Green life sentence

 

 THE CITY

The Adams administration is adamant it’s not on track to close Rikers Island jails by a legally mandated 2027 deadline — but meanwhile it’s detailing how to turn the island into a hub for renewable energy and greener public works.

On Monday, the same day Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, declared to the City Council that “We know it’s not going to happen by 2027,” two city entities delivered reports ordered up by the Council declaring it feasible to build a new wastewater treatment plant on the island, along with solar, battery storage and new equipment to feed offshore wind power into the electric grid.

The reports came as a result of the Renewable Rikers Act, signed into law by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, which seeks to reinvent Rikers as a hub for renewable energy.

But for the city to realize the multi-billion-dollar green vision for Rikers Island, the jail complex on Rikers Island must shutter. That rests on the completion of four borough-based jails, at a cost that Jiha testified has now reached $12 billion. 

Another impediment to closing: the current Rikers population of more than 6,200 is significantly higher than the planned 4,160 capacity of the borough jails. Outside criminal justice experts say the Adams administration can and should do more to divert people from jails while awaiting trial.

But Adams continues to cite the size of the jail population as a reason to be skeptical Rikers will close by 2027 and has called for a “Plan B.” 

For backers of Renewable Rikers, the reports are a bright spot at a difficult time for those pressing to close the notorious jails.

The reports “reaffirm we can move forward with Renewable Rikers,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn), chair of the Council Committee on Criminal Justice. “Given the deplorable conditions on Rikers, the cuts to programs that get people out of Rikers and now more announced delays, it is a good thing there was something to show.”

Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center and an organizer of the campaign to close Rikers, described frustration at a climate of disinvestment in city communities that rely on government for services and opportunities.

He says he would like to see the Adams administration “restoring all these proposed cuts to all the city programs and agencies that vulnerable people and marginalized communities rely upon,” in addition to “making investments on top of that…with the construction of these facilities.”

 

City council wants nothing to do with their law to close Rikers Island

 

 Queens Chronicle

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) and Member Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, released a joint statement last Thursday in response to concerns voiced by Mayor Adams about closing Rikers Island.

During a fireside chat at New York Law School in Manhattan last Tuesday, he said the plan to do so “was flawed from the beginning.”

In their response, the councilwomen said the 413-acre facility cultivated a culture of brutal violence and dysfunction, then emphasized that the city must adhere to the 2019 law to close Rikers by Aug. 31, 2027.

“Public safety demands that we remain on-track to closing without delay,” said the joint statement. “To achieve this goal, it is imperative that Mayor Adams’ administration take responsibility for implementing the law, including working collaboratively with stakeholders involved in the criminal legal system to advance necessary progress.”

The mayor’s administration has missed several deadlines related to turning over unused parcels of land from the city’s largest jail complex for the development of an energy hub, reported the Queens Daily Eagle.

The Office of the Mayor said via email that Adams will always follow the law.

“It has become painfully clear that the plan passed by the City Council during the previous administration leaves open serious questions about the city’s ability to keep New Yorkers safe, while the costs are exploding,” a City Hall spokesman told the Chronicle on Aug. 31.

When conceived, the closure of the facility was estimated to be approximately $8 billion. In October 2022, the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform said it would be closer to $10.2 billion due to inflation.

“This is due to: necessary environmental remediation and landfill stabilization; the island’s isolation and single bridge on and off; and the presence of active jails, which would limit construction hours and require a staggered schedule to maintain sufficient capacity during construction,” according to the report. “In addition, the city would have to pay over $800 million to demolish the existing jails on Rikers. The city has already spent $500 million on design, demolition, project management, and site preparation for the new borough-based jails.”

The commission also said scrapping the shutdown plan and modernizing Rikers would cost 15 percent more than the $10 billion price tag and take years longer. Smaller borough-based jails will save the city $2 billion in operating costs annually, it said.

The city must make consistent investments in pretrial services, alternatives to incarceration and re-entry services, while addressing unacceptable lengths of stay with the courts, district attorneys and public defenders, said the councilwomen’s joint statement.

The mayor also blamed the city’s courts for failing to process cases. Commissioner Louis Molina of the city’s Department of Correction said that he believes the jail population will hit 7,000 by 2024, reported the Queens Daily Eagle. The new jails will have room for no more than 4,200 inmates, the mayor has said.

