Beyond The Horizon

ICYMI: The Story Of Reginald Randolph And A Broken System

Reginald Randolph is a man who has currently served 800 days for stealing cold medicine. He is now looking at a maximum of four years in prison.

In this episode we take a look at his story and how the system has failed him and continues to fail millions of other poor Americans on a daily basis.

To contact me:

bobbycapucci@protonmail.com

Source:

https://theappeal.org/rikers-nyquil-theft-new-york-clemency/

Duration:: 41m
Broadcast on:: 16 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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On tonight's episode, we're going to talk about a story that is just absolutely heartbreaking. And it has to do with a homeless man who got arrested for stealing cold medicine. And since he has been arrested, he's been sitting on Rikers Island for 800 days. Now, I get it, right? You steal something, get in trouble, okay? But this 800 days for stealing cough medicine? Meanwhile, you have Jeffrey Epstein's associates still running the streets, running a muck, and getting into all kinds of shit. But because this guy is poor, because he's indigent, because he's homeless. It's low-hanging fruit for the prosecutors. They're like, oh, this'll push our numbers forward. Oh, this is a good one for us to nail. Meanwhile, the things that actually affect our lives, the people who are actually a threat to you or I, are still running around right now as we speak. You know, it was much more of a threat than this gentleman ever could be. All of those bankers that facilitated Jeffrey Epstein's money laundering. All of those bankers who look the other way when the cartel is laundering money through their shop. They should be sitting on Rikers Island for 800 days. Not this gentleman. And when we as a society punish people in such a Draconian way, it is really a reflection of where our society is at. And look, I get it, jail prison not supposed to be fun. That's not what I'm saying here. But for stealing cold medicine, this dude should go to jail for 800, 800 days and sit at Rikers Island without being sentenced, by the way. And now after all of that, still have to stare down the barrel of sitting in state prison all over some cold medicine. Meanwhile, these robber barons, as we speak, are pilfering our wealth, stealing from us and shoving us into the doldrums of debt at a pace that's never been seen before. But yeah, let's go and arrest the homeless guy and throw him in prison for 800 days. Here's an idea. How about some resources? How about some resources where we can help people? Not just throw them in prison and let them rot away and just forget about them. That's not a society I want to live in. And doing that has had disastrous results. The results speak for themselves. All you have to do is walk around in any major city in the United States of America. And I'm sure around the world. And it's the same thing. There is hordes of drug-addled human beings that are walking around, conversating with themselves as if they are bat shit crazy. And we all just go on with our lives, right? We walk by them, we drive by them, because what can we really do? There are no resources provided by the powers that be for people like this. And even for the people that want to get better. Now, of course, you can't force people to want to get off of drugs, right? You can't force people to do things that they don't want to do, no matter how many laws you have on the books. But we also can arrest our way out of this problem either. The war on drugs has failed, folks. And I know from personal experience losing loved ones and friends to the war on drugs that it's an absolutely ridiculous policy to continue to enforce year after year. But the powers that be those who are in charge, the men of always, well, they have to have their prison population, right? They have to have their four pay prisons in operation. So here we are. And meanwhile, places like Rikers Island in a place like New York with all of the loud mouths who tell us how to live our lives on a regular basis. Yet they can't even facilitate their own jails, their own prisons, but they're going to tell everybody else how to live. And again, that's why I'm always staying in my lane. That's why I don't poke my head over my neighbor's wall and talk trash about how wrecked their yard is if my yard looks like shit. Here's an idea. Fix your own yard first. And New York can't even do that. I'm from New York originally, and there's zero chance I would ever live in that city or that state ever again. You couldn't pay me to live there. And the people who run the place, the council men and the politics, what a group of absolute dimwits. And to think that they'd run around and talk about how this one should live or how that one's not doing a good job when they're literally having people languish away on Rikers Island for 800 days over cough medicine, be installing. I don't know how that could sit right with