November 1, 2024. It’s 70 degrees in Manhattan—and getting warmer. A drought has set in since summer; the downtown breeze feels less like an East River gust than a Santa Ana wind.
On the 13th floor of Manhattan’s criminal court, at 100 Centre Street, Judge Maxwell Wiley’s courtroom is stagnantly hot. Chants from outside are audible through an open window, as Daniel Penny, the defendant in this manslaughter case, on trial for allegedly killing Jordan Neely on the subway in spring 2023, enters the building: “Daniel Penny has got to pay!” As the protesters disperse following their morning session, jackhammers from New York’s progressive public works project—demolishing the Manhattan jail to make room for a citywide jail system that can hold far fewer inmates, even as the number of inmates rises—compete with courtroom voices.
