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FIX NY COURTS

Stories of People's, Often Horrifying Experiences, with the Family and
Matrimonial Courts in New York City

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I AM BEING INCARCERATED AS A CONSEQUENCE TO 9 YEARS OF ERRORS AND ABUSES OF THE
NEW YORK MATRIMONIAL AND FAMILY COURT

My name is Marco, starting May 31, 2019 I will be incarcerated every weekend for
6 months, as a consequence to the continuous errors and abuses I have been a
victim of at the New York Matrimonial and Family Court.

The last, but not the least, of these abuses is a decision to incarcerate me
after, for over 5 years, I have been paying twice as much as the New York Child
Support Guidelines Prescribe. Half of my income was only sufficient to cover a
portion of what I was ordered to pay. This situation is also bringing me on the
verge of loosing (again) my apartment. The place my children call home.

A request to lower these amount had been pending, but not acted upon, since 2015
and prevented to be filed, prior to that. Documents and testimony proving my
position, were mysteriously lost, due process rights systematically denied.

I am hurt, I have been for 9 years, but determined to fight for what is right!

Follow my journey thought these difficult times, send me a kind word to comfort
me, share this information to help me restore a dignified life for me and my
children and fix New York Family and Matrimonial Courts.

If you are getting to this site just now, and would like to follow the updates
as they came you can start from day 1 and read on.

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on May 30, 2019October 21, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 145 – MORNING UPDATE – THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOCKING PEOPLE UP

Hi everyone,
I’m out and well.
I would like to tell you about what went on yesterday, Sunday morning.
As you know the “house” where civil inmates are held has two kinds of inmates.
Those that are in full time (typically for sentences from 2 to 12 months) and
those that get in only on weekends.

Among the people that are held continuously, some elects to be responsible of
some chores, in exchange they will get some small amount of money to use in
their commissary, or to take home once they are released.

The jobs go from be responsible to serve breakfast, lunch or dinner, there is
one single inmate right now responsible for this job, I’ll call him Mario, He is
a very nice, tall, black Puertorican guy. When he is not serving food we spend
countless hours together playing cards and, during the hour of recreation, we
often partner playing basketball. We make a good team because he is very good
and I suck (well, let’s say I just started playing it and trying to learn :), so
between the two if us makes it fair for the other players.

He is always trying to stay busy with something, a good way to keep your sanity
if you are locked up, even if i believe sometimes he takes it too far, making it
stressful for himself.

Anyway, back to the chores that people do. One person is responsible for the
general cleaning of the “house”. House is the term that is used to describe the
area, on ur floor, that is specifically designated to our group of inmates. We
are on the 4th floor of the West tower. So we call this the “4 West House”. Most
floors have “houses” and every house holds a pre-defined group of inmates. I am
not sure exactly what rules are applied to define in which house you will be
sent to. For sure in our case, all civil inmates are sent to our house.
Going back to the chores again. The person in change of it doesn’t have to do
the work, at least not all of it, in fact on Sunday mornings everyone
participate in a complete house cleaning … floors, railings, cells, kitchen,
showers, etc… Probably the youngest guy  in our house is currently in charge of
this, I will call him Lawrence. Lawrence is a, mostly reserved, large guy with
dreadlocks. He mostly hangs out with only a few inmates. When I was reading the
book on the 1971 Attica uprising he noticed it, got interested, and asked a few
questions about it, so, as i had promised to him, when i finished reading it i
gave the book to him.

The guy who used to be in charge of this was released about 10 days ago. He was
a very loud and funny guy. I will call him Rolando. He would spend most of his
time with headphones in his ears listening to music (you are allowed to buy a
small FM radio and headphones from the commissary). Sometimes he would explode
in singing and, no matter where you where, you could ear him. Sometimes he would
just scream or loudly accuse someone playing card with him to be cheating. When
coming back from recreation or from another location outside the “house” he
would often scream “the ruler is back … the ruler is back”. On Sundays, when it
was time for everyone to take care of the cleaning, he would always scream “if
you don’t help, you will get no chicken” (At noon, on Sundays, we get a coveted
good meal, roasted chicken). He would then continue: “If you did not help don’t
even come out at lunch, there will be no chicken for you”… He would go on for a
while until most people were out and working. He had a very special way of doing
this, never offensive and always with a hint of self irony. The first or second
weekend i was in he was one of the first people to approach me and offered me
some coffee, which saved my sanity for that day. He is now out, i’m very glad
for him.

