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January 20, 2010
BONILLA WAKES UP HARLEM
By Profesor Martin Danenberg
"El Quijote del GED"
Harlem found out about the prison ministry of Alphonso Bonilla yesterday in the Harlem 4 storefront on 133 Street and Frederick Douglas Boulevard. You would think that people in government would have introduced him to the community, but he was there because I invited him. Groups of people want to work with him now in helping people who were incarcerated and people who want to know much more about the system and how it works. Bonilla had nine years of experience in Family Court and he worked in Rikers, retiring several years ago at the rank of captain. See www.mothersagainstpeerpressure.org to find out more and/or just read "GED in Rikers" by Martin Danenberg.
Alphonso Bonilla, Ahmad "Armando" Quazi, and I discussed the national and global significance of Bonilla's work outside the Harlem 4. There is a transition process that helps people, but Bonilla lays the groundwork each week by meeting with the inmates, providing them with a Bible program that they complete, discussing the GED (of course) with them, and providing them with his popular radio program on Radio Visión Cristiana. I told Alphonso and Armando that his initiative is badly needed in countries like El Salvador that has a huge number of homicides, gangs, and violence. Surely Rudy Giuliani could have suggested such programs when he was paid millions of dollars as a consultant to Mexico. I know that Giuliani told Mexico that it had to cut down on corruption, but what did he really get paid that much money for? I am puzzled. It is quite possible that Bonilla has contributed greatly to the reduction in crime in New York. The administration knows that he has cut down on the violence in jail, but we did discuss the murder of a youth whose parole violation was returning home late from work. A group of inmates beat him up and he died in his sleep from internal injuries. Now the family of the deceased is grieving and the families of the youth who attacked him and killed him are traumatized by what is taking place.
BONILLA WANTS TO DO CONCERTS FOR THE INMATES AND NEEDS HELP FROM THE NEW YORK AND GLOBAL COMMUNITIES. IF WE HELP HIM TO HELP THE INMATES, WE HELP OURSELVES AND MAKE OUR CITIES MUCH SAFER.
MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
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Profesor Martin Danenberg January 20, 2010 07:13 PM