Asked about the rising costs of the jail and where the detainees will be placed during the transitional period, a City Council official said it’s up to the mayor to address.

 

The end of Rikers is not certain

Queens Chronicle

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) remains steadfast on the closure of Rikers Island by 2027 but some members of the Queens delegation as well as the Mayor Adams administration are less convinced.

“I don’t think there’s a way for it to be done,” Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) told the Chronicle.

Last Thursday, the Council held a preliminary budget hearing for the Committee on Criminal Justice and the city Departments of Probation and Correction testified.

Ariola asked Correction Commissioner Louis Molina if, given the fact that the city jails population is nearly double what would fit in the borough-based jails, it would be possible to house them there.

“If we are at today’s number whenever borough-based jails would open or if that number is higher, then it would be physically impossible to house all those individuals within our jail system if our capacity was at 3,300,” Molina answered.

“We would need to come up with alternative solutions of where those individuals would be housed. Now, we could get to a place where we can see declines in the population,” Molina continued.

He said two things are needed: for the adjudication of justice, which is under the control of the state, to be faster and for more hospital capacity for those with mental illness.

“Just recently, we had someone who was waiting to be sentenced and that defendant was in our custody for six years for an attempted murder case,” said Molina. “And when you have almost a thousand people charged with murder in a backlogged court system, then the flow of those defendants is not quick. So ... we are thinking about what are going to be the alternatives if our jail population continues to stay high. And the other thing we’ve talked about a lot this afternoon is mental illness. If the state does not increase the capacity to be able to treat mental illness, and if we’re going to continue to designate via the courts mental health patients with the designation of criminal defendant, then they are a justice system responsibility. If we want to treat them as hospital patients, then we need hospital capacity to do that.”

Molina has said in the past that the jail population could, in fact, rise by 1,000 people by next year.

You're gonna need bigger borough tower jails

When asked about how to address the increasing jail population (which is too large to meet the requirements of the borough based jail plan), the @NYCMayor said today “we need a plan b.” He then suggested sending some detainees to state facilities. pic.twitter.com/r65ZrV1U7Y

— Courtney Gross (@courtneycgross) August 29, 2022

 

NY1

 In about five years, smaller jails in four boroughs are supposed to replace Rikers Island after it shuts down.

But on Monday, Mayor Eric Adams questioned whether the city would need more space thanks to an increasing jail population.

“We have to have a plan B, because those that have created a plan A that I have inherited obviously did not think about a plan B,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference.

The mayor’s remarks came after the city comptroller, the public advocate and the chair of the City Council’s criminal justice committee made an unannounced visit to Rikers Island on Monday morning.

And surprisingly, after months of chaos, a staffing crisis and violence, these officials said the jail’s conditions appeared to be improving.

“I do want to say that it is demonstrably better than a year ago,” said Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

“Immediately upon arrival we did notice improvements,” said Councilwoman Carlina Rivera.

That said, they reported some detainees were not receiving medication, and many officers were still working double shifts to make up for staffing shortages.

On top of that, the officials saw at least seven individuals in what the department is calling involuntary protective custody — where the city says some of the most violent inmates have been isolated.

Brad Lander, the city’s comptroller, questioned whether this unit violated a state law requiring several hours of out of cell time.

Adding on, it was the city comptroller who after their visit questioned whether the city would be able to meet its deadline to close the troubled jail complex.

“Staying on the path to close Rikers is critical, and I’m not confident that we’re on it,” Lander said. “Numbers were coming down and down over many years. They got as low as 4,000 during the pandemic. They’re back up to 5,700.”

The mayor did not offer many details about how he thinks the population could drop.

“What was the plan B that stated if we don’t drop down the prison population the way they thought we were, what do we do?” the mayor asked. “We have to look at everything from state facilities. We have to see if we can get help from the governor. We have to sit down with the chair of crime and correction. We have to see what’s available.”

The Feds want nothing to do with Rikers

City And State

A federal judge approved the city’s plan to make long-sought changes on Rikers Island, essentially eliminating the threat of a federal takeover for at least the next several months. The order filed Tuesday marks a win for the city and the Department of Correction and comes days after the federal monitor in the case expressed doubt about the city’s willingness to follow its recommendations for the proposed action plan. 

