District 12 City Council Member Kevin Riley and District 33 City Council Member Lincoln Restler lead a rally entitled, “A Pathway to Closing Rikers Island and Ending Mass Incarceration in NYC,” by safely reducing the jail population at City Hall in Manhattan on Tuesday, April 11,  together with other council members and advocates for the incarcerated.

 

As reported, Rikers Island jail has been plagued with bad press for many years due to, among other reasons, the number of people who have died while in custody, awaiting trial, and the number of violent incidents involving both detainees and NYC Department of Corrections (DOC) officers. Norwood News previously reported on calls to end solitary confinement at the jail. The jail has an average, reported daily detainee population of about 10,000, though it can hold a maximum of 15,000.

 

On Thursday, April 13, as reported, nine Rikers Island inmates and alleged Bloods gang members were charged with the assault of six other inmates at the jail which took place in August 2022.

 

As reported, the jail was due to close in 2026. However, according to reporting by Gothamist, delays suggest it will likely be 2027 before it is finally shuttered and replaced with new city-based jails. The new Bronx borough-based jail is slated to open at the former Lincoln Hospital and NYPD compound at 745 E 141st Street, and not at the Bronx County Courthouse, like in other boroughs. As reported, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark recently weighed in with her thoughts on the topic.

 

Riley, who represents parts of the north Bronx, and Restler, who represents parts of Brooklyn, were joined at the event by advocates from the Freedom Agenda, Independent Commission on NYC Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, NY ATI/Reentry Coalition, Vera Institute, and Reentry Hotel Coalition.

 

“Closing Rikers is a foundational part in addressing the injustices of systemic racism in our criminal justice system — the mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities, the maltreatment of detainees and deplorable conditions of the facilities,” said Riley. “Staying on track to close Rikers Island by 2027 involves a holistic approach to not only depopulate the complex, but also to reinvest and reinforce supportive resources and services to vulnerable New Yorkers. I urge our City to adopt this comprehensive plan that seeks to make headway on the journey to end the long-lasting culture of abuse and to heal the wounds of our community.”

 

The announced plan identified what were described as critical actions and investments necessary to safely and permanently reduce the jail population and get New York City back on track to Close Rikers Island. The group said there are three key principles to achieving this goal:

 

1. Prioritize Safely Moving People off Rikers Island

Advocates said the City should increase services that can effectively serve individuals with mental health needs in their communities while they await trial, including investing an additional $28M in the Supervised Release program and increasing “Alternative to Incarceration and Detention” programs. Additionally, they said, the City Council must pass legislation to require population review teams (Int. 806) and support expanding use of the 6-A Early Release program.

 

2. Expand Access to Supportive Housing

Advocates said one of the greatest barriers to release is lack of housing. They said key steps to address this include amending the homeless eligibility requirement for the NYC 15/15 supportive housing program to include time in jail as time homeless, increasing funding for Justice Involved Supportive Housing by $26 million, and investing $46M in Rapid Reentry Hotels.

 

3. Expedite Case Processing

Advocates said to dramatically lower the current average pretrial stay of 280 days, DOC should be held accountable for getting people on time to 100 percent of court dates, and the Office of Court Administration and DOC should work to maximize video conferencing. They said the City should also increase funding for indigent defense legal services organizations to ensure cases are not delayed due to staff turnover.

 

For his part, Restler said Rikers Island has long been a humanitarian crisis, but that the mistreatment of people in the jail complex leaves New Yorkers in substantially worse shape than they were when they entered it. “The Council passed legislation to end this cycle of trauma and permanently close Rikers Island by 2027,” he said.

 

Restler added, “Rather than taking steps to reduce the incarcerated population to facilitate implementation of the smaller borough based jails, the policies of the Adams Administration have increased mass incarceration in New York City. We must focus on real solutions to safely and permanently decrease the number of people in jail and give struggling New Yorkers access to the services they need.”

 

Advocates said that for decades Rikers Island has exposed vulnerable New Yorkers to trauma and instability. They said 36 incarcerated people have died in the last two years, and that 89 percent of the people on Rikers are Black or Latinx. They said Black people are jailed at 11.6 times the rate of White people in New York City and said the City Council must act immediately to end what they described as the scourge of mass incarceration in New York City and get the closure of Rikers back on track for 2027.

 

District 2 City Council Member Carlina Rivera, chair of the committee on criminal justice who represents parts of Manhattan, and who is currently on parental leave, made herself available over Zoom for a discussion on the topic.

“Holding the mayoral administration accountable to the deadline to close Rikers by 2027 has been central to my Chairship of the Committee on Criminal Justice, and I intend to continue fighting in coalition to ensure the City meets that deadline,” said Rivera. “In order to reduce the jail population to meet the needs of closing Rikers and opening borough based jails, I have introduced legislation which would establish jail population review teams for each borough to identify people in custody of the Department of Correction whose cases could be resolved or who could be safely released into the community.”

