NYC Bar Addresses Rikers Island’s Poor Conditions

Thirteen people have already died this year at Rikers Island, and conditions there remain dire.[1] The staff at Rikers have sounded the alarm. On September 10, Ross McDonald, Chief Medical Officer at the Correctional Health Services – the city agency charged with providing medical care at Rikers – stated, “In 2021, we have witnessed a collapse in basic jail operations, such that today I do not believe the city is capable of safely managing the custody of those it is charged with incarcerating in its jails, nor maintaining the safety of those who work there.”[2] In late August, Dr. Robert Cohen, a member of the New York City Board of Correction, an independent body that monitors the jails, stated that “[e]very person they send to jail is at great risk of harm and death.”[3] Currently, the collapse of test and trace protocols for COVID-19 at Rikers have resulted in the quarantine of 20% of its population.[4]

After touring the jail complex last month, several elected officials were left aghast, describing “a horror house of abuse and neglect”[5] where feces flowed from toilets onto floors, people slept without cots or bedding, and many went unfed and without basic medical care.[6] And after years of reporting a culture of violence, “unprofessional conduct and hyper-confrontational behavior by staff,”[7] a court-appointed federal monitor explained that conditions on Rikers “have further deteriorated in the past few months with a steady increase in serious use of force incidents, a disturbing rise in the level of security lapses and unchecked breaches and failures of basic security protocols, and instances of inadequate supervision, all of which are compounded by staffing challenges.”[8] Even the primary goal of bail – to ensure that defendants appear in court – is not being met, as the Department of Correction more and more frequently fails to produce incarcerated individuals for court dates, further slowing down court processes.

Absent immediate strong action by all related stakeholders, this catastrophe will only worsen. We are grateful for the steps that have been taken to date to release some people currently detained pretrial due to this crisis, but those released thus far are just a fraction of the release numbers[9] required to improve the health and safety of those held at Rikers.  The enactment of the Less Is More Act was a critical step,[10] but the new law will not fully take effect until March 2022.

The New York City Bar Association calls on all related stakeholders to take urgently needed steps to address the crisis at Rikers.  In particular, we have urged all New York City District Attorneys to take the following actions in order to quickly and safely bring this terrifying health, safety, and human dignity crisis to an end:[11]

1. Immediately review all cases involving a detained individual, and work with defense counsel to seek dismissals, release, or non-incarcerative pleas;
2. Propose affordable bail amounts in the few cases necessitating bail, by employing independent assessment tools such as an Ability to Pay Calculator;[12]
3. Work with the Office of Court Administration to establish dedicated courtrooms in each borough for judges to review detained individuals’ cases daily and grant release whenever possible;
4. Engage the Department of Correction to facilitate cases’ speedy resolution by increasing video conferencing capacity at Rikers housing units so that people may attend court virtually;[13]
5. Encourage the Mayor and City Council to fund existing social service providers to establish pop-up sites at the entrance to Rikers, so that, upon release, people have access to basic needs like food; Metrocards; and assistance with housing, treatment, and public benefits that will help them safely regain a footing in their communities and return to court.

The City Bar continues to strongly support closing the correctional facilities on Rikers Island.[14] However, New York’s officials must take necessary steps now to secure Rikers and ensure the safety of everyone on the island. Failing to act during this extraordinary health and humanitarian crisis simply means that more people may die.