By Jacob Kaye, October 11, 2023
“The City Council last week passed legislation they say will not only ensure detainees get to their court appearances on time, but will also help the city reach its legally-mandated deadline to close Rikers Island by the summer of 2027.
On Thursday, the city’s legislative body passed a bill that would require the city’s Department of Correction to make a number of changes to how it tracks, documents and reports how it gets detainees to their scheduled court appearances.
The legislation, which was first introduced earlier this year, follows what was a precipitous drop in the percentage of detainees being brought by the DOC to their court appearances on time.
Though the agency’s rate of success in getting detainees to court has improved over the last year, it hit record lows during the first year of DOC Commissioner Louis Molina’s tenure leading the agency.
And regardless of how successful the agency has been in getting detainees before a judge, advocates and lawmakers say the DOC has not been transparent about what causes the delays and how it tracks its success rate.”