DOC falsified records to show compliance with court order, attorneys say
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The Legal Aid Society and the Board of Correction said this week the Department of Correction allegedly altered internal records to falsely show that detainees were held for less than 24 hours in intake cells. AP file photo by Bebeto Matthews
By Jacob Kaye
Staffers with the city’s Department of Correction allegedly tampered with internal records to cover up instances where newly incarcerated people were held for over 24 hours in intake cells on Rikers Island, the Legal Aid Society and the Board of Correction alleged this week.
Records obtained by the Legal Aid Society and disseminated to the press purport to show that, on multiple instances, DOC staff altered their internal records, changing the time that a person entered intake if that person was approaching their 24th hour in the crowded and troubled cells.
The BOC, which was tracking the DOC’s intake database at the Eric M. Taylor Center on Rikers Island, said they found at least 17 instances where the time of intake for an individual detainee was changed not long before the records would have shown that they’d been held in the cells for over 24 hours, in violation of a recent court order.
The allegations of record tampering come a day before DOC leadership is set to appear before the BOC at the oversight body’s monthly meeting and about a month before they’ll be charged with proving to a federal judge that conditions in the failed jail complex where 16 people have died this year have improved.
“We are deeply concerned by this revelation, which appears to show DOC employees tampering with data that is used to monitor compliance with a court order,” said Kayla Simpson, a staff attorney with the Prisoners’ Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society.
“This seriously diminishes the credibility of the City's public assertions that they have solved their long-standing problem of holding people for days in these uninhabitable areas, and the public deserves answers,” Simpson added.
Among the records found is one from June 15, where at 7:23 p.m., the internal records show that a person in custody entered intake at 7:30 p.m., the previous day.
At 7:30 p.m., on June 15, the record still showed the detainee entered intake at 7:30 p.m., on June 14.
However, at 7:36 p.m., the internal tracker showed that the detainee had entered intake at 10:30 p.m., on June 14.
Similar changes were observed on at least 16 other occasions over a two day period, according to the BOC.
On June 16, a BOC staffer wrote a letter to the acting warden at EMTC to point out the alleged tampering.
“As part of our monitoring work, we have been reviewing the DOC’s Intake Dashboard,” the letter from the BOC reads. “Over the past few days, we have documented 17 incidents where a person in custody in the EMTC intake had their “In Custody at Court” start time (the time reported on their Securing Order) changed on the DOC’s Intake Dashboard.”
“These changes often occurred as a newly admitted person in custody approached their 24 hour clock expiration, or sometimes following the expiration,” the letter continued. “Some people in custody had their custody start time changed multiple times over the course of several hours.”
A spokesperson for the DOC said the agency is investigating the record changes and has spoken with BOC members about them on several occasions.
The agency’s new admissions dashboard is also under review by the DOC’s Office of Management Analysis and Planning, the spokesperson said.
“We hold transparency and integrity in high regard, and we will continue to hold staff accountable so that our jails are run efficiently and that people in our custody are safe,” the spokesperson said.
In September 2021, federal Judge Laura Swain ordered that the DOC limit the stay in intake to 24 hours.
The intake cells, which is where detainees are held before being transferred to a more permanent housing facility, have been the subject of intense scrutiny in the past year.
The cells were often overcrowded and kept in unsanitary conditions. Detainees and advocates said incarcerated people languished in the cells sometimes for days, lacking beds or showers, or medical, food and other basic services that would be more easily accessible in a housing unit.
DOC leadership will appear before Swain on Nov. 17 and attempt to persuade her that the “action plan” she approved earlier this year has not only been enacted but has resulted in better conditions in the jail complex.
The intake process was one of several troublesome conditions the federal monitor had identified in multiple reports on Rikers Island and that was slated for changes in the action report.
Slashings and stabbings have increased by over 30 percent this year when compared to 2021, according to DOC data. The department is still contending with a staffing crisis and a decline in its correctional officer ranks, which has resulted in the deaths of several detainees, according to a report from the Board of Correction, the DOC’s oversight body. With 16 people having died while in or just after being released from DOC custody this year, 2022’s death toll matches the death toll from last year, which was itself an eight year high.
Should the DOC fail to convince Swain that conditions on Rikers have improved, the judge may institute a federal receivership. The legal action, which is vague and largely defined by whichever judge issues it, could result in a complete takeover of the day-to-day operations of the jail complex slated to close in 2027.