“This action plan represents a way to move forward with concrete measures now to address the ongoing crisis at Rikers Island,” Southern District Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote in the order, while making clear that the case could turn depending on the city’s progress in implementing the plan. “The Court has approved the proposed measures contained within the action plan, in full recognition that further remedial relief may be necessary should Defendants not fulfill their commitments and demonstrate their ability to make urgently needed changes.”

The city filed the proposed action plan in late May after federal monitors appointed to oversee the department threatened to take control of the system if the city failed to comply with their recommendations. The jail system has been under federal supervision since a class action lawsuit in 2015 alleged rampant abuse and dysfunction.

The plan filed in May outlines timelines for proposed reforms, which include tamping down on abuse of sick leave policies among correction officers, hiring new leadership under a modified chain of command, improving infrastructure at the jail facilities and expediting correction officer disciplinary proceedings.

The department submitted an updated version of the plan on Friday after Swain gave it two weeks to come up with a more detailed proposal. During that time, a dispute over the hiring of wardens outside of the department became a point of contention between the monitors, along with the Legal Aid Society, which represents the jail population in the case, and the department. The monitors wrote in a letter to Swain on Friday that the city refused to agree to their recommendation to hire wardens outside of the department, and was unwilling to seek special permission from the court to circumvent city and state laws prohibiting it from doing so. 

Swain indicated that the department has committed to seeking special permission from the court if it encounters other legal barriers that prohibit it from implementing recommendations. She also denied Legal Aid’s request to set a briefing schedule for a possible contempt motion to trigger the federal takeover.

99 and a half won't do

NY Post

Mayor Eric Adams rolled out a record-busting $99.7 billion budget proposal on Tuesday fueled in part by an uptick in tax revenues, spending that he argued is essential for the Big Apple’s comeback from the coronavirus pandemic.

Adams unfurled his spending pitch to the City Council with great fanfare during a 50-minute speech at the historic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, during which he highlighted his new anti-gun and homelessness initiatives, hiring hundreds of new corrections officers for embattled jail system and new funding to clean the Big Apple’s streets and parks.

“This budget puts people — especially those who have often been left behind — front and center. Success will be measured by how much we accomplish, not how much we spend,” he said. “Despite the massive shocks to our system in the past two years, our city enters fiscal year 2023 on strong financial footing.”

Hizzoner’s new spending plan would increase the Police Department’s annual budget from the $5.4 billion authorized by lawmakers to $5.6 billion and spending on the Department of Homeless Services would rise from $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion.

The massive Department of Education would see its allocation trimmed back from $31.6 billion to $31 billion, primarily due to enrollment declines and leaving hundreds of unfilled positions open.

21 days to fix Rikers

A better safer plan for Rikers Island

Queens Chronicle 

Community Board 9 is calling on newly elected City Council members to revisit plans for the proposed closing of Rikers Island and the switch to borough-based jails.

“We figured that now, with 26 new City Council members, that it would be time to hopefully bring to their attention what our feelings are,” Community Board 9 President Kenichi Wilson told the Chronicle.

The group is supporting a revised plan from Bialosky New York, an architectural firm based out of Manhattan, which calls for a completely new, more “humane” and cost-effective complex to be built on the existing island.

The plan was originally presented at a 2019 press conference in Chinatown held in opposition to the proposed jail there.

Rallies at that same site resumed on Feb. 6 as Lower Manhattan residents gathered to protest the destruction of the current jail there for a new and bigger site.

Around the same time, Community Board 9’s land use chair, Sylvia Hack, was working to track the original proposal down and the board received a “new and improved version,” CB 9 District Manager James McClelland said.

In early February, Wilson sent a letter to elected officials in the area.

“The proposed borough-based jails are towers offering no outdoor recreation spaces for the incarcerated and, should there be a reason to empty a tower building, no viable plan exists to safely evacuate nearly a thousand detainees plus security and support staff,” he wrote.

“If we are concerned about the incarcerated population and the possibility of really helping them with the reasons that landed them in jail, then we should seriously look at this new, alternative option to four huge monoliths constructed in densely populated areas of the city,” the letter continues.

The plan of transitioning from Rikers to borough-based jails, begun under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, calls for the Queens location to be erected in place of the old lockup near Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.

The Adams administration’s plan for Rikers remains unclear.

The plan for a “reconceived Rikers” includes outdoor space, gyms, art, music and science programs and skills-training programs. Another focus is to create low-rise buildings instead of the current towering structures.