Another chore is called SPA, not exactly sure what the “A” stands for, but it is
“Suicide Prevention Something”. At any given time there is someone taking this
role. So that even while other people are locked into their cells, the
designated person is outside with the correction officer (C.O.) helping making
sure that no one will attempt to commit suicide. You are supposed to every so
often walk around etc… Even at night someone is staying awake to take care of
this chore. At least two people are currently on this task, i’m not sure if a
third person might have the role sometimes, people that are in full time have
better knowledge of these things, while, people that go in only on weekend, get
to see only a portion of this.

During a portion of the day Mr. Bell (made up name) is in charge of SPA. He is
an interesting person. By looking at him you know that something bad happened in
his past that deeply affected who he is, at the same time you can see that deep
in, he has a good heart, even if it is just not always easy to reach it. If you
spend some time with him, you can surely notice is that he has “issues” with
hanger management and I also happen to know he is aware of it, even if incapable
of controlling it. When something triggers him he can get very hangry and
threatening very fast. Some time ago he mentioned having served time in the
past, at that time, an inmate asked him what was the reason, his answer was:
“You don’t want to know!”. As far as I know, nobody asked him after that.

I said “i also happen to know he is aware of it” because last week I noticed him
getting increasingly hangry and starting to scream at a C.O. For what i could
observe the C.O.was not sure how to handle it and I felt he was about to get too
much on Mr Bell face, which would have caused a chain reaction and escalate the
whole problem. Knowing that I have a friendly relation with him I then
approached Mr. Bell and, with a smile in my face, I placed my hand on his
shoulders and said “Why don’t you leave this poor C.O. alone?”. His reaction was
surprising to me, he patted me in the back, possibly a bit too hard, I said
“that’s too hard! You could hurt me”. He moved away and stopped focusing on the
C.O. and nothing happened. However later in the day I again noticed him in a
corner clearly getting frustrated and hangry, this time when I went toward him
with a smile, thinking i could again pacify him, he just said “You need to go
away now!”. I took that as his way to tell me, “I know i’m getting frustrated
and hangry and might not be able to fully control myself, so don’t come near me,
please”. So i nodded to him, and left him alone. Half hour later, he was again
fine, not hangry, and smiling, we played cards and everything was fine. So this
second episode from last week made me believe that he is aware of his hanger
issues, clearly doesn’t have a way to resolve them by simply willing the hanger
away, but sometimes he is capable of removing himself from the situation and
wait until things calm down.

At night another inmate takes the SPA role. Here I will call him Cesar. He is
one I spoke about before, here. Basically, at 9pm, when everyone else goes to
sleep, Cesar stay up with the C.O. and make sure everyone is ok. This of corse
also means that he doesn’t go to sleep until very late. Cesar is also a good
guy, he has a puertorican and greek background and a number of interesting
stories to tell. He did not use to play cards at all, but since he is locked in,
he has spent many hours playing. He is also one of Mario’s and I regular
adversary when we play basketball.

Now that I have introduced you to the people, let’s go back to this past
weekend. Every Sunday morning, at 8am, right after the lock-in that happens
between 7am and 8am, everyone in the house is collectively cleaning everything.
This past Sunday Lawrence started to go around the house screaming insults at
everyone  (but at no one in particular) that was not helping cleaning. I think
this was an attempt at emulating Rolando, but, of course, that’s just my take on
it. In any event i don’t believe that Lawrence wanted to insult anyone in
particular, he just wanted to make some noise and (independently on if he is
right or wrong) felt he had the right to do it. Cesar, however, was trying to
sleep after having just finally gone to bed. So it is no surprise that he did
not like the fact that someone was screaming curse words in front of his cell.

The situation rapidly degenerated with the two of them exchanging insults. The
C.O. present at the time unfortunately did not really helped either. She also
started screaming at them, telling them to stop screaming, which did not help.
Little by little, also with the help of other inmates, both of them kind of
stopped. Unfortunately Mr Bell got into it. I think he just got triggered by the
situation and could not stop himself.

