‘Haphazard, tepid, and insubstantial’ : Ahead of crucial court appearance, monitor says little has changed on Rikers Island
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Just two days before what is expected to be a crucial court appearance in the ongoing civil right case regarding Rikers Island, the federal monitor charged with Rikers oversight said little has changed in the notoriously dangerous jail complex. AP file photo by Bebeto Matthews
By Jacob Kaye
A month ago, the federal monitor charged with overseeing conditions on Rikers Island said the city should be held in contempt for failing to tamp down violent conditions within the notorious jail complex. Four weeks later and just days before a consequential court hearing in a case that could see New York City lose control of Rikers, the monitor says not much has changed.
“Little progress has been evident,” Steve J. Martin, the federal monitor appointed to oversee conditions on Rikers Island in 2015, said in a report to a federal judge filed Monday morning.
Martin’s assessment of the Department of Correction’s progress in making Rikers Island, the jail where more than three dozen people have died in three years, a safer place for detainees, staff and officers alike comes just two days before federal Judge Laura Swain is expected to hear the earliest arguments for putting the jail into a federal receivership. A receivership, which Swain previously considered and rejected last fall, could see the right to manage Rikers Island handed over to a court-appointed authority, and stripped from the Department of Correction and New York City.
The threat of receivership has loomed for around the past year, but has become more of an immediate possibility in the past month, in no small part because of Martin’s July suggestion that the city should be held in contempt of court in Nunez v. The City of New York, the civil rights case that created the position of the monitor.
Though he noted that some progress had been made in his Monday report, the monitor said that he didn’t believe the department was moving quickly enough to ameliorate the conditions that have contributed to the deaths of seven people in the Department of Correction’s custody this year.
“While hard work is commendable, it does not obviate the fact that substantially more progress is needed and on a more expeditious timeline than has occurred to date,” the report reads. “The department’s current pace is not commensurate with the ongoing and serious level of harm occurring in the jails nor has the regression in the department’s performance in certain areas been adequately addressed and remedied.”
“In other words, given the gravity of the current conditions, the monitoring team has not yet observed evidence of the necessary change in perspective regarding either the severity of the problems that must be addressed or a sense of urgency to identify and implement concrete solutions,” the monitor added.
In previous reports in recent months, Martin has raised concerns about the number and severity of use of force incidents, the rate of detainee deaths in the jail complex, management of DOC staff, the conditions of Rikers’ facilities, the rate of stabbings and slashings and poor training practices, among a number of other DOC policies and practices.
Martin said that though the DOC has begun to make changes to address a number of his and his team’s concerns, many of those solutions do not “contain an adequate level of detail, substance or intensity to resolve these longstanding issues.”
“The department’s efforts over the last few weeks have been haphazard, tepid, and insubstantial,” Martin said. “While a few of the proposals (if meticulously developed and properly implemented) could address problems in discrete areas, they will not create the type of culture change and practice improvements that are prerequisite to effective reform.”
Though Martin has yet to outright call for receivership, Martin’s call for contempt proceedings last month were a sharp break from what has otherwise been a mostly supportive approach to oversight of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. When the Legal Aid Society, which represents the plaintiffs in Nunez, first began calling for a federal receiver last summer, Swain ordered the DOC to create an “action plan.” Martin said that he was on board with the plan, and argued against receivership.
But in his reports, Martin has detailed what could be described as a fractured relationship between him and DOC Commissioner Louis Molina and the mayor in recent months.
In June, the monitor accused Molina of failing to communicate five serious incidents – two of which ended up being fatal – to the monitoring team. According to Martin, the commissioner defended the lapses in communication by suggesting that had news of the incidents gotten out, the information would be used by others to advocate for a receiver, undermining whatever progress has or has not been made on Rikers.
The mayor also jumped to his commissioner’s defense and questioned whether or not Martin understood his role as the monitor – the monitoring team was created via a court order and essentially acts on behalf of the federal judge.
“I'm going to respond to what I believe is happening with how this oversight is taking place,” Adams said in June. “I think there's something else going on with this relationship that we’re having.”
“I have been extremely restrained,” he added. “But that level of patience is running out.”
Adams strongly opposes the appointment of a receiver and has touted both Molina’s work and his own in turning the failing jail complex around.
“I'm the right person to fix [Rikers],” the mayor said in July following the death of 44-year-old Curtis Davis, who was the seventh person to die in DOC custody this year. “We had a hiccup in June when he saw five issues that should have been reported and [the monitor] wanted us to be held in contempt for those five issues. [The monitor] didn't call for receivership in that report, the federal government made a decision that they're going to do so and I respect the decision. No matter what happens, I'm going to continue to fix [Rikers], I know I can fix Rikers.”
In his report on Monday, Martin again questioned the administration’s ability to turn the jail, which has suffered from dysfunction for decades, around.
“It must be emphasized that the city and department are the actors responsible for operating the jails and, notably, who continue to insist that they are best positioned to do so,” Martin wrote. “This claim stands in stark contrast to their defensiveness regarding certain practices and lack of resourcefulness when asked to devise concrete, specific solutions to address the problems identified by the monitoring team and to meet their responsibilities to operate safe, secure jails.”
The federal monitor appointed to oversee conditions on Rikers Island said significant improvements have not been made since his last report, in which the monitor called for contempt proceedings, was filed four weeks ago. AP file photo by Seth Wenig
There have been 26 deaths in custody since Adams and Molina took control over the city’s jails. Two of those deaths occurred between the time of the monitor’s previous report and the one he filed with the court on Monday.
But the rate of deaths among detainees has been on the rise over the past several years, hitting a peak last year, when 19 detainees died.
Like most other troubling conditions on Rikers, the monitor said on Monday that the department’s work to address its death rate has not yet been sufficient.
“While the department has reported ongoing work to prevent in-custody deaths…the pace of this work has moved far too slowly,” the monitor said. “Severe risks to the lives of people in custody remain, and housing areas across the department are rampant with security lapses that heighten the risk of serious injury or an in-custody death in every housing area.”
Neither the Department of Correction nor the city’s Law Department responded to the Eagle’s request for comment before print time.
What comes next?
The DOC will appear before Swain on Thursday, in what is expected to be the proceeding that gets the ball rolling on a motion for federal receivership – this is the furthest Swain has ever before allowed receivership proceedings to progress.
The Legal Aid Society, which announced its intention to pursue receivership proceedings earlier this summer, confirmed that it will do so this week in a statement released following the issuance of the monitor’s report.
“This report further confirms that the city does not grasp the magnitude of the problem it faces, and is incapable of administering basic jail functions and correcting the suffering inflicted on incarcerated people every single day,” a spokesperson for the Legal Aid Society said in a statement.
“The need for an independent authority, such as a receiver, is required now more than ever, and we look forward to this week’s court conference to detail the urgent need for this relief,” the spokesperson added.
According to the monitor, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who also previously said he’d pursue receivership, will begin to work toward contempt proceedings alongside the Legal Aid Society on Thursday.
Should receivership proceedings move forward, it’s still unlikely that Swain will make a decision on the matter until next year.
Martin proposed in his Monday report that the city, DOC, Legal Aid Society and U.S. attorney attempt to reach an agreement in the case before Sept. 11. Should an agreement not be reached, the plaintiffs would be required to file a contempt motion and their request for relief – which will likely be receivership – by Nov. 17.
Under the proposed schedule, the city would be required to reply to the motion by Jan. 16, 2024, and the plaintiffs would be required to reply to the city’s response by Feb. 15, 2024.
Correction: An earlier version of this story said that the next conference in Nunez v. the City of New York was on Wednesday. This is incorrect. The conference is on Thursday.
