Advocates call for Rikers reforms as officers rally
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Counter protestors stood across the street from a correction officer rally in Astoria on Monday to condemn their call for the city to hire additional staff. Photo Courtesy of Freedom Agenda
BY Rachel Vick
As court officers stood outside the entrance to Rikers Island to call for more staff as officers work triple shifts on Monday, a group of prison reform advocates stood their ground across the street to demand justice for incarcerated people.
The group, made up of elected officials, advocates and the formerly incarcerated criticized the impact on the jailed population, who are left in lockdown when the facilities are understaffed.
“COBA has created a problem of its own doing,” said Councilmember Daniel Dromm. “Corrections officers have a moral and legal obligation to report to work. The conditions on Rikers Island are intolerable for everyone involved. A culture change is desperately needed.”
A DOC spokesperson said the agency currently has 8,800 uniformed staff members, but 1,600 were on sick leave at the end of July, another 1,400 were medically unable to work with incarcerated people and 2,200 people failed to show up for shifts last month.
During Monday’s rally, Correction Captains Association President Patrick Ferraiuolo said that when Department of Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi asked if the union leader would tell the members to show up for work he asked, “Are you out of your f–ing mind?”
“[Corrections officers] are suffering on Rikers Island,” he added. “I'm going to tell the captains if you have a correction officer going into a triple, I'm telling you to let them go home… you send them home [and] if you don't have an officer to watch that house you lock those inmates in.”
The eleventh report from the federal monitor said the team remained “very concerned” by the conditions on Rikers and found “the pervasive level of disorder and chaos in the facilities… alarming.”
It also said that besides excessive use of force by officers during incidents, staff needs to be deployed more effectively instead of promoting “the idea that the addition of more staff will solve all problems.”
"COBA's leadership has convinced themselves that officers should not be held accountable for failing to report to work or demonstrating callous neglect for incarcerated people while there, and the mayor has shamefully let them act accordingly,” said Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda. “COBA has also taken every opportunity to argue for more incarceration.”
“We know what is needed - judges must stop sending people to die at Rikers for charges they have not even been convicted of, the Department of Correction’s bloated budget must be deflated and reallocated to address the root causes of incarceration, and we need to move urgently,” Mack, who spent time incarcerated at Rikers, added.
Attendees of the officer’s rally chanted “bring back the box,” a call that hit close to home for advocates who have had loved ones commit suicide or die while in solitary confinement like Layleen Polanco did in 2019.
“Solitary confinement literally tortures and kills people and makes everyone less safe. Solitary took my baby sister from me,” said Melania Brown, Polanco’s sister. “In fact, evidence shows that the opposite of solitary is what works to prevent violence – with full days of out-of-cell programming and meaningful engagement.”