anybody. I look at this, this man, and for me, it is sad as hell. I read this story. I don't I don't shrug my shoulders and say, Oh, good for him. He got what was coming to him. He stole some shit. It's much more nuanced than that. People have had, you know, a rough go of it. And not everybody's had an easy life. None of us really have when you when you really get down to it. But some of us have had a lot harder of a go of it than the rest of us. And sometimes it's by their own making or circumstances or whatever it is. It's not okay just to say, all right, this person's indigent, or this person's homeless. Let's just forget about them. And I think that when we start not caring about the most vulnerable people in our society, we are completely lost as a society. And we certainly, as a nation, have no right to tell anyone else how to live their lives or how they should pursue their future. If we can't even take care of the most vulnerable in our own country, why would anybody look at the United States of America as a leader on the world stage? So let's jump into this article. And let's meet Reginald Randolph, a 58 year old man who has been in jail for 800 days, and was looking at a maximum of four years headline. A homeless man has spent 800 days at Rikers Island after stealing cold medicine. Now his prison sentence may be beginning. Blind in one eye and at risk of losing vision in the other, 58 year old Reginald Randolph is now on the verge of being sent to state prison to serve out a maximum of four years. I mean, just right there from the headline, how could that sit well with anybody? And I don't care if the guy was a drug addict or a thief or anything like that. If he didn't commit violent crime, he didn't hurt people, then there's hope of rehabilitating this man and helping him. But not if the resources aren't there, not if people don't care and certainly not if our do nothing politicians continue to sit on their hands while running their fat yaps. This article was authored by Elizabeth Wiel Greenberg. After failing out of drug court, Reginald Randolph, 58, was sentenced in August to two to four years in state prison for taking dozens of boxes of cold medicine from two Dwayne Reed stores in 2018. Shoplifting was just to support my addiction and to deal with my homelessness, deal with my poverty. Randolph told New York Focus and the appeal and a phone call from Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. I mean, again, it's easy for us to cast judgment, right? And for us to say, this that or the other thing, as we're living our comfortable lives, as we're going down to the refrigerator to get some food, get a drink, turn on the TV, laugh with our loved ones. But it ain't like that for everybody. And we have to have a little bit of compassion, right? We have to have some empathy for people that are going through it. I don't know about you folks, but me personally, I know a lot of good people who became drug addicts and who got lost to the streets. But guess what? Some of those people made a comeback. We should have just forgotten about them, not answered the phone when they called and said, Hey, look, I'm ready to get help? Certainly burying them in prison or in jail. That wouldn't have been the answer. We're not treated as humans in here, he said, referring to Rikers. Randolph says he goes without meals for three or four days and has lost about 40 pounds. At a recent dinner, a mouse was found in a pan of potatoes. For the 50 people in his unit, there are three working toilets, but they occasionally back up while someone is using them. There's one working shower. Now, does that sound like that should be happening in the United States of America? And again, I don't care if it's at a jail. Okay, we need to do better. And New York City, you folks definitely need to do better. Or rat in the potatoes. I mean, I get it. You're looking for some extra protein New York, but really? How in the hell is that helping anyone or good for anyone? And to just juxtapose this with galain Maxwell and her bitching and moaning, you think she has it bad? Her access to a computer, access to her lawyers, six different attempts at Bell, but Reginald Randolph, well, he's getting potatoes with mouse droppings in them. He's sitting in a jail cell for 800 days so far for stealing cough medicine, and this lady has the audacity to complain about her current predicament with what she's charged with. Come on, how can anyone take her seriously? And thankfully, the judges have it. But my point is, all of these people, so-called elites, the, you know, the who's who of society. None of them care about this kind of thing, how bad the prisons are, how dirty they are, what kind of shit these people deal with while they're in jail. They don't care about it when they're not affected by it because they don't have any friends that have ever been to jail, they don't have people they care about that have lived in these deplorable conditions. But then when they end up