He also started to scream, but this time with a level of hanger in his voice
that made it very threatening. He was screaming a Cesar. The C.O. got very
alarmed. In the meantime she called for backup so there were 2 or 3 C.O. in the
house at this point. Suddenly Mr Bell ran to his cell as if he was going to get
some kind of made up weapon to attack Cesar with. He actually went to get some
kind of gloves he uses for exercise. And started to get every second more
agitated.

At this point i knew better than try to calm him, the chance to relax him was
long gone. I just observed what was going on. He started to smash something on
the table where Cesar was sitting and, beside insults, started to actually
threaten Cesar. “I will kill you!” he said multiple times. He had completely
lost it, the rest of the day i kept wondering what could have been done
differently to prevent the escalation.

More C.O. arrived. They were able to remove Mr Bell. They took him to the
“intake” area and, most likely, locked him in a cell until he calmed down.

Things sort of calmed down. But then the “turtles” arrived as well. The turtles
are C.O.’s wearing a high protective gear, usually with a baton and a large
shield. I was near the door as they arrived. Under the armor I recognized a
Captain that usually escorts me out of the building on Monday morning, a nice,
responsible and calm woman. So i told them there was no need for it (at least
not anymore). Another inmate also addressed them with a laugh, saying “That’s
overkill”. I like this guys, often smiling and funny, even when talking about
serious things. The C.O.’s, all geared up, looked at us a bit surprised, I’m
sure they were called in by someone telling them there was a fight and when they
arrived nothing was happening and two people with a smile on their face welcomed
them 🙂
In any event they handcuffed Cesar and left.

An hour or more later Cesar came back. Calmly he got back in the group and
apologized for having over reacted. Fortunately it doesn’t look like he will
face any consequences for what went on. A couple of hours after Cesar came back,
also Mr. Bell came back. He stayed pretty much away from anyone the rest of the
day. It looks like he will suffer some kind of consequence, hopefully nothing
too serious.

I feel that being in jail really messes with people mind and self control and at
the same time does not solve any problem. It is likely to create problems and
i’m not aware of ever having solved any. For sure society needs to be protected
by the most violent people but what jail does is actually exponentially increase
the violence and the likelihood that people will behave violently. In the USA i
feel this is a increasingly important issue.

I hope I have not worried you with the recount of this past weekend. I will only
need to go back in for another 5 weekends, I trust that the time I will have
spent in and the experience will become a powerful ally in fighting for justice.
Keep the good vibes coming, is working 🙂
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on October 21, 2019October 21, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 142 – EVENING UPDATE

Hi everyone,
is Friday again. This is just a quick update, mostly to let you know that I do
not have any significant update to report.
I’m about to go in again.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on October 18, 2019October 21, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 135 – EVENING UPDATE

Hi Everyone,
This last week went by like it was a single day. I feel I was able to achieve
only a small portion of the things I wanted to achieve and it is already Friday.
It is frustrating, but it is the way it is.

Hi Everyone,
sorry about the silence this week, i simply had too many things to take care of
and I had nothing new to report.
I am about to go in again this weekend.

Often, before going in, I make plans of things I should do on the inside, my
instinct makes me feel that I need to do something useful to composite for the
time i don’t have during the week. Unfortunately these plans are often not met.
I realized that while it is good to make plans to not allow the time to go to
waste, it is unreasonable to feel bad about not meeting the plans. The reality
is that most of the energies, once you are in, are spent avoiding or
circumventing the bad feeling that a jail brings.

Please send good vibes.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on October 11, 2019October 21, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 128 – EVENING UPDATE

Hi Everyone,
This last week went by like it was a single day. I feel I was able to achieve
only a small portion of the things I wanted to achieve and it is already Friday.
It is frustrating, but it is the way it is.

I am getting ready to spend yet another weekend in jail. This weekend I hope to
collect some detailed account from one or two fellow inmates. So paper and a pen
are a must.

I have no much else to report for the moment.
Please send good vibes, I never know what awaits me in these weekends.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on October 4, 2019October 21, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 126 – MORNING UPDATE – SOME SITUATION IS CRAZIER THAN MINE

Hi everyone,
Things over the weekends are ok and, unfortunately, feeling “normal”. A good
thing from the point of view of confort, but not what I would like.

