City to pay $143 million for late releases from Rikers
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The city will pay at least $143 million to former detainees who were not released at least three hours after posting bail, a judge ruled this week. AP file photo via Julie Jacobson
By Jacob Kaye
A federal judge ruled this week that the city must pay nearly $143 million to over 40,000 people who were held in a city jail longer than they should have after having posted bail.
The final settlement payments blew past the expectations of both the attorneys for the plaintiff class as well as attorneys for the city, who anticipated the final bill to be somewhere between $30 million and $75 million.
Of the approximately 72,000 people who were held on Rikers Island or another city jail for more than three hours after having paid bail between October 2014 and October 2022, around 29,500 of them filed a claim in the settlement agreement. In October, when the settlement agreement was reached, a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said they only expected between 7,000 and 18,000 people to file a claim.
The federal judge overseeing the case said the number of claims filed was “stunning.”
“I agree with the court that a stunning percentage of the class were able to learn about and participate in the settlement,” said Debra Greenberger, a partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel and one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff class.
“We think that speaks to the importance of the settlement and the broad notice that the settlement provided,” Greenberger added.
The payout stems from a class action lawsuit filed in 2017 that alleged that the city's Department of Correction was violating city law by holding detainees for more than three hours after they had posted bail. Causing the delays were out-of-date computers and management systems, as well as staffing issues, the suit alleged. The DOC has since said that it has worked to improve its data management and has implemented a bail tracking system.
The three-hour timeframe stems from a 2017 law passed by the City Council that required the DOC release detainees within three hours after the postage of bail.
Any detainee held beyond the three-hour mark on any occasion between Oct. 4, 2014 and Oct. 21, 2022 was eligible to receive $3,500, the final monetary sum per affected person agreed to in the case last fall.
The agreement was originally projected to total $300 million.
Members of the plaintiff class were held for varying lengths beyond the three-hour mark. One of the class representatives was delayed by nearly 9 hours. Another was held for 18 hours after his family paid his bail.
James Lynch, one of the original class representatives who died in August 2021, was held on Rikers Island for an addition 23 hours after his family posted his $500 bail. The delay caused Lynch to miss a scheduled court appearance and a bench warrant was ordered against him by a judge, the original lawsuit claims.
As it currently stands, the city is on the hook for at least $142.9 million in filed claims. However, that figure could go up – claims will continue to be accepted through December.
“We hope that that percentage increases as people who had not learned of the settlement, learn of it and join in,” Greenberger said.
The attorney said that she believed there were several factors contributing to the high rate of return on the claims. Among them was the amount each individual stood to be paid.
“Sometimes people learn about settlements and decide it's not worth their time to apply – a settlement for $1.50, you sometimes get that in your mail and you're like, ‘It's not worth it,’” Greenberger said. “But for this settlement, where each person would get at least $3,500 – I thought anyone who learned about it and didn't think it was a scam would want to put in a claim form.”
Also contributing to the unusually high number of settlement claims filed was the outreach campaign run by the plaintiff class’ attorneys.
Advertisements encouraging eligible class members to file a claim were placed in local newspapers, on television, on the radio, online in targeted social media ads, on the subway, and in homeless shelters, rehab facilities, addiction treatment centers and religious organizations. They also sent out individualized notices via physical mail and email.
They also got the word out by partnering with three criminal justice organizations – Freedom Agenda, VOCAL-NY and the Youth Justice Network – all of which shared information about the settlement with their clients and members.
The groups also distributed flyers explaining the settlement in shelters, rehabilitation facilities, food pantries, parole offices and courthouses.
Greenberger said that partnering with the organizations that work with the “affected communities and have a ground game of getting the word out is unique and not something that has been done in other settlements.”
“There's a lot that we tried to do in non-traditional ways to make sure that class members could learn about the settlement,” she said.
The “robust” outreach campaign, which was paid for by the city and cost nearly $1 million, was necessary to reach eligible claimants, all of whom had at some point gotten caught up in the criminal justice system, Greenberger said.
In addition to the advertising, the attorney said that the payouts themselves may encourage some of the remaining eligible claimants to file claims – the checks are scheduled to go to those who have filed claims before the December deadline.
“To the extent somebody thought it was a scam or it was too good to be true, if they hear about friends or family who are also class members and who actually get checks, that would be within the late claims period to file a claim,” Greenberger said.
When asked for comment on the final settlement, a Department of Correction spokesperson said that the troubled agency has made recent strides toward more efficiently releasing detainees after they post bail.
“To fix the antiquated systems that existed for decades, the Department created the Office of Management Analysis and Planning Unit to accurately track the department’s systems and data, and implemented a bail-tracking system to improve and expedite the release of people in custody after they post bail,” the spokesperson said.
“Commissioner Molina and his leadership team have worked tirelessly since day one to instill proper correctional standards, improve safety, and correct poor practices that were allowed to operate unchecked in prior administrations,” the spokesperson added.
The city’s Law Department did not respond to request for comment.
