A horror house of abuse and neglect
September 21, 2021 6:09 AM   Subscribe

"I want to share more about what I witnessed at Rikers Island yesterday." I just returned from Rikers Island where a group of elected officials exercised our legal right to inspect correctional facilities. What I witnessed was a humanitarian crisis. A horror house of abuse and neglect....my message is simple: decarcerate.

An unrolled twitter thread by New York State Assembly Member Emily Gallagher (@EmilyAssembly) on conditions at Rikers Island, New York City's jail.

On September 19, an inmate died in Riker's Island infirmary -- the eleventh inmate death at Rikers this year.

NY's Legal Aid society is suing to obtain records regarding conditions at Rikers Island.

The Less Is More reform legislation has passed NY's assembly, but the Governor has recently signed it.


From the legislative campaign's Fact Sheet:
[PDF]


New York imprisons more people for non-criminal “technical” violations of parole like missing an appointment with a parole officer, being late for curfew, or testing positive for alcohol and other drugs than any state in the country. Of people on parole who New York sent back to prison in 2018, nearly 7,500 or 85% were reincarcerated for technical parole violations.

This is 6 times the national average. In 2019, 40% of people admitted to state prisons were locked up not for a new felony conviction but for a non-criminal technical violation of parole. The racial disparity is stark: across the state, Black people are 5 times more likely and Latinx people are 30% more likely to be reincarcerated for a technical parole violation than whites. There are approximately 35,000 people under active parole supervision in New York State who at almost any time can see their efforts to successfully rejoin the workforce and reintegrate into their families and their communities disrupted by reincarceration for a technical violation. This not only harms individual lives and families without commensurate public safety gains, but also drives up the population in the state prisons and local jails, wasting money. New York taxpayers spend more than $680 million annually to reincarcerate people for technical parole violations.

The Less is More: Community Supervision Revocation Reform Act would fix this problem...Its provisions include:

Restricting the use of incarceration for technical violations. Incarceration would be eliminated as a sanction for most technical violations. Certain technical violations could still result in jail time, but it would be capped at a maximum of 30 days.

Bolstering due process. Rather than being automatically detained in local jails, people accused of a technical violation would be issued a written notice of violation with a date to appear in court and would remain at liberty for any hearings. People on parole accused of a new criminal offense would be afforded a recognizance hearing in a local criminal court before they are detained, and the standards of the bail reform statute would apply.

Providing speedy hearings. Persons under community supervision shall be afforded a speedy adjudicatory hearing upon an alleged violation of their conditions of release. Hearings would be conducted within 30 days rather than taking up to 105 days.

Providing earned time credits. People under community supervision would be eligible to earn a 30-day “earned time credits” reduction in their community supervision period for every 30-day period in which they do not violate a condition of supervision.

The bill was passed by the New York State Legislature on June 10th, 2021.

The governor has signed the Less Is More legislation as of September 17.


This, despite that New York City paid the McKinsey consultancy -- where Pete Buttigieg famously worked -- milions to stem jail violence in a project running from 2014 to 2017; only to see it increase. (Mother Jones, 2019)

Information from a backgrounder on Rikers Island's history compiled for a Fordham class: (2020, emphasis added) [PDF]

The average daily inmate population is 10,000 per day, which increases to 20,000 per day when adding Prison Staff and visitors. The prison boasts of staff of 9,000 corrections officers and roughly 1,500 civilian employees that manages an average admission population of roughly 100,000 per year...*

The demographics of the inmate population of the Jail Complexes on Rikers Island are 56% Black, 33% Latinx/Hispanic, 7.5% White, and 3.5% Mixed Race/Other, with roughly 85% of the population in pre-trial confinement.

Economically disadvantaged individuals who are unable to pay bail are more likely to be remanded on Rikers Island. According to a 2008 report on the educational expansion on Rikers Island roughly 80% of inmates do not hold a GED, and nearly one third of all 18 to 21 year old inmates do not read past a 5th grade level.

The Rikers Island Jail complex is notable for its inmate violence and accusations of prisoner abuse and neglect. According the investigative magazine Mother Jones, Rikers Island is one of the worst prisons in America and has made several news headlines for various suicides, murders, prisoner neglect and gang related violence having occurred. The current Mayor of New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio cited his intentions to close the Complex within 10 years, which he introduced to the New York City Council which was approved. Rikers Island is scheduled to close in 2026 with four smaller detention facilities being established in each borough.


