COVID spikes on Rikers, services cut
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DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi announced this week the suspension of a handful of detainee services in the wake of a spike of COVID-19 cases. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
Rikers Island and the city’s Department of Correction has been in crisis for nearly the entirety of 2021. More people have died in DOC custody this year than any year dating back to 2013 violence inside the jails has increased and officers continue to miss work at an historic rate.
The crisis continued this week as DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi, who only has a few weeks left in his short-lived reign as the department’s head, announced that Rikers Island is currently experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases.
Two weeks ago, the city’s jail saw a positivity rate amongst detainees hover around one percent, according to the commissioner. By Monday, the rate was a little less than 10 percent and by Tuesday, the DOC reported over 17 percent of detainees tested positive for the virus.
With around 45 percent of the incarcerated population partially vaccinated and around 38 percent fully vaccinated, Schiraldi wrote to the five district attorneys in the city and several public defenders groups to warn them about the “emerging COVID-19 crisis at Rikers Island.”
“The combination of these data indicates that the risks to the human beings in our custody are at a crisis level,” Schiraldi wrote.
In response, the DOC has moved to temporarily halt a handful of services offered to detainees, including in-person visitations and religious services.
“It is extremely difficult for all of us to take these measures,” Schiraldi said in a statement regarding the closures. “The city has done an extraordinary job of keeping COVID at bay in our facilities and minimizing loss of life due to the pandemic, but Omicron represents a new challenge. We are taking these precautions once again because we know that they work and that they will make everyone safer.”
To replace in-person visits, the DOC will roll out more tele-visits, a practice that was used at the height of the first wave of the pandemic. The online visits will be offered five days per week and loved ones of incarcerated people can sign up for a visit on the DOC’s website.
Even throughout the summer, when cases in the city and the jails were low, some families told the Eagle that they had difficulties scheduling online visits because of waning staffing numbers – officers are required to transport and staff the rooms where the tele-visits are held.
The DOC says that the numbers of uniformed staff who received at least one dose of the vaccine has seen a large increase since the mandate for officers went into effect several months ago.
Currently, around 85 percent of uniformed personnel and 87 percent of staff department-wide have shown proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In his letter, Schiraldi said that the shutdown of services will have “considerable negative effects on a jail population that is still reeling from two years of COVID and a staffing crisis that has contributed to unprecedented levels of tension, anxiety, and violence within the jails.”
“The consequences of removing these basic services and supports from those in our custody will be felt by both persons in custody and the officers who work hard every day to keep people here safe,” Schiraldi wrote. “We believe we have no choice.”
But some action can be taken, the commissioner who is soon to be replaced by incoming-Commissioner Louis Molina, said in his letter.
“I implore [DAs and attorneys] to ask the courts to similarly consider every available option to reduce the number of individuals in our jail,” he said. “Whether that means seeking supervised release in more cases or identifying cases that can be resolved with modifications to sentence length or requesting compassionate release for individuals who are at higher risk due to underlying medical conditions, I leave to your professional judgment.”
Public defense groups, including the Legal Aid Society, Queens Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Bronx Defenders, New York County Defender Services and Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, called on judges and prosecutors to begin releasing people from the city’s jails and stop people from being admitted.
“The virus is spreading like wildfire throughout Rikers Island and other DOC facilities, exacerbating an ongoing humanitarian crisis that has already taken the lives of sixteen people this year and forced countless others to endure life-threatening conditions while in custody,” the public defenders wrote. “Thousands of incarcerated New Yorkers are suffering, and DOC has proven to be incapable of caring for the health and safety of the people in its custody throughout the pandemic.”
“Without immediate decarceration, more lives will be lost,” the groups added. “We urge judges, district attorneys, and elected officials at every level of government to take immediate action to release people and halt new jail admissions.”
The DOC said detainees will have access to clinicians, something detainees have previously told the Eagle has been difficult to come by in the past year.
The agency has also opened one unit per jail facility to house people with confirmed cases of the virus.
