“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 refused to sign 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. It now must be signed by Governor Hochul before it can become law.
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.