by Courtney Gross, published May 30
It was a quick reaction from the City Council after a devastating report was released by the Rikers federal monitor on Friday evening on the eve of the holiday weekend.
“We’re getting closer and closer to the Department of Correction seeming like they have lost complete control,” Councilwoman Carlina Rivera said.
That report provided new details about five life-altering incidents on Rikers within the last two weeks, including a death and several where detainees were severely injured after altercations with staff or other detainees.
After one incident between a detainee and staff, the detainee had to undergo three surgeries and is now paralyzed.
In another, an 80-year-old detainee with possible cognitive impairment was left restrained in a pen alone with no bathroom for four hours.
And there were more.
In these cases, the monitor accused the Department of Correction of not being forthcoming with information.
In one incident, a detainee reported headaches to staff and was then transferred to the hospital in what correction officials reported as a “non-incident related condition or injury.”
That person, who was in his early thirties, was put on life support and may have experienced a heart attack. The monitoring team was not made aware of the incident.
“It’s the response to these issues that are raised and actually addressing them that’s becoming a larger and larger red flag for this Council,” Councilman Shekar Krishnan said.
NY1 has learned that person died at Elmhurst Hospital on Monday after being released on his own recognizance. The individual was not in Department of Correction custody at the time of his death.
On Friday, the monitor questioned the department’s telling of that event in particular because it had not received enough detail.
Ultimately, it questioned whether the department was committed to reform and raised profound uncertainties about whether the department could manage such incidents.
“I am deeply, deeply disturbed by the latest monitor’s report,” Councilman Lincoln Restler said.
Correction officials were appearing at the Council on Tuesday to discuss another topic, transporting detainees to court.
They were not interested in responding in-person to the monitor’s damning revelations.
The commissioner issued a statement late Friday saying in part the department is in a better place today then at the onset of Mayor Eric Adams taking office.
“The good news is court production had improved significantly,” Paul Shechtman, general counsel for the Department of Correction, said.
Officials say that this month, 96% of detainees made their court appointments. Just 146 refused to go.
That’s down dramatically from just a few months ago when 1,176 detainees refused to go to court.
The department has a new policy to get detainees to go, which can include taking them by the arm and putting them on a bus.
“Staff is allowed to use and videotape soft hand force,” Shechtman said. “We had a policy saying you had the right to refuse. I don’t think you have a right to refuse. I think you have an obligation to be in court.”