This past weekend I was talking with a few inmates about the legal process that
brought us there. One of them often talks about how crazy is his situation, but
this time I was able to get a sense of what he really means. At one point he got
up, went to his cell, and came back with some court papers that he gave to me to
read. I could not believe what i was reading.

These papers were from a motion. filed by his ex. The text of it was absolutely
crazy. In this motion he (and his attorney) was referred to as “the evil empire”
or “the evils”. The whole thing, about 5 pages, did not provide any fact, it was
a whole tirade on how hard her life was and how everything was his fault
(without ever mentioning why, beside he is evil). Apparently after a few
hundreds of these motions or petitions some Judge has ordered that she could no
longer file any new petition. But she ignored it and just continues.

The other crazy part about his situation is that he doesn’t have any debts, yet
he is still looked up and had been unable to get the judge to explain why. My
guess is that it is because he is evil 🙂

BTW, from my experience spending weekends with this guy, he is a very
compassionate individual, spending a lot of his time helping other inmates. 

I really need to get his full story and report it here, it is completely crazy
and, if you are looking at it from the right angle, it is actually pretty funny,
even he is able to laugh about it. In any event it brought my view of my
situation into a whole different light.

Thanks everyone. Keep the good vibes coming, they help a lot.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on October 2, 2019October 21, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 121 – EVENING UPDATE – CONTINUE THE RECOUNT OF THE INTAKE PROCESS

Hi Everyone,
as i am getting ready to go “in” another weekend I will continue the recount of
the intake process as it happened two weeks ago. You can check the “Day 110”
post here to remember how it began.

In any event, we were in a “intake” holding cell, observing what was going on in
the large room.

Looking out the plexiglass windows we are usually able to estimate when they
will finally move us to our next step, in this case, change into jail clothes.
We are usually able to recognize “our” folders when handled by a C.O. Like i
mentioned in the prior post the place looked and sounded like a beehive. people
constantly moving and a constant noise.

If you need anything, the only way to get someone’s attention is to bang on the
windows. there is, what i believe to be, a sort of art of banging on the
windows. You don’t want to be banging too hard, in one hand because it is not
nice, but also because you don’t really want to piss off the C.O.’s whose
attention you are trying to get. At the same time you can’t be too delicate or
nobody will even notice.

You also need to pick the right moment so that you are noticed, the officer you
are trying to get attention will be able to acknowledge you, and you’ll be able
to get quickly, with a gesture, or with a look, your message across.

If you fail the moment, the amount of noise or the look/gesture you missed your
opportunity. So, as you can see, it is really an art. Multiple times we bang to
prone the C.O. to bring us to the change room, but today they are too busy and
time passes.

Suddenly we see something we did not expect. In the room the is a woman
prisoner. The Correction Officers population is both male and female, but, as
far as we know the Manhattan Detention Center is a male only prison. I notice
that the intake room noise level has gone down a coupe of notches.

She is wearing her pants inside out and something is keeping them tight around
her waste. She seems to also have added some decoration on the sides, at the
level of her hips. Once she turns around i realize that she is actually a
transgender individual and a million questions come to my mind.

What are the rules for prisons for transgender people? It looks like they did
not go based on her gender preference, or did they let her choose? Is it because
she did not make an “official” gender change in her papers? How is she going to
be treated by the C.O.’s? What about by the inmates? I am particularly concerned
on the way she might get treated by fellow inmates.

I continue to observe and hope to be able to somehow give her a sign of support.
She is moving around and she is clearly aware that a large portion of the room
is looking at her. That can’t feel right! I notice that she makes sure to not
cross her eyes with anyone.

Suddenly the unexpected happens. In a holding cell just near by her there is a
guys. He looks like the stereotypical thug, if you are a hollywood movie
producer looking for someone looking like a thug you should ask and find out who
this guys is and hire him.

One would think that he would start bullying the poor soul. Instead they start
having a conversation via a vent of his holding cell. It is clear that they did
not know each others and it is also clear that the conversation is cordial.
After a while they are smiling and laughing. I am relieved, things are better
than what i though.

Finally the call us out to go change our clothes. You get out of the holding
cell and reach a separate room, accessed from the back of the intake room. Here
there are 4 stalls and 4 showers. That’s were you change, i guess you could also
take a shower if you wanted. We are given our yellow bags that contain our jail
clothes. The two friends whose jail clothes had gone missing are given new ones
and a new yellow bag.