there, inevitably, well, now it's a problem. Now they're all about reform, and it's just so ridiculous to me. I'm one of the first people to shout from the rooftops about the dumpster fire. That is the Bureau of Prisons, how it needs to be reformed. And I will continue to talk about that on a regular basis because it is an absolute shithole. When I went and visited my loved one several times in different federal facilities, it was horrible to imagine that your loved one has to live in that sort of environment. So again, it's easy for people who have never had people they love or people they care about live in one of these these these jails or these prisons. And oh, well, it'll never be me. It'll never be my family. So who cares? We all should care because it's a reflection of all of us as a society. A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Corrections told New York Focus and the Appeal and a Statement. We are committed to a safe environment in our jails where every person in custody is fed healthy food and has access to functioning facilities and to services. Oh yeah, I'm sure you guys are committed. People aren't even showing up to work at Rikers Island. I have an episode that I recorded previously about the dumpster fire that is Rikers Island. I'm going to be uploading that today as well. Because obviously it's relevant to what we're talking about here. So no, they're not committed to a safe environment. They don't even have enough staff there. There is a in the episode I'm going to share it later. They had a point where people would call the jail and the inmates were answering because it's that much of a shit show there. But this is where this man, Mr. Reginald Randolph should be for stealing cold medicine. Again, I don't know how that sits right with anybody. The agency also said Randolph's housing area was inspected and all showers and toilets are operable. Food is provided regularly and they were not able to substantiate a rodent complaint like the one described. The agency's denials conflict with widespread reports of inhumane and dangerous conditions at Rikers from elected officials, incarcerated people in their family members, the federal monitor overseeing the city's jails and public defenders. So who are you going to believe? The liars that are running this shithole of a prison? Or the people who are concerned? The people who are charged with monitoring the jails themselves, the federal monitor who oversees the city jails? Yeah, they're saying it's inhumane. They're saying it's trash. It's garbage. It needs to be fixed. But you have the Department of Prisons. Well, they'll come out and they'll defend it till the very end. Don't you dare talk about our dumpster fire. This is the best dumpster fire ever trying to gaslight people into seeing things their way. Instead of just saying, look, things are shitty. We don't have the money. We don't have the resources. We need help. No, it's always cover your ass with your with these bureaucracies. And I'm tired of it. In September, the Legal Aid Society, which represents Randolph, submitted a clemency petition to the Executive Clemency Bureau, which conducts a preliminary review of applications before sending them to the governor. Legal Aid is requesting that Governor Kathy Hawkel grant Randolph emergency clemency and a full sentence commutation so he can be immediately released to the Supportive Housing Program that Legal Aid has already obtained for him. Look, this guy has the infrastructure laid out for him by the Legal Aid program. He has a chance here. Maybe the only chance the guy's ever had is it is it 100% sure that if he goes into this house that he's going to be able to conquer his addiction? No, it's not. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you, sell you guys, you know, Skittles and rainbows. Life is nuanced. Life is hard. And there's a lot of, you know, uncertainty. But even with that uncertainty, I'd much rather my tax dollars going to stuff like this to maybe help this gentleman, maybe give him a chance then to buy weapons of war or to drop bombs on people 7,000 miles away that have never done anything to me. And instead, you have people that will deny those sorts of requests. Not that's cool. We're going to keep them in jail so the taxpayer has to pay for them. And it just boggles my mind, folks. I really just don't understand that line of thinking. A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office told the appeal that Assistant DA Meg and Joy Council for collateral consequences said an email on October 15th to Joshua Norkin. The Governor's Assistant Council for Housing and Civil Rights, which says, "Under the conditions presented by Defense Council that defendant has a place in supportive housing and will go to supportive housing, we do not oppose a commutation of his sentence." That should be it right there, okay? That should have been over and done with. His sentence should have been commutated. And this man should have been moved