MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal judge on Wednesday found New York City and its Department of Correction in contempt of court orders for failing to address unsafe conditions practicing unconstitutional use of force in the city’s Rikers Island jail complex.
“The use of force rate and other rates of violence, self-harm, and deaths in custody are demonstrably worse than when the consent judgment went into effect,” U.S. District Judge Laura Swain wrote in her 59-page opinion.
The city’s corrections leadership failed to comply with 18 provisions of four prior court orders demanding corrective measures to fix the city’s troubled jail, including a 2015 settlement agreement to clamp down on civil rights abuses, Swain found.
“As the record in this case demonstrates, the current rates of use of force, stabbings and slashings, fights, assaults on staff, and in-custody deaths remain extraordinarily high, and there has been no substantial reduction in the risk of harm currently facing those who live and work in the Rikers Island jails,” the Clinton-appointed judge added.
The Legal Aid Society filed the underlying class action lawsuit challenging systemic brutality by staff against people incarcerated in New York City jails. The group commended Swain’s ruling as a “historic decision” and a pathway to reforming the city’s incarceration system.
“Following years of unchecked brutality by staff in city jails, we commend the federal court for its decision today to hold New York City and DOC in contempt for failing to fix the systemic issues that continue to jeopardize the lives of incarcerated New Yorkers,” the New York City-based nonprofit wrote in a joint statement with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP.
“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.”
Following the October 2015 settlement, Swain appointed a federal monitor to oversee the reforms. The monitor filed 50 reports detailing the New York City Department of Corrections’ compliance with the court’s orders, finding that violence and chaos have remained shockingly high and concluding that DOC lacks the institutional capacity to reform.
Swain heard oral arguments on the contempt motions in September and advised the parties that she saw “a clear and unavoidable need for the imposition of new measures addressing fundamental vulnerabilities in the current system and structure of leadership and the policies and the practices for the Department of Correction.”
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams presented a federal takeover in a letter filed in April 2022.
The letter cited a lack of specific details from the city and correction department as to how the monitor’s recommendations will be implemented, although the agencies say they generally agree with those recommendations — which include coming up with a “remedial scheme” to address absentee officers and those doing jobs that can be filled by civilians.
Plans are on track to close Rikers by 2027 and replace it with borough-based jails, the city says, but there is widespread agreement that the facility needs serious fixes in the meantime, particularly in consideration of at least 33 confirmed deaths in the city’s jail since Mayor Eric Adams took office in 2022.