*Gallagher's thread mentions that under current Covid conditions, guards outnumber inmates.

Previously ("Alone," 2014) and previouslier ("America's 10 Worst Prisons," 2013).

CWs: abuse, neglect, violence, malnutrition, mental health, suicide.
posted by snuffleupagus (26 comments total) 43 users marked this as a favorite
 
Again, these conditions - which shouldn't exist for anyone - are to incarcerate people haven't been convicted of a crime but who are awaiting a hearing.

All in "Liberal" "Democractic" NYC!
posted by lalochezia at 6:21 AM on September 21, 2021 [27 favorites]


Flagged as fantastic.
posted by Gelatin at 6:27 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


This is a tragedy and scandal of epic proportions. Recently, the federal monitor wrote a letter about conditions.

And also recently, the jail's doctor wrote a letter describing "a new and worsening disaster that has developed over the last year."

It's remarkable and heartbreaking how little the de Blasio administration is doing to address these conditions, and given them, it's stunning that NYC's DAs still pursue pre-trail jailing for minor issues so aggressively.
posted by entropone at 6:41 AM on September 21, 2021 [9 favorites]


Absolutely in favor of less jail (and speedier trials!) but...shouldn't NYC be able to operate a jail without committing human rights violations, especially one where corrections officers outnumber inmates? If we can't do this then it seems like we have problems that are entirely separate from the ones decarceration would solve.
posted by goingonit at 6:54 AM on September 21, 2021 [10 favorites]


Hold up - the governor hasn't signed this? Has she released a statement clarifying why?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:56 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]


Just found this article stating that the governor has signed the Less Is More legislation.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:00 AM on September 21, 2021 [9 favorites]


Didn’t she sign it two days ago?
posted by zamboni at 7:04 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


Four days ago.
posted by zamboni at 7:05 AM on September 21, 2021 [3 favorites]


shouldn't NYC be able to operate a jail without committing human rights violations

Occam's Razor... the prison system cannot operate without committing human rights violations because the human rights violations are the whole point of the prison system
posted by lefty lucky cat at 7:41 AM on September 21, 2021 [30 favorites]


One of the officers told me, "At this point we are on the prisoners' side. We are all forgotten. We live here too. Triple shift by triple shift.”

Are they, though? Seems to me if they have all the keys to the place they could solve this issue pretty quickly.
posted by Ampersand692 at 7:52 AM on September 21, 2021 [8 favorites]


Just found this article stating that the governor has signed the Less Is More legislation.

That is great news. If a mod could replace
"but the Governor has refused to sign it" 
with
"and the Governor has recently signed it."
and delete
"It now must be signed by Governor Hochul before it can become law."
to insert (on a new line)

"The governor has signed the Less Is More legislation as of September 17."

that would be appreciated.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:02 AM on September 21, 2021 [12 favorites]


We need to empty all the prisons. Maybe not quite fully, I can see an argument for keeping truly violent people away from potential victims though I'm not really sure I think prison is the right solution.

But easily 99% of people in prison shouldn't be there. Especially in the modern world of GPS tracking anklets and so on.

There are non-carceral methods of dealing with crime.Among other things we could reduce the causes of crime by having a better welfare state. We could also end the War on Drugs. We could also decriminalize sex work.

But even with things that remain a crime dealing with it in ways other than prison seems better, and doubtless less expensive.

Someone robs a convenience store? OK, now we're watching them for at least the next 5 or 10 years, panopticon and surrendering privacy But, also, economic help. People don't rob convenience stores for fun or because they're wicked, they do it out of economic distress.

Riker's Island stands out as being especially bad, but it's the whole concept that's bad.
posted by sotonohito at 8:27 AM on September 21, 2021 [8 favorites]


If you read the monitor's report linked up above, the conclusions reached are horrifying. When the effort is this minimal, it is not surprising that people are dying ankle-deep in feces.
  • 3,500 out of 8,500 staff are unavailable on any given day.
  • DoC staff have unlimited paid sick leave, but no one verifies whether they are actually sick.
  • About 500 of those absences are not even "blue flu" -- many DoC officers simply do not report, at all. No shows. (Imagine caring so little you can't even phone in to tell your job you won't show up!)
  • The staff who do show up, refuse to do their jobs (page 7) -- doors are routinely left unlocked, unit access is uncontrolled, there is no daily routine, no one walks through housing units, staff "abandon their posts" routinely.
In America's largest municipal government, an entire department has gone rogue. Staff refuse to even pretend to do their jobs, and there are no consequences.

