Bloomberg: Man Up!

The vaunted managerial expertise of the Bloomberg administration was on display recently when a jailed inmate was able to hold a Bar Mitzvah for his son-in jail! As the NY Times reports: "The city’s Department of Investigation has opened an inquiry into how a well-connected inmate was able to schedule, cater and host a bar mitzvah for his son — with 60 invited guests and live music — inside a jail in Lower Manhattan."

How about that-catering in the Tombs; an example of incarceration chic that is sure to catch on with all of the glitterati. But, as they say in New York, "Not for nothing" "Guests of the extraordinary jailhouse bar mitzvah, which featured a band and Yaakov Shwekey, a popular Orthodox singer, were allowed to bring their cellphones into the secure complex, and food was served on china with metal forks and knives — all violations of rules prohibiting communication devices and sharp objects that could be used by violent inmates. The New York Post reported details of the jailhouse party on Thursday. Several city officials on Thursday privately expressed near disbelief that any inmate, regardless of wealth or connections, would be allowed to turn a jail complex into a rollicking banquet hall for six hours."

Now, we know that Mayor Mike has been merchandising the city to the extent that we're sure to have the monikers of all of our famous landmarks turned into marketing devices, but we bet that even Mike hadn't thought about renting out the Tombs for Bar Mitzvahs and engagement parties.

But the NY Post, which broke the story this week, has the goods on the mayor's remake of Jailhouse Rock: "Move over, Goodfellas. The lower Manhattan lockup known as the Tombs was like a "private club" for a group of Orthodox Jewish jailbirds, whose politically connected prison-chaplain rabbi regularly treated them to feasts of roast beef, salmon and chicken with all the trimmings."

This is all way beyond mere outrage-and, "above special interests," Mike needs to act forcefully here since it appears that it's not only Albany where the inmates are running the asylum. Remember when Bloomberg, in a fit of pique, fired some lame-o employee for playing solitaire on an office computer? As the NY Post editorializes: "The jail's warden, George Okada, and two department chiefs, Peter Curcio -- who reportedly overrode the deputy warden's objections -- and Frank Squillante, also were in on the deal. So what did outgoing Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn do about it? Well, as The Post reports today, DOC Chief of Department Carolyn Thomas, who conducted an internal probe, recommended that Glanz be fired and that the others all be demoted or suspended. But Horn handed out a wrist-slap: Glanz got suspended for two weeks. The other four lost two weeks of vacation."

For real? Mike better do better: "Mayor Bloomberg wasn't saying much yesterday, other than that the parties "should [not] have taken place." Ya think? He's ordered a DOI investigation. That probe had better result in a smaller Corrections Department payroll." Corrections are certainly in order.