Detained until proven guilty: Over 300 people have been held on Rikers for over 3 years

Over 300 people have been held on pretrial detention in Rikers Island for over three years.  Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye

By Jacob Kaye

Marcia Bryson’s son has been away from her Cambria Heights home and locked up on Rikers Island for four years.

Held on murder charges, her son, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest in January 2018, has yet to see a trial. The family has little faith they’ll see one any time soon.

“We're always on edge,” Bryson said. “We don't know what's going to happen.”

Bryson’s son, whose name is being withheld for fear of reprisal, is one of 306 people incarcerated on Rikers Island whose pre-trial detention has lasted three years or longer. There are an additional 441 detainees who have been held for two to three years and nearly 1,000 who have been held for one to two years, according to the New York City Department of Correction.

In total, those held for a year or longer make up around 30 percent of Rikers’ population.

Bryson, families like her’s and advocates say the lengthy stay in the city’s troubled jail complex is a miscarage of justice.

“There's a constitutional right to a speedy trial, but nobody really knows what that means,” said Lori Zeno, the executive director of Queens Defenders, a public defense nonprofit. “It isn't justice for any of them, [the defendant, their family, the victim or the victim’s family].”

Zeno said that while a person’s innocence is not the most important factor in ensuring a speedy trial, it’s something to consider and could have major consequences.

“My bet is it's not 300 people that are innocent but there's some – maybe it’s three, maybe it’s 30, who knows,” she added. “If it's you and you're that innocent one, it really sucks because by the time you get out you've already done a sentence.”

The topic of lengthy stays came up briefly at a recent Board of Correction meeting. Members of the oversight body asked members of the DOC what they were doing to address the number of incarcerated people held on multi-year detentions.

“It is the 11th day of this administration, I just want you to hear it, a focus of ours is working with [the district attorneys] to address those long stays,” a DOC representative said at the meeting. “Give us a little bit of time, and we will certainly update you on what our plans are and how we can be involved in that process.”

In the past year, the New York City courts have begun to prioritize the cases where detention exceeds several years, according to the Office of Court Administration.

Queens Supreme Court Criminal Term Administrative Judge George Grasso said that cases involving defendants with long stays at Rikers are the court’s “top priority.”

“The individuals who've been incarcerated on Rikers for [three years or more], they're at the absolute top of the pyramid and everybody knows that,” Grasso said, adding that the courts have begun to increase their trial capacity heading into the new year.

“I'm confident that during the course of 2022, we will be addressing those cases,” he said.

The number of people being held on long detentions has become even more of a crisis in the past several years – the pandemic has contributed to a rise in violence and death in Rikers Island and has also contributed to a slow down of trials in the courts, which must be held in-person.

Zeno said that it’s time the courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys begin to seriously consider releasing some of the people being held on multi-year detentions.

“If you sit down with the DA and the defense attorney, and even the judge, and you hammer it out, there's a lot of things they can do,” Zeno said. “If there was somebody that warrants constantly and stuff like that, those are different stories. But then when you just reduce it to those numbers, then it's more doable to just litigate those cases, and either release the person or send them upstate – it’s one or the other.”

Zeno added that these cases require “some real honesty on the part of The People.”

“They know what their case is. They know what evidence they have, they know if it's good or not, they know if they've got a strong case, or not a strong case,” she said.

Bryson has spent the past four years working to get her son his day in court. She’s spoken with a number of elected officials, attorneys and countless people within the Department of Correction.

“This is exhausting – mental, physical and financial exhaustion,” she said.

In total, Bryson estimates she’s spent around $100,000 on her son and his case since his arrest. While a bulk of the money has gone to private attorneys, she’s also spent thousands of dollars on helping her son live as well as he can inside a jail that is notorious for its poor conditions. To pay for it all, Bryson says she’s had to go into debt.

“I was looking to retire the year before last, but I couldn’t when this happened,” Bryson said. “I have to continue working, and I am not physically well myself.”

Bryson’s son has multiple health issues, both physically and mentally, and Bryson fears that the longer he is incarcerated in Rikers, the worse his conditions will get. Since being incarcerated, he’s also developed asthma and recently lost hearing in one of his ears, she said.

“It's crazy,” she said. “It is very disheartening and frustrating for him. He can’t get proper medical attention.”

While she obviously hopes her son is found innocent, at this point, Bryson just wants her son’s case to move forward and for the state of limbo to come to an end.

“They're really putting us through a whole lot by delaying,” Bryson said. “We don't know what the outcome is, but at least if it gets to the end we'll know how to move on with our lives and what we have to do next.”