into this housing facility so he could get the help that's needed. The Governor's Office told New York Focus and the appeal that they cannot comment on pending clementcies. Randolph's case is one of many examples of New York's continued criminalization of mental illness, substance use disorders, and poverty. As of October 15th, almost half of the more than 5,500 people incarcerated in the city's jails received mental health services according to city data. And this is another huge problem in this country. It's a taboo subject, people don't like to get into it, and that's the mental health topic. Me, I'm not like most people, I don't shy away from this kind of thing. We have an issue here, folks, and it needs to be addressed. I am certainly not capable, unfortunately, of giving you the ones and twos. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a sociologist. But I am somebody who understands that things are broken, things are wrong, and things must be fixed. The fact that we criminalize poverty is disgusting to me. It is absolutely disgusting. The stigma that is on people who are living in poverty as if they're lazy or they don't want to make anything better of themselves. Have you folks forgotten how rough it is for you in the middle class? A little bit of education, your parents might have been around a couple bucks when you were young. Life is still hard as fuck, isn't it? Now imagine having none of that. And that's where a lot of these poor people are coming from. They've never had anything, no structure, nobody to tell them they're doing a good job, and certainly nobody to put them on the right path. So just because they're a drug addict, we forget about them and bury them in prison. I'm not cool with it. Clients like Reggie have been failed by nearly every system they have touched since birth, from health care to education, housing, mental health, courts, and beyond. Legal aid attorney Jeffrey Berman, a member of Randolph's legal team, told the New York focus and the appeal in a statement. There is an opportunity to right-of-wrong here and to release Reggie from the shackles of this system so he can take a step forward in his journey of healing and recovery. It's not too late. 58 years old, a little older, right? But it's not too late. And I really hope that we get to a conclusion here where Reggie gets himself a second chance. I don't care if it's a third chance or a fifth chance. Because at the end of the day, if the infrastructure is there and the support system is there for him, maybe this is the time. Homeless, sick, and trapped in the system. Randolph's biography is replete with trauma, untreated mental illness, and institutional failures according to legal aid's filings, details familiar among those trapped in the legal system. Randolph's stepfather regularly beat him, his mother, and his siblings. Randolph left school after the eighth grade and was first arrested when he was 16 years old. By 19, he was using cocaine, LSD, and PCP. Now think about that. LSD and PCP from that age? LSD is bad enough, but PCP getting wet? Sure. That shit destroys your whole entire brain. Your whole entire brain. He's been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, polysubstance use disorder, skits effective disorder, and asthma. Homeless for more than two decades, he has primarily received mental health care when he has been locked up or at emergency rooms. Now again, think about it. You can't force somebody to want to get better, right? But my point is, if we have the infrastructure there, maybe, maybe he would have tried to get better. By the time he was arrested for stealing cold medicine in 2018, he'd been convicted of more than 50 misdemeanors and a handful of felonies. The most recent for attempted robbery, and the most recent in 2005 for attempted robbery and sale of a controlled substance. So, again, look, obviously not an angel, right? I would never try and paint someone like an angel. We're all great characters. We all have issues. Some of our issues are a lot worse than others. And again, this man obviously has serious, serious mental health issues. They need to be addressed. Putting someone in jail, putting somebody in prison, that's not going to do the trick. Although the DA's office had the discretion to charge Randolph with the misdemeanor, or not the pursuit charges at all, they chose to bump up the charges to a felony, two counts of third degree burglary, because Randolph had a no trespass order that banned him from the Dwayne Reed. Manhattan DA nominee Alvin Bragg, who most likely will be elected, wrote in his day one memo that ordinary shoplifting cases should not be charged as burglaries. Bragg, a Democrat, was not available for comment. Now look, I will never sit here and tell you I think it's cool that people go into these stores and steal and, you know, live their life that way. But I'm also not going to sit here and tell you that I want criminal penalties for charges that don't fit the crime. 