NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- The chair of the City Council’s criminal justice committee announced her intent to question the Department of Corrections at an upcoming preliminary budget hearing after two Rikers Island inmates died two days in a row and a scathing report was released by a court ordered federal monitor on Wednesday.
“The atrocities as detailed through data and horrific anecdotes confirm what advocates have been telling us for years: the conditions in New York City jails are far beyond the realm of normal and, to quote the monitoring team, ‘defy sound correctional practice,'” said Councilmember Carlina Rivera in a statement.
The report, which Rivera described as “a devastating portrait of egregious inhumanity and human rights abuses against all New Yorkers,” found abuse by guards went unchecked, over 1,400 staff are listed as out sick on any given day and record keeping is in disarray.
The rate of violence in New York City jails is seven to eight times higher than comparable correctional systems, according to the report.
Carlina links DOC mismanagement of staff to “soaring rates of use of force and violence in jails” and “lack of compliance with elementary safety and security protocols.”
Two inmates died at Rikers Island on Thursday and Friday respectively, bringing the total number of deaths at the prison this year up to three. The city has not yet announced the cause of death for any of the inmates who died this year.
Last year, 16 inmates died at the prison or shortly after leaving.
Eric Adams proposed allocating $1.2 billion to the DOC in his 2023 preliminary budget. The budget needs to be approved by City Council before it can be enacted, and Carlina implied that the DOC’s budget could be affected if the agency doesn’t increase transparency, accountability and legal compliance.
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