DOC calls for less out-of-cell time for Rikers detainees
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Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina is urging the Board of Correction to allow the DOC to reduce the hours of out-of-cell time for hundreds of detainees accused of perpetuating violence on Rikers Island. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Rachel Vick
Department of Corrections Commissioner Louis Molina is requesting permission to reduce out of cell time for a group of detainees by seven hours, according to a letter sent to the Board of Corrections.
The request to increase the in-cell time for detainees in Rikers Island’s George R. Vierno Center from 10 to 17 hours was made in response to nine stabbings in the facility between Oct. 7 and 12, Molina explained in a letter to Board of Correction Acting Chair Julio Medina.
The request comes as the City Council mulls over a bill to ban solitary confinement, renewing conversation about the practice the United Nations has determined is torture.
“Reducing the out-of-cell time to seven hours is not unreasonable,” he wrote. “It is a far cry from solitary confinement or segregated confinement as defined under the HALT Act.”
“Safety is essential to operating a humane jail, and 14-hour out-of-cell time in GRVC is not conducive to operating this facility safely,” he added, noting a correlation between reduced violence among detainees and a reduction in use of force incidents committed by officers.
There have been 76 stabbing and slashing incidents since June 1 in the jail facility, according to the DOC.
In the letter, Molina said the restrictions mirror jail practices in other states and added that the federal monitor appointed to oversee improvements at the facility has issued support for increasing in-cell time as a tool for reducing violence.
If approved by the BOC, an independent oversight body, the department would likely adopt two shifts for out of cell time to better oversee the jail population. The BOC’s next meeting will be held Oct. 18.
“The safety and wellbeing of our staff and people in custody is our highest priority,” a DOC spokesperson told the Eagle. “We are looking forward to discussing the variance request at the next board meeting.”
Advocates responded to the request to reduced out of cell recreation time with disdain, pointing to the request as an example of the DOC taking shortcuts.
HALT Solitary Campaign Organizer Anisah Sabur, said the move would “collectively [punish] 800 people, including those detained pre-trial on unaffordable bail” and “is undercutting basic health and safety regulations.”
Existing minimum standards allow for eight hours in a cell for sleeping and an additional two during the day.
“At a time when experts, the public and policymakers are all calling for an end to solitary confinement and other forms of punitive isolation, the Commissioner’s extreme proposal would take New York City backwards,” Sabur said. “Shockingly, the Commissioner is misrepresenting a lawsuit meant to end staff brutality to falsely justify a plan that would cause greater harm to incarcerated people.”
They also took the opportunity to call for the passage of Intro 549, which would prevent anyone being held in an isolated cell for more than two hours per day within a 24-hour period and for more than eight hours at night. Under the bill currently being considered by the City Council, correction officers would have the authority to determine if additional restrictions were needed and hold individuals for up to four hours instead.
The bill also stipulates that medical staff would be required to check on the incarcerated person being held every 15 minutes and DOC staff would have to meet with them once an hour to try and de-escalate the situation.
The bill has the support from a veto-proof majority of City Councilmembers — including 10 from Queens. It does not, however, have the same support from Mayor Eric Adams.
“I’m going to do an evaluation and, if need be, use the power of veto to stop it,” he said earlier this month, according to the Daily News. “I just think the Council should really think through this bill before they make that decision. We have been speaking with Council people and I believe the conversations are going fairly well.”
The Federal Monitor has also voiced support for delaying the implementation of the Risk Management Accountability System, which was passed by the BOC and would serve as an alternative to solitary confinement. The delayed implementation of the program has been supported by the mayor, who has renewed an executive order suspending the program every week since taking office.
There have been 16 deaths in custody this year, and the most recent wave of violence has sparked renewed calls for the federal government to take control of RIkers Island facilities. Though the DOC’ plan to mediate persistent negligent conditions pacified federal Judge Laura T. Swain earlier this year, advocates and elected officials remain unsatisfied with both the pace and ongoing issues.
The DOC will appear before Swain next month and attempt to prove that its action plan to improve conditions in the jail is working. Should they not meet Swain’s expectations, the judge could order a federal receivership, a vague judicial order that could see a federal authority take over day-to-day operations of the jail.
Last week, City Comptroller Brad Lander became the highest-ranking city official to advocate for the installation of a receiver.
Adams and Molina have both advocated against such an action.
DOC leadership is scheduled to appear before federal Judge Laura Swain on Nov. 17.
“Admittedly with some trepidation, I have come to the conclusion that to address the short-term crisis – which is rooted largely in deeply entrenched mismanagement of staff and union leadership recalcitrance – a receiver should be appointed,” Lander said last week. “A receiver will not be able to magically fix what has been broken at Rikers for decades. But a receiver would be empowered to make decisions that the City has failed to adequately contend with for many years.”