800 days for stealing cold medicine. It is unbelievable. And looking at four years, shoplifting folks, that's what this is. His bell was set at $15,000, although the DA's office had asked for $20,000. Unable to pay, he stayed on Rikers Island. The current version of New York's Bell Reform Law, which went into effect last year, allows judges to set cash bell for non-violent offenses in limited circumstances. Now, if this guy was charged with, you know, human trafficking or something, and he had some dough, he'd be sitting home on his couch waiting for his case. But no, he's poor, he's indigent, low hanging fruit, easy for the prosecution to turn some numbers here. So let's get him. And that's exactly what it looks like to me. And it's gross, especially in New York, where you have people like Alvin Bragg, like the rest of these politicians who continuously preach to us, but yet can't even begin to walk the walk. More than a year after Randolph's arrest, he was accepted into Manhattan drug court. In August 2019, he was released from Rikers to an inpatient treatment program. If he didn't complete the program, but he was not arrested on a new charge, he would be incarcerated for two to four years, according to the plea agreement. He's the plea agreement he signed with the drug court. If he was arrested again, he faced up to 14 years. All over drugs, guys, and this is, this is at the, I guess, the core of my issue. The war on drugs is a failure. People like this don't belong in jail forever. They, but they need to get help. And if it's forced help for reoccurring offenders, then that's cool. Some kind of hospital setting, some sort of area where we have actual resources for these people. They can go and they talk to counselors, psychologists, learn a trade, whatever it is. But having them come in and out of jail over and over and over again is costing society on so many different levels. And still we continue to follow the same path. Randolph left the treatment program after three days. It was, it was too much, he said. It was too much coming at me. Over the next two years, Randolph picked up more shoplifting charges and tried a second court order treatment program. He left that one after almost four weeks. It was another residential program. It was basically a mental health slash drug treatment, which said Randolph, we only go out for a one hour walk a day. It was really intense. And again, look, you can't force somebody to get help, right? Not, you know, not when it comes to drugs. If you put, you could put somebody into one of these places, but when they get out, you know, things can go south quickly. And a lot of that again has to do with the fact that the resources just aren't there after they get out of rehab, then what? They go to a 90 day and how inpatient rehab, then what? It's, it's just, you know, I don't have all of the answers, right? I wish I did. I surely wish I did, but I do know for a fact that the way things are going is not the right way to go about it. Randolph's experiences in drug, a drug court are not unique. The DA's office told New York Focus and the appeal that between January 1st, 2019 and October 28th, 2021, 404 people in Manhattan's felony drug court had their cases resolved. Of those, about 47% graduated and over 50% failed out of drug court. If you don't know what drug addiction is like, I can't really explain it to you. It is all consuming, stealing your life, rewiring your brain to become literally a zombie. And again, if this gentleman had committed violent felonies and he had hurt people, I won't even be talking about this on this podcast. But when it comes to this situation, when it comes to repeat offenders because of drugs, I, I, I draw the line there. These people don't belong in prison for their whole lives. They don't belong in prison for 14 years. There needs to be a better way. Court order treatment programs are often highly regimented, emphasizing obedience and entry into the low wage workforce, according to Kerwin Kay, an associate professor of sociology at Wesleyan University, and the author of the book Enforcing Freedom, Drug Courts, Therapeutic Communities, and the intimacies of the state. Think of it like bootcamp said, Kay. There's a lot of discipline and there's a lot of rules to follow. And we all know that these guys who are using drugs or girls that are using drugs, well, they don't follow the rules as it is, right? They're not rule followers in the any sense of the imagination. These guys are drug addicts and they have a problem following the rules. So what makes anyone think that a regimented, militaristic type of drug court is going to work? For drug court participants in Manhattan, minor infractions can result in a range of punishments. For missed appointments, rule breaking at program or arriving late to drug court two times, a judge can order participants to write essays and letters or take away program privileges, according to Manhattan drug court handbook. Repeated violations of these