From 2017:
https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Rikers-Island-studied-for-LaGuardia-runway-11061683.php
Posted on 11/29/2024 10:36:58 AM PST by CFW
A federal judge has ordered New York City to draft plans to hand over management of its Rikers Island jail complex to a third-party receiver after holding the city's Department of Corrections (DOC) in civil contempt for failing to meet more than a dozen requirements to improve conditions in its violence-wracked jails.
In an opinion and order issued Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York Laura Taylor Swain wrote that she was "inclined to impose a receivership" after finding that violence and death inside Rikers has not improved since New York City agreed to a court-enforced reform plan in 2015.
In fact, "the use of force rate and other rates of violence, self-harm, and deaths in custody are demonstrably worse," Swain wrote.
Swain found the DOC in contempt of 18 different provisions of the consent agreement. That agreement was the result of a class action lawsuit filed in 2012 by the Legal Aid Society of New York alleging rampant brutality by guards against jail detainees. In a press release, the Legal Aid Society commended the court's "historic decision" to find the DOC in contempt.
"The culture of brutality on Rikers Island has resisted judicial and political reform efforts for years," the Legal Aid Society said. "As the court found, the City has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to provide the oversight necessary to ensure the safety of all individuals housed in local jails."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
However, there is a big difference between imprisoning criminals and treating them in an inhumane manner. Having prisoners defecate in plastic bags without a method to immediately dispose of the waste spreads disease, locking them in showers, in roach infected cells, allowing gang members to control the prisoners, withholding medicines and medical treatment, and so many other things is only going to cause more problems without solving any. Prison is not supposed to mean physical and mental torture. Plus, at these facilities there are probably just as many criminals on one side of the bars as there are on the other.
There has to be a better way to hold these people in prison. Regular cleaning and sanitization of the cell areas should be a minimum requirement.
From 2017:
https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Rikers-Island-studied-for-LaGuardia-runway-11061683.php
They just need a little bit more time.
“Plus, at these facilities there are probably just as many criminals on one side of the bars as there are on the other.”
This may ba a major part of the problem. Acting or expecting humane treatment is part of the incarceration. And it doesn’tr neccessarily mean one sinde or the other is not providing it. But a lot of it is money problems. And it also doubles as the site of one of the world’s largest correctional institutions and “mental institutions.”
The complex in 2015 had a budget of $860 million a year, a staff of 9,000 civilian officers and 1,500 other civilians managing 100,000 admissions per year and an average daily population of 10,000 inmates. The majority (85%) of detainees are pretrial defendants, either held on bail or remanded in custody. The rest of the population have been convicted and are serving short sentences. In a 2021 analysis by the New York City Comptroller, it costs the city approximately $556,539 to detain one person for one year at Rikers Island.
Bu they are beating a dead horse here as in October 2019, the New York City Council voted to close down the facility by 2026. So why make a big thing out of something that has been in this position for many years. Where were the people complaining then. Illegal strip searches, beatings, sexual assaults, and drug movement have been issues there since well before 2000. It wasn’t until they wanted to add beds to the facility in 2016 that any action was taken.
wy69
Put her in charge.
They should make the Dick Wolf company (Law and Order franchises) pay royalties for use of the Rikers name and setting.
Although a stage set was used later, early filming was done at the Queens House Jail.
Look at the times someone was sent to Rikers:
https://lawandorder.fandom.com/wiki/Rikers_Island
Queens place....
The Queens Detention Facility is a federal prison in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens, New York City, and operated by the private prison company GEO Group. The facility opened in March 1997 under a contract between GEO Group and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Wikipedia
Address: 18222 150th Ave, Jamaica, NY 11413
Wikipedia.
Sounds like a place to hold the illegal migrants before deportation!
Yes. They’re fed up with the luxury hotels and the chefs who don’t know how to make a decent avocado toast with poached eggs breakfast. And don’t get them started on the lightly sauced Chilean Sea Bass.
What might this judge think about the DC Gulag?
Distinction should be made between “Prison” and “Jail”.
“Jail” is a local incarceration. (City/County).
“Prison” is a Federal vacation.
My college roommate became a real estate lawyer, but ran foul of Federal law. Today, he refers to his 18 month imprisonment as his “days at camp”.
Well, no.
The majority of the people there are not convicted criminals but pre-trial defendants.
Rikers is often used as a threat to get someone to confess or take a deal because of how violent the place is. And while the guilty may confess and that is good, so do the innocent who are just terrified by the thought of being locked up with violent inmates and indifferent guards and that is very bad.
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