According to Wilson’s letter, the plan would almost halve the price of building four new jails and prevent the “environmental and negative impacts” on surrounding communities.”

C.O.'s will not comply to Blaz extortion mandate

NY Daily News 

The Department of Correction’s coronavirus vaccination rate has been stagnant for more than two weeks — with nearly half of the agency’s uniformed workforce still holding off on getting their shots despite a looming mandate deadline.

City Hall data released Tuesday shows that only 63% of Correction Department staff have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s the same vaccination rate the department had on Oct. 31 and the lowest by far of all municipal agencies.

When only accounting for uniformed Correction Department staff — the majority of which are the correction officers tasked with guarding inmates on Rikers Island — the one-dose vaccination rate is just 57%, according to the latest data.

Mayor de Blasio’s vaccination mandate for the Correction Department is set to take effect on Dec. 1, sparking fears that thousands of the department’s roughly 8,400 uniformed staff could be suspended at a time when Rikers is already in crisis due to overcrowding, staffing shortages and violence. An unprecedented number of correction officers calling in sick to work fueled the emergency over the summer, though the number of sick-calls have recently diminished.

Benny Boscio, the president of the union representing city correction officers, said mandate-related suspensions could be a recipe for disaster.

“We still have officers working triple shifts with no meals and rest every day,” Boscio said. “To move forward with placing what little staff we do have on leave by Dec. 1 would be like pouring gasoline on a fire, which will have a catastrophic impact on the safety of our officers and the thousands of inmates in our custody.”

Rikers Gulag

NY Post 

Dozens of men crammed together for days in temporary holding cells amid a pandemic. Filthy floors sullied with rotten food, maggots, urine, feces and blood. Plastic sheets for blankets, cardboard boxes for beds and bags that substituted for toilets. 

This is what the epicenter of the crisis on Rikers Island — which has a whopping $1.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2022 — looked like for months.

The Post obtained exclusive photos showing the intake cells at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island between July and late September where hundreds of inmates languished for days or weeks on end in violation of city regulations, which require they be assigned a housing area within 24 hours.

The images show as many as 26 men stuffed body to body in single cells where they were forced to relieve themselves inside plastic bags and take turns sleeping on the fetid floors.

 In one image, an inmate is seen curled up on the floor — outside of the holding cell — because there was nowhere else to put him and when the facility was ready to burst, or when elected officials came to visit, detainees were stashed in a gym, Department of Correction sources said.  

“It was inhumane … They’re not supposed to be there that long, the intake is just a place to process the inmates,” a jailhouse source told The Post of the conditions at OBCC, which housed most new admissions to the jail before intake was moved to another, larger facility in late September with double the clinic space. 

“And the sad thing about it is … you couldn’t do anything about it, it was all management,” the source said. “They knew what was going on and they did nothing.” 

Internal records obtained by The Post offer a glimpse of the problem’s scope and indicate at least 256 inmates festered inside the OBCC intake beyond the 24-hour limit between June and late September because of “medical delay” and “shortage of DOC staff.”

One of those detainees — 42-year-old Isaabdul Karim — died three weeks after he spent 10 days “mired in intake,” where he contracted COVID-19, his lawyers have said. His cause of death is still being determined by the city’s medical examiner. 

During a five-day period in mid-September, shortly before most intake processes were moved to the Eric M. Taylor Center, at least 105 inmates were inside the crowded cells long after they should have been moved, records show. 

In response, a spokesperson for the DOC said the “conditions in these photos do not exist at Rikers Island today.” 

“We’ve closed OBCC’s intake and reopened the Eric M. Taylor Center for intake purposes, ended overcrowding and long waits in intake, and thoroughly cleaned this and many other facilities,” the spokesperson said.

 So the D.O.C. had to reopen a jail to ease intake. Which confirms that City Council's legislating and Mayor de blasio's decision to close Rikers exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the prisons.

Caption The Blaz at Rikers Island

 

The current mayor looks just like the grimacing face emoji. He should be because he's about to release thousands of inmates and the blowback is not going to be pretty. 

Politicians scared straight after Rikers tour

  

AMNY

Elected officials inspected the conditions at Rikers Island on Sept. 13 following yet another death in the jail — and they said what they found shook them to the core.