rules can result in jail time, reads the clip art illustrated handbook. The drug court is still using prison as a threat in order to coerce people to do what they want them to do, said Kay. It's not really ending the war on drugs. It's modifying the way that the war on drugs is waged. Bingo, Bingo, and the war on drugs doesn't work. Do I have to keep saying that, I think, because it's crazy to know how many people actually think that the war on drugs is the right way to go about it. It is not. We have seen the results since Nixon announced this war on drugs and we have seen how terrible things have turned out for the nation. Deterrence and Retribution After he left the second treatment program, Randolph's chances with drug court had run out. In August, he went before criminal judge Corey Weston, herself a former public defender, to be sentenced on the charges from 2018. Before Weston's appointment to the bench in 2016, she was an attorney with legal aid for seven years and with the New York County Defender Services for almost 20 years. New York County Defender Services, which represents indigent clients in criminal cases, has publicly criticized the Manhattan DA's practice of charging people who shoplift with burglary. Look, I agree. I definitely 100% agree that we have to do better when it comes to this too. Burglary? So now people have felonies on their record and they can't get jobs when they get out. So it's the never ending cycle. What does it accomplish? When Randolph attended the sentencing hearing, he was on crutches. He had fallen in the shower. He told New York Focus and the appeal due to my vision situation. Weston sentenced Randolph to two to four years in prison. For each count, there was a mandatory surcharge of $375, which Weston deferred until Randolph is released from prison. Imagine, let me get that extra 375 on top of it. Let me get that 375. The game is so rigged, folks. And the chessboard, man, it is cocked and tilted and it's certainly not tilted in your direction. Before he was sentenced, Randolph's legal team filed a motion asking the court to reduce his charges or dismiss the indictment entirely, citing his deteriorating health and mental illness. The Manhattan DA's office opposed the motion and Weston denied it. Oh, that's nice. Nice for the Manhattan DA's office. You know, they're so busy arresting people like Mr. Randolph that they don't have time to go after people like Leon Black or Glenn Dubin, or Ehud Barak, or Jeffrey Epstein, or Galain Maxwell. See where I'm going with all of this? Dismissal of the charges could adversely impact the safety and welfare of the community. And would undermine the public's confidence in the criminal justice system. Weston wrote in a ruling, what a bunch of bullshit. Underemined the confidence in the criminal justice system. Breaking news, judge. That's already happened. Have you seen the shit show, the dumpster fire? That is the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice? It's absolutely audacious that this judge would write that in her ruling. The purpose of imposing Randolph sentence she wrote was deterrence and retribution. Oh, that's cool. We're in a retribution type of society now, huh? Okay, must be nice. Imagine living amongst the clouds, like these so-called elite, and like these judges who treat their courtrooms like mini fiefdoms. Continued incarceration will have potentially catastrophic consequences for Randolph, according to two medical experts who reviewed his records. He needs consistent, timely medical care to have any hope of preserving his vision, they wrote in letters attached to his clemency petition. But in prisons and jails, medical care for incarcerated patients is routinely denied, delayed, or inadequate. In a letter submitted with Randolph's clemency petition, Dr. Alexander Bardy, a former director of mental health services at Rikers Island, wrote that Randolph's best hope of keeping what is left of his remaining vision would be for him to be removed from a carceral setting and reside in a supportive residence. Barday warned that Randolph is also at risk of potentially fatal complications if he were to contract COVID-19. In an environment like Rikers Island or a D O CCS facility, the risk of sudden catastrophic outcome is increasingly likely for Mr. Randolph. He wrote referring to the Department of Corrections and community supervision. Now again, he didn't commit a felony a violent crime, folks. So he should just sit in his jail cell and wait to die as his health deteriorates. We're not talking about a hardened criminal here. We're talking about a poor guy, right? Somebody who has never had anything in his life, who has always stolen shop lifted to get by. That's really what it comes down to. And this guy's all of a sudden Gregor fucking Clegane. He's all of a sudden Ramsey Bolton. Come on. A life in the governor's hands sentence more than three years, three months ago, Randolph hasn't been transferred to state prison. The reason for