Photos inside Rikers Island expose hellish, deadly conditions

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://nypost.com/2021/10/21/photos-inside-rikers-island-expose-hellish-deadly-conditions/

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.

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.

[panader0]

1. Horrific. No one should be treated that way.

[RainCaster]

7. Except DFT, Bannon, etc.

This would be a good place for all of the Orange Anus's friends.

[Solomon]

2. This is just ridiculous.

It has to stop! That is cruel and unusual punishment if i ever saw it. A constititional violation on top of being downright inhumane.

[greenjar_01]

3. End cash bail, close Rikers

Vast majority should be RoR'ed after booking and arraignment. (In other words, they should never even get to Rikers, but be released directly from the Central Bookings).

Ridiculous. You used to see holding pens in the Central Bookings crowded like this on a bad Saturday night, but most were out by Monday morning. Is the whole system so clogged?

[George II]

4. Back in the 1970s a friend of mine was a corrections officer at Rikers Island....

Even back then (50 years ago) conditions were atrocious.

Unfortunately their House Representative has never been to Rikers Island to see how bad it is.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Meaning 50 years of "reforms" have got us to these photos.

Unfortunately their House Representative has never been to Rikers Island to see how bad it is.

I think some of them know -- they just don't care, or they think it's a political issue that would hurt them by making them seem "soft on crime."

[pandr32]

11. Reps should be required to familiarize themselves with conditions

In person. How can they represent their constituency otherwise?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. Lol at constituency.

[fishwax]

14. which House Representative are you referring to? AOC, Torres, and Maloney toured it this month

and released a joint statement condemning the conditions as a humanitarian crisis. They (and other House Dems) have been reaching out to President Biden about conditions in the facility since before that. They've also discussed holding congressional hearings about it.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-rikers-island-denounced-by-congressional-reps-aoc-torres-maloney-20211013-vewh3fbzr5gdhloaysie4llmpi-story.html

[George II]

16. There was a tour by about 15 state and city officials back on September 13. The only member of....

....Congress who was part of that tour was Jamaal Bowman. It's not his District.

[fishwax]

19. yeah, that's what kicked off the recent attention to the situation

That tour attracted the attention of the press adn other members of the city's national delegation, who quickly got involved in advocating for immediate change to conditions at the facility. Technically I think Rikers is in AOC's district, although the people affected by those conditions are drawn from across various of NYC's congressional districts, so its really an issue that they should all be involved in. And all of them have been--at least, among the democrats. The city's democratic representatives signed a letter a week or two after that tour to urge Biden's administration to intervene. (Here's an article about that: https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/09/24/nyc-congressional-democrats-call-for-biden-to-intervene-at-rikers-)

Then earlier this month Maloney, AOC, and Torres toured the facility, as I pointed out in my previous post.

[George II]

20. Except for Staten Island and a small sliver of Brooklyn, all NYC representatives are Democrats..

Rikers Island is in the 14th District, and that visit a week or two ago was the first by any member of Congress except for September when Bowman went there.

Interesting the Congress person for NY-14 didn't sign the letter you posted.

[fishwax]

22. The Congress person for NY-14 signed a letter to the governor and the mayor and also to Biden

There seem to be some conflicting reports on the signees of the letter to the president. The news story I posted said that all thirteen NYC democrats signed the letter. The tweet, however, showed only eight signatures.

Here's coverage of the letter from Rolling Stone, which includes another copy of the letter, which AOC has signed: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/rikers-island-bill-deblasio-joe-biden-1232997/

Then, later, a few of them toured the facility for themselves, including AOC, Torres, Maloney, and apparently Tom Suozzi too: https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/public-safety/2021/10/12/torres--aoc--maloney--and-suozzi-tour-rikers-amid-ongoing-crisis

[George II]

24. Below is the tweet from your article with the letter embedded. Only 8 members of Congress....

....are signatories, unless there was a 4th page omitted.

On the third page are those listed who presumably signed the letter:

Torres
Clarke
Bowman
Espaillat
Jones
Jeffies
Maloney
Meeks

Link to tweet

[fishwax]

25. The picture on twitter is apparently an earlier draft of the letter

If you read the news story, it indicates that all the NYC democrats signed it, including several who are not included in that twitter pic, such as AOC and Jerry Nadler.

Here's a story on the letter from Rolling Stone, which includes a copy of the letter, signed by all 13, just as the news stories indicate: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/rikers-island-bill-deblasio-joe-biden-1232997/

[SunImp]

28. Thanks for clearing things up!

Those 13 NYC Dems are truly good people no matter what the haters try to say

[Celerity]

29. screenshot showing the 13

https://www.scribd.com/document/527812788/Rikers-Letter#fullscreen&from_embed

[Buckeye_Democrat]

5. Absolutely inhumane!

Good grief, most people would be upset if animals were crammed together like that at an animal shelter.

[mountain grammy]

8. This is nothing new..

stop wasting your time posting it. Instead join the fight to end the horrific prison system in America.

There's an advocacy group in every state.. one we support in Colorado is https://www.ccjrc.org/

[greenjar_01]

9. The OP is one of the most vocal and consistent prison abolition activists on this board

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. 'Merica

People are thrown in jail for treating animals this way. God, this is maddening.

[Mr. Evil]

12. American exceptionalism.

[Solly Mack]

15. K&R

[Niagara]

17. This situation is a gross display of mismanagement.

Not only do these inmates have to live like animals, there are at least 14 reported inmate deaths for this year alone. At least 5 of these were suicides.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. The system is working as designed. It's not like it's supposed to protect people.

[leftstreet]

26. Not really

The systems are actually designed to protect and serve people

Prisons
Schools
TSA
Border and Immigration
USPS
etc

With enough under funding, mismanagement, overcrowding, rule changes etc you get the systemic and infrastructure breakdown where these conditions present themselves

Then private (for profit) preachers start preaching about the horrible conditions. That's actually what's working as designed

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. The jail population of New York City was cut in half between 2012 and 2020. And the DOC budget went

up by a quarter. Funding, mismanagement and "overcrowding" is not the issue.

[MagickMuffin]

18. "which has a whopping $1.2 billion budget for fiscal year 2022 " Where's the money going to?

That's a lot of scratch, so, Where is it going?

Someone needs to follow all that dough!

[leftstreet]

23. These manufactured crises are all about breaking labor unions

and privatizing!

Short staff civil jobs, mismanage budgets, create deplorable conditions, cry to Congress to intervene with "private" management

Wherever there's federal money, a private contractor will go after it

Members of Congress Urge Biden to Intervene at Rikers as de Blasio Plans Visit
Sept 24, 2021

In a letter to President Biden on Friday, several Democrats said New York City “cannot be trusted” to manage the jail complex, which has descended into chaos.

Ms. Joyce also said that the city would work with New York State to amend a law limiting who could be employed by the city’s Department of Correction. That change would allow the city to hire private staff to work in some positions at Rikers.

The proposal drew a fiery response from a union representing correction officers, which said in a statement that the plan was “reckless.”

“Poorly trained and insufficiently vetted private guards assigned to Rikers will only pour gasoline on this inferno,” said Benny Boscio Jr., the head of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/nyregion/rikers-island-crisis.html