'I think most people understand that jails and prisons are not pleasant places,' says CoreyStoughton. 'But this is a level of depravity and inhumanity that is really shocking to imagine happening in the greatest city in the world.'
Rikers Island. Photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images Conditions on Rikers Island have been deteriorating in recent months. The Department of Corrections has confirmed that 12 people have died while held in custody in New York City jails this year, with most of those deaths taking place on Rikers. Two inmates have died within the past week. There have long been calls to shutter Rikers, with Mayor Bill de Blasio backing the move, but the plan has yet to move forward.
It’s hard to find the words to describe how bad it is right now on Rikers Island. I think most people understand that jails and prisons are not pleasant places. But this is a level of depravity and inhumanity that is really shocking to imagine happening in the greatest city in the world. It has been harder than usual, and I worry everyday about the stories we’re not hearing. But the stories we are hearing are truly horrendous. Every day, I hear from our criminal defense lawyers who are the trial attorneys representing people accused of criminal charges in the city.
And then, over the past several months, what’s happened, I think, is that the correction officers have just had enough. And, at some level, you kinda can’t blame them. Rikers is a terrible place to work, and it’s an even worse place for our clients to live. So the correction officers stopped going to work and that took a decrepit, barely functional, inhumane system and turned it into a hellhole.
With the closing of Rikers — that’s obviously something that would take months and years to implement, and there’s currently an immediate crisis. What are the changes that need to be made in the short term while working toward an eventual closure? And then the third problem is that we have, in court today — we have prosecutors and judges that are continuing to send people on nonviolent offenses to Rikers Island, into harm’s way, when they could set them free to await their trial. Or they could do electronic monitoring or other forms of supervised release that evidence shows is just effective at getting people back to court for the next appearance.
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