the delay is unclear, said Berman, the legal aid attorney, and although he's been eligible for parole since July 18th, he has not yet gone before the parole board. Since his arrest in 2018, Randolph has spent more than 800 days at Rikers Island. But legal aid and Randolph supporters are not requesting an expeditious release on parole. If Randolph is granted parole, he'd likely be sent to his shelter according to legal aid. In 2019, legal aid and other groups sued the Department of Corrections and community supervision for holding people with mental illness past their release dates. There's no care about people like this. You know, they're just slipped through the margins, slipped through the cracks, and then forget it, forgotten about. And even these people who are supposed to care for them in positions of power in these jails and whatnot, they just as soon be rid of them. Legal aid amended the complaint to challenge this practice as well. Last month, the court denied DOC CCS's request to have the class action suit dismissed. His team at legal aid, Berman, along with co-council Yvonne Nix and mitigation specialist, Ifisha Julian, wants Randolph immediately released so he can move into the redemption center's transitional supportive housing program. Randolph will stay there until he moves into long-term housing with wraparound services according to Berman. This is the right way and it's the way forward. It's the way forward for people getting help. Now, does that mean everybody is going to succeed and come through this and come out the other side, not a drug addict, not having mental issues? No. But does that mean we shouldn't try? We should just give up even if some people make it through. It was worth it then because we're talking about human lives here, folks. If Randolph is released, he will receive additional support from the bridge back to life center, which will provide intensive outpatient mental health and substance dependence treatment, as well as medication management services. The organization CEO wrote in a letter to the executive clemency bureau. Medical care for his eyes will continue at Bellevue Hospital according to Berman. "We have the opportunity to get him into a transitional housing program with supportive services," said Mark Graham, executive director of the redemption center. "We're going to ensure that he's fed, has a place to sleep. Parole is not going to do that." If Graham could speak with a governor, he would tell her, "When we hear the term and the concept of travesty of justice, we're looking at it in Reginald's case." Yeah, we damn sure are. And if people can be let out of jail and into a community like this, a housing unit like this, where people are going to help them, we should be moving towards that and moving away from prison, moving away from jail. The governor's decision on Randolph's clemency petition could determine whether he continues a cycle of homelessness and incarceration, or whether he can finally attain the kind of stability and support that he's been denied for almost 60 years. Randolph said that if he is released, he plans to participate in treatment programs, take his medication, and live a normal, productive life. "I'll be able to do that because I won't have too much poverty to deal with," he said. "My attorney has me connected with the redemption center. I have living quarters there. I've never had stability in my life, and I would appreciate the opportunity to be able to have that, and I think he should be able to have that." Now, I know a lot of you out there might think differently, and a lot of people are hard when it comes to convicts, and honestly, I used to be like that myself a little bit too, but there's a lot more gray area than that. There's a lot more than, "Well, you did something wrong going right," and when we have people like this gentleman and his situation, I don't see how anyone could be against him leaving prison or jail and going into one of these facilities, because we know he has no shot in jail. We know he has no shot in prison, so why not provide him with the blueprint and a pathway that might end up in this man for the first time in his life being a bit happy and not being poor, depressed, and reliant on thievery and stealing to get by. I think everybody deserves at least a little bit of that in their lives, no? And if there are people willing to provide a stable environment, why in the hell would the authorities not allow it? If you'd like to contact me, you can do that at bobbykapucci@protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I at protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter @B-O-B-B-Y_C-A-P-U-C-C-I. The link that we discussed with all of the information about this case can be found in the description box. Alright folks, I'm going to upload that other episode about Rikers Island after the football game tonight, so look for that around 8.30, 9 o'clock pacific standard time. Until then folks, I hope you all have a great night.