‘Unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous’: Use of pepper spray skyrocketed on Rikers Island, new report finds

Pepper spray use by Department of Correction officers has increased greatly over the last five years, according to a new report from the Board of Correction.  AP file photo by Seth Wenig

By Jacob Kaye

In a single month last year, Department of Correction officers used pepper spray on eight different detainees attempting to hang themselves, highlighting a concerning pattern in violation of department policy, according to a new report from the department’s citizen watchdog board.

The new report from the Board of Correction, which was issued late Wednesday, found that 16 percent of instances in which oleoresin capsicum spray – more commonly known as pepper spray – was used in October 2023 were instances in which a detainee was actively hanging themselves on Rikers Island, the troubled jail complex where over two dozen people have died in the past two years.

In all of those cases, DOC officers failed to first cut the detainee down from whatever it was they were hanging from, in violation of DOC policy, the report, which analyzed 50 pepper spray incidents in October, said.

The troubling incidents were part of a larger pattern in which DOC officers' use of pepper has skyrocketed in recent years, the report said.

Increasingly, officers have been using the chemical agent on teens and young adults in custody, detainees with mental illnesses and those attempting to harm themselves.

“This report covers only one month of unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous overuse of chemical agents in the jails,” Board of Correction member Robert Cohen said. “The department's failure to prevent this dangerous practice contributes substantially to the violence in the jails.”

“It must end,” he added.

According to the report by the citizen watchdog board charged with setting minimum standards in the city’s jails and keeping tabs on the conditions behind bars, the use of pepper spray on Rikers Island jumped by 50 percent during the first 10 months of 2023 when compared to the first 10 months of 2018.

In all, pepper spray was used nearly 3,000 times during the first 10 months of 2023.

The increase came even as the population on Rikers fell by around 2,000 detainees.

“Board staff have uncovered patterns and practices concerning the deployment of chemical agents that must be addressed and reformed to ensure a safe environment for those who live and work on Rikers Island,” said Jasmine Georges-Yilla, the executive director of the BOC.

“The Board will continue to hold DOC and [Correctional Health Services] accountable for maintaining humane conditions inside the City’s jails, and Board staff will continue to work with DOC and CHS to ensure that the Board’s minimum standards are met across all facilities.”

With the increase in pepper spray use, the BOC said that a majority of time, its use appeared to be unjustified. And instead of being used as a last resort, it’s being used frequently whenever there is a use of force incident.

“Since 2018, it has become increasingly likely that, when force is used by DOC staff, it will involve or include the deployment of chemical agents,” the report read.

In 2018, around 41 percent of use of force incidents involved pepper spray. That number jumped to over 53 percent in 2023, according to the report.

The BOC found that officers violated a number of policies in their analysis of the 50 pepper spray incidents in October.

Of those incidents, 32 percent involved an officer spraying the chemical that causes “uncontrollable coughing” and “the sensation of intense burning of the skin and mucous membranes inside the nose and mouth” from close range, which is prohibited.

In five of the incidents, DOC officers sprayed a person with MK-9, a powerful form of pepper spray that is designed for crowd management and “prohibited from being used against a single individual presenting passive resistance. One of the eight men sprayed for attempting to hang themselves was sprayed with MK-9.

Additionally, in nearly half of the incidents analyzed by the BOC, staff did not issue verbal warnings that the chemical spray would be used before spraying detainees, despite policy requiring a verbal warning.

One of those incidents came on Oct. 23, 2023. That day, a detainee’s attorney emailed the DOC to complain that their client had not received the mental health services that they had requested. The lawyer also asked that their client be moved to a mental health unit to be given the opportunity to speak with a therapist.

Around six hours later, the detainee left his housing area in a general population dorm when a correctional officer was offering commissary services.

The detainee began walking by the officer when the officer held out his arm to block him, the report said. The detainee made “minimal physical contact with the officer’s outstretched hand as he entered the area directly outside the dormitory.”

The officer immediately took his pepper spray canister off of his belt and ordered the detainee to return to the dorms.

In response, the detainee asked to “speak with a captain. The officer said, “That’s not how we do it,” and again ordered the man to step back inside.

The detainee then allegedly raised his hands in the air with his palms open and again asked to see a captain.

The officer then walked up to the detainee and pushed him toward the dormitory door. The officer then took three steps back and sprayed the detainee from approximately three feet away while the detainees hands were still in the air.

Only 22 seconds passed between the officer’s first order and the use of the pepper spray.

The officer also never warned the detainee that the spray would be used, despite the fact that the officer said a warning was issued while writing a report on the incident.

The day after being sprayed, the detainee was taken to a mental health unit.

A spokesperson for the DOC said that the agency “carefully reviewed the Board’s report and has committed to additional training for staff regarding the use of OC spray and to surveying other New York counties and comparable jail systems regarding their use.”

“OC spray is a critical, non-lethal tool for Correction Officers to ensure the safety of fellow uniformed and civilian staff, as well as other persons in custody,” the spokesperson added.

A response to the BOC’s findings from the DOC was also included in the report. In it, the DOC said that it agreed that in many cases “the use of chemical agent was unnecessary and that other steps should have been taken to de-escalate the situation.”

In response to the instances in which pepper spray was used when someone was hanging themselves, the DOC said it “recognizes that spraying an individual who is already struggling to breathe is exceedingly problematic,” but added that there are instances when a detainee feigns hanging as “a ploy to lure an officer into a cell so that the officer can be attacked.”

City Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice said that she found it “alarming” that the rate of pepper spray use had increased in general, but particularly among those in mental health units.

“With more than half the population in New York City jails suffering from mental health issues and approximately a third of the population having chronic pulmonary conditions, it is disturbing to see a drastic increase in the abuse and misuse of chemical agents that are known to exacerbate underlying medical issues,” she said.

“The report adds more evidence of the ongoing humanitarian crisis at Rikers Island and a growing culture of excessive use of force,” she added. “For the safety of DOC staff, service providers and detainees, we must do everything we can to close Rikers.”