 

She added, “Streamlined case processing is just one way we can reduce unnecessary, even harmful jail time, imposed on New Yorkers. I will continue to advocate for necessary actions, including but not limited to reducing the incarcerated population, recalibrating the Department’s budget, rightsizing Correction staff, investing in services and programs that build safe communities, and centering humanity.”

 

Meanwhile, Ann Mathews, managing director of the criminal defense practice at The Bronx Defenders, said, “Too often, we see people languishing at Rikers due solely to lack of housing. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Emergency Reentry Hotels offered access to immediate, barrier-free housing and closed a long-standing gap in the City’s housing inequity.”

 

She added in part, “Investment in this type of housing, in addition to more long-term supportive housing, is critical to reducing the jail population, protecting vulnerable New Yorkers, giving them a place to land — and ultimately in closing Rikers Island. We urge the City to dedicate 46 million to permanently fund Rapid Reentry Housing.”

The City Hall press conference follows a recent action by a group of eight State lawmakers who, as reported, held a press conference at the entrance to Rikers Island Thursday, April 6, amid, they said, reports of “continued unsafe and inhumane conditions,” at the jail. The visit was scheduled as legislators awaited updates from three-way budget negotiations.

As reported, in December 2022, department officials provided an update on the latest initiatives to improve conditions at the jail, saying key indicators were showing progress in staffing levels and a reduction in violence as they continued their efforts to move the agency forward. These included the following:

• Assaults on uniform staff that involved a use of force decreased by 28.4% through December 29, 2022, compared to 2021.

• Assaults on uniform staff without the use of force or serious injury decreased by 44.7% through December 29, 2022, compared to 2021.

• Use of force incidents are down 14.4% through December 29, 2022, compared to 2021.

 

They added that searches of all kinds recovered over 5,000 weapons and over 1,300 drug contraband by the end of December 2022.  They said a major contributor towards the weapons and drug contraband seized was the department’s restarted Tactical Search Operations (TSOs) at the end of February, moving from one TSO in 2021 to 86+ in 2022. They said more weapons were recovered within the first ten months of the department’s administration under DOC Commissioner Louis A. Molina than in the yearly totals for each calendar year between 2018-2021.

 

“We are proud of the work we have done over the past year and remain laser-focused on reversing decades of neglect, investing in staff, and implementing common-sense reforms to improve the jails. We are now seeing substantial results through our efforts,” said Molina at the time. “The marked progress we are making is moving this agency forward into becoming a safer and more humane place for all those in our care and who work here and where operations are firmly rooted in only the best correctional practices. While there is still a long way to go and we are mindful that longstanding issues which pre-date this administration will take time to resolve, we are headed in the right direction.”

Other reported improvements cited by DOC at the end of last year included the following:

• the creation of an Office of Management Analysis and Planning to improve how the department reports and uses data in its decision-making process;
• the launch of a public-facing data dashboard for transparency purposes so the public can track our progress;
• the assembly of a new leadership team of dedicated, experienced, and committed professionals;
• the breaking up of gang-affiliated housing;
• over 3,500 uniform staff members trained and certified in how to utilize and deploy Narcan;
• reductions in the number of employees taking sick leave (At the start of the year, over 2,600 uniform staff were out sick. This averaged to under around 800 uniformed staff out sick in November, an approximate 69% decrease.);

• the resumption of in-person visitations due to improved staffing brought external program providers back e.g. faith-based programming, like Pastor Tim Johnson who implemented his “Fatherless No More” initiative;

• the launch of an anti-violence action plan at RNDC in March 2022, which led to an 85% decrease in slashing and stabbings as of November 2022;

• 315 windows in the Robert N. Davoren Center (RNDC) fabricated with mesh coverings to prevent individuals from breaking plexiglass, keeping both people in custody and staff safe, with such coverings in the process of being installed at the facility housing young adults;
• review and sign off by the commissioner on over 2,600 disciplinary cases in 2022, significantly reducing a backlog of cases, more than any other recent commissioner;
• implementation of a modern commissary process to improve access to commissary items for people in custody;
• the launch of a staff attendance tracking pilot program in RNDC and the finalization of the contract for a modern staff scheduling system;
• the resumption of a partnership to facilitate off-island family visitation for children with justice-involved parents, and for the first time, the extension of the program to include fathers.
• the launch of a new tablet initiative for people in custody which includes a feature affording free phone calls through the tablet, considered a groundbreaking game-changer in terms of keeping people in custody connected to their loved ones. A majority of facilities now have access to such tablets.

 

Department officials said they remain committed to creating a safer and more humane environment for all who work and live in the City’s jails.