Even acknowledging that “people are dying” in New York City’s troubled prisons, a federal judge on Tuesday declined to take control of Rikers Island from local officials, instead ordering the city to implement its plan for dealing with it. of violence and disorder in the compound.
The judge, Laura T. Swain, made the decision at a hearing on Tuesday after listening to arguments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and others who had suggested the possibility of appointing an independent official to rule the New York prisons. York City, something that has never happened in the history of the prison system.
Judge Swain had given the city’s department of corrections three weeks, beginning last month, to come up with a plan to remedy the crisis in the prison complex, where city staffing practices have put gang members in charge of some prison areas and inmates languishing without food. or medical care.
But while prison officials were formulating their plan, two inmates died, the city was held in contempt by the state court for failing to provide medical care in a timely manner, and questions arose about whether the prison system suffered a serious head injury that left an inmate. rose in April.
During Tuesday’s hearing, a federal prosecutor, Jeffrey K. Powell, assessed the department’s shortcomings before concluding that “extraordinary remedies” would likely be needed to change conditions at Rikers, where more than a thousand corrections officers fail every day. show up at work.
The Crisis on Rikers Island
Amid the pandemic and a personnel emergency, New York City’s main prison complex is embroiled in an ongoing crisis.
He said those remedies could include executive orders from Mayor Eric Adams or Governor Kathy Hochul, court orders that allow officials to waive certain restrictions or the possibility of a full or partial federal takeover, known as receivership.
But Correctional Department Commissioner Louis A. Molina said those options were not necessary and that their plan would suffice.
“Change has to come from within,” said Mr Molina, adding that he didn’t need additional court authority to implement the plan his office had worked out with a federal monitor overseeing prison reforms.
Hernandez D. Stroud, counsel for the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, said federal prosecutors and judges often threaten city agencies with receivership — and in some cases, that prompts agencies to change.
Only rarely do they go ahead, Mr Stroud said, adding that “taking out a jail or jail is a very big problem” and only happens after a judge has concluded that all other options have been exhausted.
Some proponents have argued that a federal court order is needed to break down barriers to reform in New York City’s prisons, including a union contract that gives corrections officers unlimited sick leave and a state law that prohibits the department from hiring outside corrections unions for certain positions.
Martin Horn, a city jail commission under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, petitioned state lawmakers in the early 2000s to change that law. But he said in an interview that Norman Seabrook, the former powerful leader of the correctional officers’ union, convinced lawmakers not to change it.
“You can’t run a prison system if you’re at war with your staff,” said Mr. Horn. “The city needs to make sure that the unions are part of the solution.”
A spokesman for a union of correctional officers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Judge Swain instructed the city to submit its revised plan by June 10.
