
4:08:29
Closed records will never solve ending the sexual assault pandemic in the New York City jail system.
4:08:37
Like I said, education is refunding our police, refunding the DOC, and And since with the last day, domestic violence awareness went next year, hope next year that the city council adopts a resolution to add sexual assault and sexual harassment into the definition of domestic violence.
4:08:57
So all these non profits come a lot.
4:08:59
The funding and the DLC can lock the funding to lock the funding to start advocating more to protect these inmates and the employees from sexual assault.
4:09:13
And we need to help out the d o DOE.
4:09:17
And one more thing is DOE needs to invest in Brad Lender.
4:09:20
That's it.
4:09:20
Thank you.
