If New York City officials feel any urgency about fixing the persistent problems at the Rikers Island jail complex, they are not showing it, according to a report filed on Monday by the federal official appointed to monitor the lockup.
The monitor, Steve J. Martin, writes in the report that the city Correction Department’s most recent efforts toward improving conditions at the Rikers complex have been “haphazard, tepid and insubstantial.”In describing the dysfunction that has come to define the jails, Mr. Martin detailed two episodes that occurred at Rikers in the past several months.
One involved a correction officer who stood by as a group of detainees assaulted a man in their unit.
The other involved detainees who were pepper sprayed for no reason during an unofficial “hostage drill.”The report’s findings are striking given the increasing possibility that the city could be forced to relinquish at least some control over its jails, which have been troubled for decades and plunged into their latest crisis in March 2020 with the Covid-19 pandemic.
A hearing on the future stewardship of the jails is scheduled for Wednesday.
Persons:
Steve J, Martin
Organizations:
New York
Locations:
New York City, Rikers