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Rikers Island Is Still Rife With Violence & Neglect
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 22, 2015
Modified Feb 22, 2015
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 22, 2015
Modified Feb 22, 2015
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Six months after a U.S. attorney threatened to sue New York City for allowing "a deep-seated culture of violence" to prevail on Rikers Island, the New York Times reports that very little has changed.
In 2014, the same year that Mayor de Blasio appointed the reformer Joseph Ponte as Commissioner of the Correction Department, guards used force against inmates 4,074 times—a number unseen in more than a decade, even though the prison population has declined drastically.
The Times reports that from August through December of 2014, guards severely injured inmates 62 times; in 70% of those cases, inmates suffered blows to the head. Cover-ups on the part of the Correction Officers are still "commonplace" (and it's still pretty easy to smuggle in contraband).
If the Correction Officers weren't beating inmates in 2014, they were neglecting them.
One such inmate, Victor Woods, died on Oct. 1 from abdominal bleeding as a guard stood over him drinking a cup of coffee. According to an investigative report, it was other inmates who stepped in to help, “comforting him, cleaning his face and helping him to an upright position.” The report quoted the guard, Wickenson DeMaitre, as saying, “I am not touching him.” The report also noted that guards were slow to notify medical staff, who took 11 minutes to arrive.
In a statement to the paper, the Department of Correction said, "It takes time to undo decades of mismanagement. We are, however, on our way to a jail system that is safer and more humane.”
Tagged
department of correction
Joseph Ponte
norman seabrook
Rikers Island
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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