Once you are changed you return the yellow bag, this time with your “outside”
clothes. Then exit the changing room from the opposite side which lead you into
the opposite side of the “intake” room. Before returning in the intake room they
have a weird chair that allows them to check that you don’t have any metal
hidden in your cheeks or in you rectum.

You basically sit on it and lay you cheek on a spacial plate. if it detects any
metal it shows it. I checked with my glasses (that have a metal frame) if it
really works, once, and it does. I tossed the glasses on the chair and the
lights went up.

Going back in the intake room I walk in front of a rows of cell where a number
of inmates are held. I see her in one of these cells, by herself. I look at her
and try to signal “you’ll be ok!”. With a slight movement she signal back, “yes,
thank you”.

We are now transferred to the medical section. To go to it we walk though a
bridge corridor that connects the two buildings that constitute the Manhattan
Detention Center. From the outside you can see the shapes of the people walking
through.

At the medical center there are typically two C.O. One behind a deck by the
entrance, managing the holding cells of the medical area, while another is
closer to the actual medical personnel, at the and of a corridor, and handled
the inmates that are seeking the nurses or the doctors.

Some of the medical personnel has been working there for some time, but a
portion is constantly new and under trained.

The main room C.O. complains that we have some brow bags (the bags that we bring
in to carry a change of sucks or underwear). One day she decided that we should
not bring these bags to the medial section. It is completely arbitrary, if she
is not there no one has ever had a problem about it.

She seems to handle pretty much anything that comes her way in the same fashion.
She is constantly telling her fellow C.O. why they did something wrong and why
they need to do it again. Most of her co-workers look toward the sky and comply
to her request. But today the C.O. that escorted us here doesn’t want to take
it.

They argue for a good five minutes. Eventually a few of us also get into it. At
the end a compromise is reached. The C.O. that escorted us will bring our own
bags back to the intake room and give them back to us once we are done with the
medial. She was asking that he take us back to the intake have us leave the bags
there somewhere, and then take us back to medical…

At the medical we are also kept in holding cell waiting for our turn to be
checked. We are checked twice, first a nurse checks our temperature and pressure
and take basic informations. Then you are taken back to the cell. Finally a
doctor call us and finalizes everything. If you need a medicine, they will
prescribe it and give it to you.

Once everyone has gone through this process we are finally ready to go to our
“house” where our cells are located. It takes quite some time for everyone to be
done, but finally we are ready to go.

A quick stop in the intake to get back our brown bags and we are headed to 4
West. But before going upstairs we ask the two inmates that have in the meantime
started to work in the intake room for some breakfast,. Which is basically a few
small packets of cinnamon cereals and small carton of milk. This is a “must” as
breakfast is probably already done upstairs

We arrive to our cell at about 6am.

Ok, I now need to go to start a process similar to the one I just finished
telling you about.
Thanks to everyone.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on September 27, 2019September 27, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 119 EVENING UPDATE – I’M TRYING TO KEEP UP WITH MY LIFE

Hi Everyone,
many of you have written to me asking for an update or making sure I was ok.
Sorry for the lack of updates, I am trying to keep up with my life, and
partially failing at it. In any event, in ok.

Last week I left you in the middle of a “intake story” tat i will get back to.
First I wanted to update you on a funny and unbelievable little story that
happen this past Sunday.

Like many days while in, i was paying cards with a few other inmates. Something
else that was going on was that the NY Giants were playing and most other
inmates were waiting the game.

We all were crowded near the kitchen area. While four of us were playing card, a
dozen of friends were passionately watching the game. Every so often something
happened in the American football game and the commotion would  make us stop
card game for a moment, and then get back to it.

Early on in the game (i think at the beginning, but i could be wrong) the
adversary team (which i forgot who they were) scored a touch down. After a touch
down in American Football a player is going to kick the oval ball and, if he can
get it inside the big sort if goal they have, the team gets more points.

At that moment I had stopped playing for a moment, while looking at it I tell
the people around me, “he is going to miss”. It was simply a sensation, an
intuition. Then I add “does it even happen?”. No time for everyone to answer, he
missed.