The visit came days after Esias Johnson, a 24-year-old awaiting trial, became the 10th individual to perish within the controversial penal facility this year when he was discovered unresponsive on Sept. 7. A coalition of politicians toured the prison on Monday in hopes of pinpointing the issue at hand.

Gathering at the intersection of 19th Avenue and Hazen Street after their visit, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, state Senator Jessica Ramos, Senator Alessandra Biaggi, and many more stood in shock and disgust after visiting the complex. They professed ] seeing urine and fecal matter strewn over the floor; individuals coughing up blood and even an attempted suicide.

Some of the speakers said Rikers Island had become a humanitarian crisis.

 “I can’t begin to tell you the deplorable conditions that we saw inside OBCC. In one of the intake rooms there are at least one dozen men per cell. The conditions are so extreme that Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas and I witnessed somebody attempting to commit suicide just a little while ago. These men are desperate for simple medical attention as just measuring their sugar. They need their fingers pricked to figure out whether their diabetes is under control or not, never mind they are not obviously receiving any insulin. Those that need to access the methadone clinic have not been able to do so,” Ramos said, describing the unsanitary conditions. 

“It’s all because the incarcerated men and women who are on that island are being treated unfairly, and the correction officers are working under very deplorable conditions themselves,” Ramos added, stating that everyone on Rikers Island should be kept safe. 

In response to these claims regarding the conditions within Rikers Island, DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi has launched #NewDayDOC to target initiatives that will help increase staffing and safety through scheduling changes, new recruitment, and establishing a new process for calling out sick with Mt. Sinai so that they may return to active duty quickly, as well as other changes.

Yeah, a hashtag will stop the violence and abhorrent environment that was exacerbated by the city's decision to shut down Rikers to build borough jails and the closing of other facilities on the island. Feckless moron.

Current mayor de Blasio releasing convicted recidivist criminals on purpose in the effort to close Rikers

 

NY Post 

Hundreds of inmates serving time on Rikers Island are set to be sprung prematurely as part of a desperate bid by Mayor Bill de Blasio to deal with the shortage of correction officers willing to work there, The Post has learned.

The horde of ex-cons — who could be freed starting Tuesday — would comprise the second wave of convicted criminals granted early release since last year, when officials used the COVID-19 pandemic to justify putting around 300 jailbirds back on the streets.

Those inmates were among more than 1,500 who were freed last year due to the coronavirus crisis, reducing the city’s jail population to 4,363 — a level not seen since in more than 70 years.

The latest plan comes amid a surge in shootings and serious assaults that helped push the average daily jail population to 5,730 in July, its highest in more than a year, according to the most recent statistics compiled by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.

The newest batch of early releases were set to start last Thursday but were delayed when the remnants of Hurricane Ida struck the Big Apple and killed 13 people, law enforcement sources said.

“The mayor wants to close Rikers and he will use any opportunity to release the prisoners,” one source said.

“He is leaving in three-plus months and he wants to release as many prisoners as he can.”

The inmates under consideration include Allen Nimmons, 56, a career burglar who’s served seven prison sentences and is locked up for violating parole, sources said.

Another is Rashawn Powell, 30, who’s serving a sentence for three counts of dealing drugs on school grounds, in addition to bail jumping, sources said.

But officials are keeping the names of those set for early release closely guarded because de Blasio “doesn’t want the pushback that he got last time when he released dangerous felons,” a source said.

“There are only the worst kind criminals left in jail — people with gun arrests, shootings, sex crimes, etc. No one is in for shoplifting,” the source added.

 

Rikers Island Blues

 

NY Post 

Inmates are running wild on Rikers Island amid an ongoing staffing crunch that’s left charges free to stab each other, answer the phones and run through corridors destroying maintenance equipment, The Post has learned. 

On Sunday morning, three inmates from the Folk Nation gang jumped a Bloods member and slashed him in the face inside of an unmanned housing area at the Anne M. Kross Center, the jail’s largest facility, internal records obtained by The Post show. 

At the time, 26 corrections officers were working quadruple shifts, 35 were on triple shifts and 30 patrol posts across the AMKC were unmanned as the jail grapples with an ongoing staff shortage, internal communications show. 

A day earlier at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center, another Rikers facility, a group of inmates ran wild through the corridors and destroyed a slew of fire safety equipment before officers could stop them, according to an internal email seeking “emergency maintenance.” 

