Amid lawsuit, DOC brings on atty to oversee Rikers health services
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Attorney James Saunders has been named the Department of Correction’s deputy commissioner of Health Affairs. Photo via DOC
By Jacob Kaye
The Department of Correction named a new official to help lead its health programming – an appointment that comes as the agency continues to face allegations that it has failed to provide medical treatment to detainees on Rikers Island.
James Saunders, an attorney who has worked with a number of municipal agencies in healthcare operations, was named the DOC’s deputy commissioner of Health Affairs this week.
In the role, Saunders will oversee the “coordination of health services for people in custody and improve current operations,” according to a release from the DOC announcing his appointment.
The agency is currently facing an ongoing lawsuit that alleges that detainees have been denied medical treatment. That lawsuit resulted in a $200,000 fine ordered by a judge last year. Attorneys in the case are now seeking an additional $3 million in fines amid allegations that the issue has persisted.
“I am eager to have James join the DOC team,” DOC Commissioner Louis Molina said in a statement. “He has a wealth of experience in public service, specifically concentrated in the area of healthcare compliance and I am confident that his expertise will be an asset to this agency.”
Saunders has spent the past 28 years of his career working with the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation. His work included working in a legal capacity with the Bellevue Hospital Center, Coney Island Hospital and the Health and Hospitals Central Office.
Most recently, he worked as the first deputy corporate compliance officer in the hospital system’s Office of Corporate Compliance, overseeing the daily operation of the office.
He’s also served as deputy general counsel and as chief compliance officer within the New York City Fire Department’s Bureau of Legal Affairs.
“I want to thank Commissioner Molina for this opportunity,” Saunders said in a statement. “I am excited to start this new phase of my career in city government and will utilize my knowledge and expertise to support the Commissioner’s goals for the agency.”
Last year, a judge found that DOC had failed in its mandate to provide medical services to detainees.
Largely attributable to staffing issues within the agency, a number of detainees had missed medical appointments because there were no correctional officers available to take them to a doctor or nurse.
The issues have persisted, attorneys say in a recently filed motion.
“For a while now, there has been an issue with DOC providing medical care to people in their custody, in sort of a chronic systemic level,” Lucas Marquez, the associate director of civil rights and law reform at Brooklyn Defenders, told the Eagle on Tuesday. “DOC hasn't been regularly providing medical care to the people in its custody pursuant to its legal responsibility.”
From February through October, incarcerated people on Rikers Island missed over 12,000 medical appointments because officers were not available to escort them, DOC data shows. The motion calls for a $250 fine for each of those missed appointments.
Though the release announcing Saudners’ appointment does not mention the suits, Dr. Ram Raju, a former president of the city’s hospital system, said that Saunders is joining the DOC “at an inflection point.”
“James Saunders is the man for the season,” Raju said in a statement.
“He has worked on the front lines of public health, and he is well prepared to take on this critical new role and the challenges that come with it,” he added. “He shares the belief that health equity and the elimination of health care disparities is critical to ensure healthier outcomes for our most vulnerable communities, especially for persons in custody.”
