Letter: Mentally ill don't belong in jail
In a recent letter, a mental health professional from a nonprofit agency working inside the Suffolk County Correctional Facility wrote that he finds it disturbing to have witnessed mentally unstable inmates restrained with shackles and face masks ["Better oversight of mentally ill inmates," Jan. 21].
I have long stated that individuals with mental illnesses are significantly overrepresented in correctional settings, and these offenders simply can't be treated for their mental illnesses in jail. Poor policy decisions and state budget cuts for psychiatric services have shifted the burden of housing mentally ill people on to local jails.
It is often necessary for mentally ill inmates to be segregated because the stress of confinement can exacerbate their conditions. They can become aggressive and pose serious danger to our officers, other inmates and themselves. While our correction officers have empathy for mentally ill inmates, they often have no choice but to use appropriate restraints, including facial "spit" masks designed to protect them from illness transmitted through saliva.
As in the past, I will continue to raise awareness of these issues with county and state officials, who must ultimately take responsibility for developing appropriate supervision and alternatives to incarceration for those who tend to commit nuisance crimes because of their severe mental illness.
Vincent F. DeMarco, Riverhead
Editor's note: The writer is the Suffolk County sheriff.
No way to win on local tax bills
By now, every homeowner in Nassau County should have received the latest general tax bill. And if the homeowner signed up with one of those tax-grievance law firms, he or she probably also got another bill for 50 percent of his supposed tax savings. What a shock this second bill is!
Real estate taxes are computed by multiplying assessed value by the county's general tax rate and your school district's tax rate. If you win your tax grievance, your assessed value goes down. Yay!
However, Nassau County and the school district still want to collect the same amount of total revenue. So they increase their tax rates to make up for the decrease in assessed value. No surprise there. Your total net taxes may go down a little, but -- and this is the reason for my letter -- not as much as the tax-grievance firm claims you saved. They want to be paid 50 percent of the decrease in assessed value multiplied by the latest, and higher, tax rate.
A friend told me his actual taxes went down by $600, but the bill from the law firm claims it saved him $1,000, so it wants to be paid $500. He sure doesn't feel like he saved anything.
Neither my friend nor I want to file a grievance again, but as the saying goes, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. We know that if we don't sign up, our taxes will definitely go up. The system stinks.
John Campanella, Albertson
My latest tax bill has increased about 10 percent over last year.
When the Tanger Outlet Center was proposed for Deer Park, I attended the meetings held by officials. The people were assured that taxes from the mall would help hold down residential tax bills. What a joke this has turned out to be.
Could it be that politicians exaggerate or don't always tell the truth?
Charles Romano, Deer Park
NY Senate must vote on equality act bill
Women across the country won a major victory 41 years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed our right to safe and legal abortion ["Worthy laws for women still waiting," Opinion, Jan. 9]. Who knew that we'd still be fighting for a woman's ability to make her own reproductive decisions 41 years later?
Since 2010, we've seen an unprecedented assault in state legislatures and in Congress designed to chip away at access to safe and legal abortion. According to recent data compiled by the independent research organization the Guttmacher Institute, more than 200 restrictions on abortion access have become law since 2010. The result: More than half of American women of reproductive age live in states where access to abortion is obstructed. New Yorkers have it better, but make no mistake, our rights are at risk too.
In a recent column, Anne Michaud claimed that important women's rights laws are being "held hostage" by the reproductive health provision in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed 10-point Women's Equality Act. We disagree. The blame for failing to pass the act falls on the New York State Senate and its leaders' refusal to take an up-or-down vote on all 10 points of the act as a single package, as their colleagues in the Assembly did last year.
It's time for the Senate to vote. Every woman deserves to know where her senator stands.
Reina Schiffrin, JoAnn Smith
Editor's note: The writers are the presidents of Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic and Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, respectively.