“Numerous inmates were running through the corridors. They [sic] inmates broke the fire cabinets and numerous exit signs throughout the corridors. They also removed the hoses and nozzles from the cabinets,” the email, sent by an assistant deputy warden, states. 

On Monday, the chaos continued, according to Patrick Ferraiuolo, the president of the Correction Captains’ Association.  

“One of my captains in AMKC called a housing area and the inmates answered the phone,” Ferraiuolo recounted. 

“[The inmate] said ‘Hey how you doing captain? The officer went home, he was tired, he was going into his triple or fourth tour and he left, he left us here alone.’ So it’s a housing area with no correctional officer watching over them… this is an everyday occurrence,” he continued. 

NY Daily News

For five grueling days, hip-hop artist 2 Milly says he found himself in a fetid, overcrowded bullpen on Rikers Island — and then he was transferred to a quarantine unit that seems worse, where he gets no outdoor time and prisoners are often left unguarded.

“They treat us like we’re animals,” said 2 Milly, whose 2014 track “Milly Rock” has been played more than 25 million times on Spotify, and who is doing Rikers time on a gun charge under his birth name, Terrance Ferguson.

Ferguson, his fellow detainees and correction officers are thrown together in Rikers Island’s summer of hell — a staff shortage during the pandemic that has broken down basic services at the city’s giant prison complex and brought misery to everyone there.

 It’s so bad that Ferguson and other Rikers detainees have a grudging sympathy for the officers, who suffer stifling heat amid broken-down air conditioning and not enough rest during too-long work shifts.

“The officers are losing their minds,” Ferguson told the Daily News. “It’s the same guard for 24 hours. They’re sweating bullets, not getting meal breaks. I start feeling bad for them after a while.”

In turn, Rikers officers also offered some sympathy for the detainees’ living conditions. “For the most part, the inmates have been sympathetic,” said a veteran correction officer who asked for anonymity fearing Correction Department reprisals.

“They’ve actually offered me food when I’m working a triple,” the officer said. “The officers recognize the conditions are bad for the inmates and the inmates feel for the officers.”

Another detainee, Herman Williams, 37, convicted of attempted burglary, agreed. “They do them just as bad as us,” he said in a phone interview during which he was watched over by an officer.

“The lady [officer] sitting here right now, [is] sweating to death,” Williams said. “They say no one wants to do nothing.”

DOC officials acknowledged the problems have become more concerning in recent weeks, attributing them to a large volume of sick or unavailable staff. Of 8,500 officers, they said, roughly 3,500 either called in sick in July or were medically exempt from working with detainees. Another 2,300 simply didn’t come in at some point in July.

“We agree with many of the issues raised here,” DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said. “We have been taking extensive measures to encourage staff to return to work, to relieve those who have been heroically working extra shifts to compensate, and to make this an environment where any parent would feel like their own son or daughter was safe working or living here.”

This Schiraldi guy is another willfully oblivious ghoul. Just like the scumbag that hired him 

 

Eric Adams goes to the Hamptons and The Blaz goes to a concert in the Bronx as C.O.'s and nurses protest against horrible and dangerous working conditions at Rikers Island

PIX News 

  Correction officers protested outside Rikers Island on Monday over what they described as dangerous working conditions. 

AIR11 was over the scene around 2:45 p.m. as several hundred people gathered outside the jail complex holding signs.

A Correction Officers Benevolent Association spokesperson told PIX11 News the protest was not a walkout of on-duty guards. It was not immediately clear if inmates were left alone.

In a tweet on Monday, the Correction Officers Benevolent Association urged retired and off-duty city Department of Correction members and their families to join the protest.

“We’re calling on ALL retired and active, off-duty DOC Uniformed members and your families to meet COBA at the bridge on Monday, August 16th at 3PM. We’re joining forces with our union brothers and sisters from across NYC and we will make our voices heard!” the union tweeted.

The tweet also included a flyer that suggested members of the Correction Captains’ Association and Assistant Deputy Wardens Association would also join the protest.

“We need safer jails now. Enough is enough! City Hall has failed to protect us. Their reckless policies have put our lives in jeopardy,” the flyer read. 

COBA filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Correction in Queens Supreme Court last month, calling conditions for officers at D.O.C. facilities nothing short of a human rights emergency requiring immediate attention.

