State-ready prisoners slowly begin to move off Rikers but major concerns remain

State officials say the number of state-ready individuals being transferred off of Rikers Island and into state prisons has increased in recent weeks, a couple of months after a wildcat correctional officer strike brought all transfers to a halt. AP file photo by Ted Shaffrey

By Jacob Kaye

For the first time in months, the number of New Yorkers being processed into the state’s prisons is higher than the number being declared “state ready” in local jails throughout the state, Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officials say.

In a letter to the City Council shared with the Eagle this week, DOCCS Commissioner Daniel Martuscello said the state’s prisons are beginning to turn the corner after an unsanctioned correctional officer strike earlier this year brought all transfers of sentenced New Yorkers from local jails to state prisons to a halt. Though transfers resumed once a majority of the officers returned to work in early March – about a month after they began their wildcat strike – they came at a far slower pace.

What’s resulted is a pile up of sentenced New Yorkers in jails, like Rikers Island, where local correctional departments have struggled to find the space to house the people who should have left their custody, days, weeks or even months ago.

The issue has been particularly stark at Rikers, the city’s troubled jail complex where over 40 people have died over the past four years.

And while DOCCS says that they’ve been making progress toward increasing the rate at which people are being transferred into prisons, councilmembers say they are concerned that continued overcrowding in Rikers’ jails could have dire consequences.

“For decades, the conditions at Rikers Island have been extremely dangerous for both people in custody and staff,” City Councilmembers Sandy Nurse and Gale Brewer, who respectively chair the Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice and Committee on Oversight and Investigations, said in a July 3 letter to Governor Kathy Hochul.

“To ensure safety for all, it is critical for New York State to increase the frequency and number of people transferred to prison facilities until this backlog is alleviated,” the lawmakers added.

As of July 1, around 1,000 people held on Rikers were awaiting transfer to a state prison facility, accounting for an over 500 percent increase in state-ready detainees when compared to the year prior, according to the lawmakers.

As of Thursday, there were 1,031 individuals in DOC custody who were ready to begin serving their state sentences, according to the agency. There were also 185 people in custody who were awaiting placement in state Office of Mental Health facilities.

The increase in state-ready prisoners has contributed to a general increase to the population on Rikers Island, which surpassed 7,000 people earlier this year for the first time since 2019. As of late June, there were over 7,600 detainees being held on Rikers, according to DOC data.

To deal with the overcrowding, the city’s Department of Correction has asked the Board of Correction, the DOC’s oversight body, to temporarily suspend several rules regarding population limits in its facilities. The BOC did not grant the department’s request earlier this month, despite granting a similar request in February.

To deal with the increase in state-ready detainees, the DOC has also moved some men into the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers, the facility that typically exclusively houses women detainees.

According to Nurse, the new housing arrangements at RMSC have resulted in rising tensions.

“People are just unhappy,” Nurse told the Eagle.

The housing changes have resulted in interrupted programming, including drug-treatment programs, Nurse said. And movement in the facility has generally been restricted in an effort to ensure the different gendered populations don’t interact with each other.

“It's very clear that the Department of Correction really needs the State Department of Correction to really increase the intake,” Nurse said.

A spokesperson for the DOC said the agency had opened up a number of additional units, beyond opening RMSC to men.

“We have had to make several operational changes to accommodate state-ready persons remaining in our care,” the spokesperson said. “Everyone - from uniformed members of service, to program staff, to our maintenance experts - have worked tirelessly to ensure everyone in DOC's custody lives in safe, humane, and dignified conditions. This has been a challenge, and one that has added extra pressure to a system with resources that are already stretched thin, but we are grateful to the men and women of this Department who have made it work.”

Nurse credited the DOCCS for at least making an effort to get detainees off of Rikers and into prisons.

In response to the letter sent by Nurse and Brewer, Martuscello said that DOCCS was "actively working to increase the number of weekly admissions, as well as develop additional strategies for increasing the overall numbers.”

“DOCCS recognizes the impact the retention of state-ready individuals has had on Rikers Island and appreciates their patience and partnership as we continue to recover, recruit and rebuild,” he added.

But even with their good-faith effort, Nurse said more needs to be done at both the state and the city level to lower the population on Rikers Island.

“I feel that the jail is a tinderbox right now, and I think it is going to explode before the end of this year if we do not see a very serious set of actions from both the city and the state,” she said. “I don't see how this doesn't blow up in everybody's face.”