Everyone is screaming and everyone thinks it is thanks to me. But i explain, i
didn’t cause it, i just sensed it, the way he was going toward the ball, or
something like that, told me he was going to miss…

I continue to play cards while the rest continues to watch the game. The game is
fairly equilibrated with the Giants constantly trying to catch up but always a
few points behind. Toward the very end they finally get a few points ahead.
Literally a few seconds before the end off the match the adversary teams scores
another touch down and get to be one single point behind the NY Giants. They now
have to kick the oval ball in, if they do they win.

Everyone in the area is calling for me “Marco, you have to jinx them again … you
have to!” people say. I answer that I had not jinxed anyone, just felt it when
looking at the guy going to kick the ball. “Say that he is going to miss it!”
Say Andre (made up name) a new guy that I met on the way in on Friday.

“There is no point in me saying anything” I explain. “Once i can see the player
going to kick the ball i’ll tell you what i feel”, I compromise.

“He is going to miss again” I say, secure, once i can see him, again i was sure,
it was a distinct feeling. Well, he did, i think it probably never happened
before that a professional player would miss twice in the same game (but i might
be wrong on this one).

The entire “house” exploded. Everyone screaming and everyone sure the NY Giants
won thanks to me.
Funny things happen sometimes.
I’ll get back telling you more interesting stories soon, I promise.

Maybe the good vibes sent to me did it? Thank everyone,
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on September 25, 2019September 27, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 110 – MORNING UPDATE – THE DYSFUNCTIONAL INTAKE PROCESS

Hi Everyone,
before anything else, let me tell you that I am ok. Nothing bad happened over
the weekend.
I’d like to walk you through the “intake process” that every Friday night every
“weekend warrior” goes through. I have previously reported some bits and pieces
of this, sorry if some of it is going to be a repetition.

We are supposed to report at the Manhattan Detention Center at 6pm. Taking
advantage of the fact that I live very close, I usually go by at 6, just to
check the situation and then go back home for a while. The reality is that all
weekend warriors already know that the intake process will not really start
until much later, usually sometime between 10pm and minding .

We ring the bell at the 125 White Street, the guards at the entrance usually
just signal with their hands to come back later, or, if they don’t signal,
sometimes they let us in for a moment, make us sign in  and then tell you that
they will call us in later. 99% of the time the guards are very courteous. They
might say “go get something to eat and come back” or “Don’t go too far and come
back in a couple of hours”. or simply “they are too busy upstairs, they will not
come to pick you guys up for a while…”.

Some weekend there is someone “new”. If that is the case we take him under our
wing. Make sure he doesn’t feel lost or scared.

My understanding is that at 6pm the intake room is extremely busy with many
other activities and consequently it is not feasible for them to let us in at
that time.

This past Friday was a particularly busy day. At around 8pm a bus full of
policemen in riot gear is outside the jail complex. Something must have happened
inside.

The bus leaves and we remain outside waiting. Things are calm now, at least on
the outside of the building. Shortly after minding we are finally called in. A
Correction Officer (C.O.) has come down to escort us to the intake room. One by
one we go through a metal detector by the entrance. We pack our belonging into
brown bags. Some of us also has a separate brown bag that will be carried
inside. This second bag usually contains a few things like a book, a change of
socks or underwares, etc…

The brown bag with our belongings (which is referred as our property) is then
left in a small closet, we will recoup it on the way out. From there we are
taken to the “intake” room, located on the second floor.

The intake room is a large room with a u shaped desk behind which a number of
C.O. are working fulfilling a number of tasks. All around there are 8 or 9
holding cells of various sizes. Last Friday virtually all cells were occupied.
Some by one individual and some by multiple people. Some of the people in the
cell is wearing jail clothes, which consist of light brown pants and top, with a
pair of black, 3 velcro straps shoes. Some are i9n their plain clothes.

It is called the “intake” room, but it is actually the “intake”, the “outtake”,
and the “just passing through” room. We look at the number of people and we
realize that it will be a while before we are done and can finally go to sleep.
They make us wait for am moment, get one person out of a holding cell and escort
him to the back. Then we are invited to enter the free cell. On the sides of the
cell are 3 benches built out of cement and attached to the walls. On the back a
half height wall hiding a toilet, the front has the door and two plexiglass
windows facing the intake room.