The complaints include back-breaking triple shifts of 24 hours or more, with few breaks or access to food and water, shortages of PPE to protect against COVID-19, and increased violence against officers and within the inmate population.

Veteran nurse Paulette McGee has spent 20 years working at Rikers in what she described as an environment of constant fear.

“We are now faced with urine being thrown at us, knives held to our neck,” McGee said. “I was assaulted in 2018: punched so hard in my jaw I was knocked out straight on my back.”

Joseph Russo, who’s with he Assistant Deputy Wardens Union, said inmates get away with things all the time. He said they’re not afraid to commit crimes and acts of violence behind bars.

“Our hands are tied. We cannot defend ourselves,” Russo said. “We’re here because of conditions on Rikers are outrageous; this is a chaotic gangland controlled area.”

 NY Post

Mayoral hopeful Eric Adams hit the Hamptons over the weekend, where his political talks — and outfit — impressed East End insiders.

The candidate attended a Water Mill fundraiser — wearing a bright red blazer that would’ve made The Weeknd jealous — on Sunday at a private home. The bash was hosted by a group including Democratic backer businessman Dennis Mehiel and Republican billionaire John Catsimatidis, as well as Victoria Schneps and Todd Shapiro. 

Two media owning oligarchs raising money for the news media's prematurely anointed predetermined mayor of NYC. This is some fucked up shit right here.

DCAS takes over Rikers jailhouse

 

Queens Eagle 

In a major step toward the closing of Rikers Island, the New York City Department of Correction transferred over the oldest Rikers correctional facility to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, the agencies announced this week. 

The handing over of the James A. Thomas Center, named after DOC’s first Black warden, marks the first time the DOC has transferred over a Rikers facility to DCAS, which now owns the building. 

This month’s transfer, and the others to follow, are some of the earliest steps in the city’s transition into its borough-based jails program and the eventual closure of Rikers Island as a jail facility.

“This is a major milestone in the historic plan to close Rikers Island and create safer, fairer, and more modern borough-based jails,” DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said in a statement. "Being able to close Rikers and create borough-based facilities is a natural result of our city's multifaceted efforts to reduce its jail population and end the era of mass incarceration.”

The James A. Thomas Center, which closed in 2021, was built in 1933 and was the island’s first permanent jail. 

Now that it has been transferred, DCAS and the Rikers Island Advisory Committee will plan a sustainable use for the facility, as part of the city’s Renewable Rikers Act. Under the law, the island could become home to several renewable energy sites if studies conducted in the coming years prove it to be feasible. 

"Today marks a historic occasion for ending mass incarceration in our city and re-imagining Rikers Island," said Lisette Camilo, the commissioner of DCAS. "DCAS is eager to do its part to build a brighter future by transforming Rikers Island into a hub for sustainability."

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who called closing Rikers Island a “moral imperative,” spearheaded the borough-based jails program, which was approved by the City Council in 2017. 

“Transferring these facilities from DOC to DCAS brings our plan to create a smaller, safer, and more humane jail system even closer to reality,” de Blasio said. 

This is really happening. And with the horrendous bail reform law, they did this entirely on purpose at the expense of the citizenry and society. Beware of anyone who utters the word "re-imagine" 

Judge rules Kew Gardens tower jail can proceed and the other three borough jails as well

Queens Eagle

 A New York judge on Thursday tossed a lawsuit filed by a pair of Queens civic groups attempting to block the construction of a new jail in Kew Gardens.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower said the city met environmental review standards, public comment rules and land use laws as it sought approval to build the 195-foot detention tower behind the Queens Criminal Courthouse as part of its four-borough jail plan.

The council approved the city’s land use application for the jails — the first proposal to roll non-contiguous sites in multiple boroughs into a single package — in October 2019. Rakower said the city’s Universal Law Use Review Procedure allowed for such an application. 

“A single ULURP review of the four borough-based jail sites was lawful and rational,” Rakower wrote in her decision to dismiss the lawsuit. The city, she added. “reasonably deemed that the multi-borough review should be consolidated.”

Two civic groups, Queens Residents United and the Community Preservation Coalition, had filed the Article 78 lawsuit in September 2020 in a last-ditch effort to block the new jail, set to rise on the site of the soon-to-be demolished Queens House of Detention at 126-02 82nd Ave. Neither group responded to requests for comment Thursday. They can appeal the decision.

