I was watching Vinny Schiraldi for years before he ever heard our name, let alone came on The Radical Bureaucrat podcast.
I lived in DC for two years in the early 2000’s, during which time I worked in city government and my wife worked for the Maya Angelou Public Charter School, a school devoted to supporting formerly incarcerated students. So I started hearing about the juvenile detention facility for DC youth, the Oak Hill Youth Center. It sounded horrible. Like a nightmare, really.
A few years later I started hearing about reforms, how the same people that started Maya Angelou were going to create a charter school for the students at Oak Hill, and that the whole youth jail was going to be razed and rebuilt. I didn’t know it at the time, but Vinny was leading the charge.
When Vinny took over the Department of Probation here in New York City in 2010, I put two and two together and realized he was the same guy who had led the reforms in DC. And from my seat in the NYC Department of Education, where I support educational re-entry, I saw close up how Probation was creating new programming for court-involved youth while drastically decreasing the number of youths sent to correctional facilities. I also had a chance to visit Maya Angelou Academy at New Beginnings Youth Development Center in 2012 and saw beautiful buildings, committed staff, and quality programming just yards from the abandoned and infamous Oak Hill facilities.
So when I saw Vinny speaking about collaboration between government agencies and community activists on a panel at the Beyond the Bars conference last spring, I knew we had to get him for the podcast. I cornered him in the elevator, and he said yes.
The rest is in episode 1.4 of the podcast, “Dream Boldly…” Vinny is humble and forceful, a whip-smart learner, and a dynamic guest. The podcast is for everyone, and we think this one will especially resonate with folks with an interest in ending mass incarceration and/or who want to hear from a transformative leader.
Please note that the episode was taped in the Spring of 2018. During the interview Vinny references the number of youths in Horizon and Crossroads Juvenile Justice Centers. Since then, the Raise the Age legislation has gone into effect and the 16 and 17 year-olds who were formerly incarcerated on Rikers Island have been moved to Horizon.
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