I would feign surprise, but the NYPD has spent the last ten years doing whatever it wants, and not only have there not been consequences, they have been showered in overtime and additional funding.

It was only a matter of time until other public sector "essential services" pulled the same stunt.
posted by your postings may, in fact, be signed at 8:30 AM on September 21, 2021 [29 favorites]


Economically disadvantaged individuals who are unable to pay bail are more likely to be remanded on Rikers Island.

The entire concept of bail is evil.
posted by Beholder at 8:45 AM on September 21, 2021 [10 favorites]


"In America's largest municipal government, an entire department has gone rogue. Staff refuse to even pretend to do their jobs, and there are no consequences.

I would feign surprise, but the NYPD has spent the last ten years doing whatever it wants, and not only have there not been consequences, they have been showered in overtime and additional funding."


I'm not sure how much control the average guard has over conditions, they have to work in this environment, of course they are not showing up. If you want to blame somebody, blame management, workers are often victims too.
posted by kzin602 at 8:48 AM on September 21, 2021 [4 favorites]


Other municipal workers don't deserve to be lumped in with NYPD and the DOC. People who work in the carceral state are part of an evil, racist system and are allowed to act with impunity. The Department of Sanitation (for example) is not.

Legal Aid is asking a federal judge to intervene, which seems like the only way anything will be done. The city council had a hearing on all this, and releasing people wasn't even on the menu. It was all more cops, more guards.
posted by Mavri at 9:10 AM on September 21, 2021 [5 favorites]


I'm not sure how much control the average guard has over conditions, they have to work in this environment, of course they are not showing up. If you want to blame somebody, blame management, workers are often victims too.

Read the monitor's report. This claim doesn't hold water.

This time a year ago, still within the pandemic, conditions were massively better. Not good, obviously -- they have a court-appointed monitor for a reason -- but massively better than today. "Blue flu" and AWOL created these conditions.

Do not leap to defend "workers" in all times and places. Especially when those "workers" are armed thugs who routinely beat detainees, 85% of whom are not known to be guilty of any crime.
posted by your postings may, in fact, be signed at 9:10 AM on September 21, 2021 [16 favorites]


I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know it was that bad.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:35 AM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]


Apparently DeBlasio has had his hands untied a bit now that the governor has signed the legislation in - but I have a hunch that "I'm a lame duck mayor who doesn't have to placate the NYPD any more" has a good deal to do with it as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:12 AM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


[Pretrial detainees] were confident these charges would be dismissed once they had a hearing but the hearing date passed and no one came to get them for it.

This is exactly what happened to Kalief Browder. I thought they were making efforts to keep that from happening again but reading up on the legislative response, it looks like they were embarrassed by having done that to a minor, not by having done it to a human being.
posted by jackbishop at 10:22 AM on September 21, 2021 [8 favorites]


If this is a "horror house," I've been hearing stories of a "gross gulag" for years. While I understand that Mrs. Gallagher was shocked, Rikers reputation was horrific in the graffiti crowd when NYC was going hard with the vandal squad way back in the early 2000s. Half of the fear was from the stories coming out of the island. Central booking AKA "The Tombs" wasn't a whole lot better.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 4:09 PM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]


Mod note: If a mod could replace

Should be all set now I think.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:04 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]


From the Monitor’s letter: “The Department has at least 3,400 recognized posts spanning at least 65 separate work locations, in addition to hundreds, if not thousands, of additional “unauthorized” posts that are created at the discretion of Facility Leadership. All posts must be evaluated to determine priority/necessity and the hours during which coverage is required. Further complicating matters is that rather than utilizing standard roster management software, staff scheduling is conducted and maintained using hand-written records at each Facility.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 6:37 PM on September 21, 2021 [1 favorite]


Thank you snuffleupagus.
posted by bendy at 7:52 PM on September 21, 2021


"Brian got busted on a narco rap
He beat the rap by rattin' on some bikers
He said, hey, I know it's dangerous
But it sure beats Riker's
But the next day he got offed
By the very same bikers"

- The Jim Carroll Band

(video if you want to go down a rabbit hole)

That said, I read a lot about criminal justice and prison and Riker's is the most horrible facility.
posted by bendy at 8:51 PM on September 21, 2021 [2 favorites]




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