From these windows you can pretty much follow everything that goes on in the
room. Today there is an exceptional number of C.O.’s. I count at least 12 of
them, 4 of which are “white shirts” meaning captains or higher grades officers.
On normal days i usually see only one captain with 3 or 4 additional people
working. I recognize at least half of the people working.

Partially because of the high number of C.O. present the room feels like a
beehive. People going one way, people going another. As usual someone is some
cell is banging on the plexiglass asking for attention. Across our cell the is a
smaller cell with only one man inside, he is wearing a white kufi. He is
observing with great attention what is gong on in the room, and in his look i
recognize mine the first day i was brought here, Later we will discover that he
is also a “civil” just taken here from the Queens Family Court.

The work in the room advices slowly, a few inmates from another cell are
transferred toward the “medical” area, while a few more seem to be coming back
from medical. The least number of people in “medical” the faster we will go
through our intake process.

A C.O. inform us that they cannot locate the clothes of two of us. Every time we
go out we pack our “jail” clothes into a specific yellow bag tagged with our
name, and very time we come in we are given this bag to hold our “civil” clothes
that will be returned to us when we leave. Behind the intake room, there is a
changing room, before entering this room there is a gated closet where all the
yellow bags are kept. Every once in a while a bag gets lost.  This means that
you will get new clothes, but it also means that our processing time will
increase as the C.O. looks for a jail uniform of your size. My yellow bag was
lost last week, but this week is readily available.

Ok friends, I am really enjoying writing this recount of Friday night, but it is
getting late and I still have a few things to accomplish today. I will continue
this story, either tonight to tomorrow.

Thank you for everyone’s support, i feel it every day.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on September 16, 2019September 27, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 107 – EVENING UPDATE – ANOTHER WEEKEND READING

Hi Everyone,
starting about 5 or 6 years ago, almost suddenly, whenever i would pickup a book
I would read for 5 or 10 minus and then put it down. I did not immediately
realized why and I was getting hangry at myself for “not wanting to read
anymore”.Time to read had already been scarce pretty much since the time my
daughter was born, and now, even when i was able to find the time, i would
simply stop almost immediately.

Reading was something I had always enjoyed since i was a kid, so i could not
explain it.

Then suddenly i realized that the reason i did not want to read was not because
i didn’t feel like it, or that i was becoming “lazy”, but more simply, my eyes
did not work the way they used to.
Got a pair of reading glasses and the problem was solved. But, of course, the
time was still scarce.

So, i should be thankful that this weekend I will have pretty much as much time
to read as i could possibly have 🙂

As you might have guessed i’m about to go in, again. Trying to bring with me the
best attitude i can.

Please send good vibes and everything.
Love,
Marco

Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on September 13, 2019September 27, 2019Categories
Uncategorized


DAY 105 – EVENING UPDATE – I DID NOT SEND AN UPDATE ON MONDAY

Hi Everyone,
like many of you pointed out I did not send an update on Monday and I am now
(Wednesday night) finally sending it out. Sorry about it. I have been running
like crazy and could not find a moment to sit down and write.

Nothing new happened last weekend at the Manhattan Detention Center. Again
blankets and mattresses were gone. But at least this time it was possible to get
them within a reasonable amount of time. However they did not have any pillows.

For the rest, again, i played cards, talked etc…

I have a lot of things that i would like to share, but I need a bit more time
(and not close to midnight) to write it down. So i hope to get some time
tomorrow.

Thank to everyone.
Love,
Marco


Author fixnycourtsadminPosted on September 11, 2019Categories Uncategorized


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THE RIGHT TO AN ATTORNEY

Little by little, and in autobiographical style, a written recount of the events
that brought “M” here.

You can read it here. Be Patient, I’m still at the very beginning.


RECENT POSTS

 * Day 145 – Morning Update – The consequences of locking people up
 * Day 142 – Evening Update
 * Day 135 – Evening Update
 * Day 128 – Evening Update
 * Day 126 – Morning Update – Some situation is crazier than mine


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Right now this site is dedicated to efforts to hold New York City Family and
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This is not about accusing, but rather about taking responsibility and fixing.
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all human.

People’s experience with the courts has been that errors accumulate on top of
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Looking at the future this site doesn’t have to be limited to Family matters,
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