A spokesperson for the New York City Law Department praised the judge’s decision.

“We are pleased that the Court rejected the challenge to the Queens Borough-based jail, just as courts have thrown out challenges to jails in the Bronx and Manhattan,” the spokesperson said. “This decision will help the City to finally close Rikers Island and make our jail system smaller, safer, and fairer.”

“Closing the dysfunctional, shameful jails on Rikers Island is an urgent moral imperative, today more than ever,” said former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who chaired a commission that recommended closing Rikers Island jails. 

“As the courts consider technical land use issues on appeal, the city should press forward on policies that rely on jail only as a last resort, continue planning for a smaller borough jail system, and begin preparing for a green future for Rikers.”

 

 

New Bad Days 83: The Ides Of March bring more violent hate towards Asians and gun, gang and subway violence to NYC

  

Impunity City

 Has de Blasio, Speaker Cojo and the NY Council fauxgressive cronies ever given the thought that the reason Rikers is making C.O.’s work triple shifts is because solitary confinement has been cancelled and the only way to tamp down violence and keep order is to keep C.O.’s on duty for every minute and second that way they can justify these new supposed progressive policies? Even though it’s clearly not working? Even Jeff Bezos lets his Amazon FFC employees go home.

And while this FUBAR management is going on at Rikers, where is the NYC Jails Commissioner? Whose conspicuous absence after de Blasio put her on medical leave following the release of a fugitive killer that’s still on the loose has made her virtually unobtainable for comment?

Rikers did it again, this time the fugitive is COVID positive

 

NY Daily News

 For the third time in less than a month, a Rikers Island inmate was mistakenly released — this one a deadbeat dad and golf pro who walked out of jail with coronavirus.

James Reino’s release was the subject of a jaw-dropping hearing Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Reino, 55, was supposed to have attended the hearing via video from jail after avoiding for 13 months Justice Matthew Cooper’s contempt order for failure to pay $85,000 in child support.

 But Department of Correction staff — apparently amid confusion over Reino’s cases in matrimonial court, family court and criminal court — released him late Thursday.

“This was important to me — that he not be released from custody until money was forthcoming to Ms. Reino,” Judge Matthew Cooper said.

“For some reason Corrections says it’s unaware my arrest order is still in effect.”

Reino was also confused — especially since he hadn’t completed quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 at Rikers.

“He rang me this morning and said he was out and that he didn’t know why,” said Reino’s attorney, Stephanie Conners. “He is actually supposed to be in quarantine. He has indicated to me he has seven days left on that quarantine.”

Nevertheless Reino was handed a MetroCard and released in the middle of the night.

“If there were other people on the subway, who was near him? How do you expose people to that? It’s a little bit insane,” said Gary Rosen, a lawyer for Reino’s second wife, with whom he shares four kids between the ages of 14 and 20.

Cooper said he understood that Reino was quarantining at his sister’s home on Long Island.

So this guy was on NYC Transit and the LIRR. Plus there are about 3 or 4 variants out there. This might make the city's recovery a little more problematic.

Demolition by incompetence at Rikers Island: Attorney-client privilege breached by free phone call system

  

 

NY Daily News

A clerical error by a city contractor breached the attorney-client privilege for scores of New York City inmates, with more than 1,500 protected jailhouse phone calls between defendants and their legal advisors wrongly recorded, the Daily News has learned.

The shocking mistake, affecting inmates facing charges in Brooklyn and the Bronx, could compromise the court cases of nearly 400 defendants if their confidential conversations landed in the hands of prosecutors.

The system, run by the city-contracted prison communications firm Securus Technologies Inc., mistakenly recorded 118 calls with 29 inmates facing charges in the Bronx and another 1,450 chats involving 353 inmates cases in Brooklyn, according to several jail and city sources familiar with the findings of two internal audits conducted by the company this year. The erroneous recordings occurred in all New York City jails, not just on Rikers Island.

According to a source, human error on the part of Securus led to the legal misstep. The Department of Correction provides the company with a list of protected phone numbers to ensure inmates’ conversations with lawyers, social workers and other legal parties are specifically not recorded.

 As expected, de Blasio's stench is all over this. 

Now they got a constitutional crisis. Rikers is being shut down on purpose.