Activists rally for inmate rights in response to scathing Rikers review

Prison reform advocates rallied Wednesday to call for lawmaker action addressing misconduct in Rikers outlined by the 11th report from the Nunez Federal monitor. Photo courtesy of Freedom Agenda

By Rachel Vick

Former prisoners of Rikers Island, families of incarcerated individuals and advocates rallied Wednesday morning to demand government action addressing treatment of inmates that they say amount to a human rights crisis.

They called on elected officials to create real change in response to the continued abuse of inmates within the notorious facilities outlined with personal testimonies and excerpts of the 11th report from the Nunez Federal monitor led by Steve Martin analyzing the conditions in the complex.

“If we don't put pressure on elected officials to do the right thing, who's going to do it,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda. “The people that [are] inside of Rikers Island can’t do very much except tell their family members and organizations like us what’s going on and we have to organize and come together and push the city to do the right thing.”

“The next administration has to do much better and we will continue to be there putting the heat on,” he added.

The report from the Nunez Federal monitor released Tuesday examined the conditions on Rikers between July 1 and December 31, 2020 and found that while some changes have been implemented “the pervasive level of disorder and chaos in the facilities is alarming.”

The monitoring team wrote that they remain “very concerned” by the state of reforms.

Attendees called for community support outside and training inside to combat the abuse of power documented by the report and personal accounts from prisoners, instead of hiring an additional 400 officers as proposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Speakers like Candie Hailey-Means, member of the NYC Jails Action Coalition detailed the horrors faced inside Rikers that range from negligence of basic needs to targeted abuse and tips on how to commit suicide.

“Instead of hiring new officers the Mayor needs to be firing the officers that abuse their positions by attacking, starving, and raping incarcerated people,” Hailey-Means said.

The employment rate of 1.6 officers per person in custody is eight times the national average, and more than twice the number of officers per incarcerated person than New York City employed when de Blasio became mayor in 2014, according to the Urban Justice Center.

Though the DOC issued complaints about understaffing, the report found that an excessive number of officers would routinely respond to incidents and with force that “becomes counterproductive and likely catalyzes the need to use force.” They found that the solution is increasing the efficiency of deployment, not increasing the number of staff.

The report described a “significant failure” by commanding officers to control the corrections officers under their supervision, and use-of-force incidents rose to 648 in December 2020, nearly double the 390 reported in the first Nunez report issued May 2016.

Martin said that “the sheer volume of force is concerning given the underlying dynamics between staff and people in custody are negatively impacted by these incidents.” 

“Why for decades are they allowed to abuse our community members?” said Kandra Clark, vice president of Policy & Strategy for Exodus Transitional Community. “The Department was placed under a remedial order last year for failing to end its excessive use of force, and for failing to hold its staff accountable for their misconduct. How could more officers be seen as the solution?”