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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Helen Skipper's testimony on her reappointment to the NYC Board of Correction
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130 sec
Helen Skipper, a formerly incarcerated individual, testifies before the NYC City Council Committee on Rules, Privileges and Elections regarding her reappointment to the NYC Board of Correction. She emphasizes her personal experience with incarceration and her commitment to improving conditions for those currently in the system.
- Skipper highlights her journey from being incarcerated to becoming a Board member and soon-to-be criminology graduate.
- She stresses the importance of having directly impacted individuals on the Board to provide insight and hope to those currently incarcerated.
- Skipper advocates for humane treatment and proper rights for incarcerated individuals, emphasizing the need for second chances and pathways to success after incarceration.
Helen Skipper
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Good morning, chair, committee members.
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My name is Helen Skipskipper.
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I just wanna thank you for this opportunity to appear again before you.
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And I also wanna push forward the fact that I am directly incarcerated.
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For twenty five years, I cycled in and out of Rikers Island.
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And for me to return there as a member of the board of correction, for me to walk through those same hallways and sit in those same seats that I set in is very beneficial.
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I lead by example.
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My life is a direct reflection of the impacts of the criminal justice and behavioral health system that I have endured.
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Next month I graduate with my masters of criminology from John Jay.
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Criminologist.
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I am a researcher.
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But more importantly, I am a criminal justice reform advocate leading by example, leading because I sat there.
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I went through the trauma.
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And today, as a member of the Board of Correction, I am so grateful to be able to enter into that space and bring beneficial programs, bring benefits, and show people by me standing in front of them that this is not the last stop, that second chances are available, that there are pathways for second chances.
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We're not talking about whether we have a system.
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We're talking about whether that system is humane and it looks like the people that are in cons in that system and are given the proper rights and minimum standards that they should have.
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And I would also ask the council to please look further and put other directly impacted people on the board because we've been there.
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We've done that.
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We fought the good fight, we've made it out.
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We lead by example.
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This is what people who live and work on Vicars Island need to see that there is a next step.
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There is a higher platform.
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So thank you again for this opportunity.
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And y'all know I'm a little hard, but I feel I need to be sometimes because I'm just not taking any quarters.