DOC gives update on reforms
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The Department of Correction said it’s making progress on its New Day DOC safety and reform plan, according to documents obtained by the Eagle. AP file photo by Seth Wenig
By Jacob Kaye
The New York City Department of Correction has shared a progress report on its plan to make workplace improvements for its employees and improve conditions for incarcerated individuals.
Dubbed ‘New Day DOC,’ the plan aims to make a series of reforms to how both correctional officers and incarcerated people are treated in the city’s jails. The plan was introduced by recently appointed DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi last month, and the agency says it’s making progress.
“As you can see, we are making progress to improve safety, accountability and conditions for all who work and live here,” Schiraldi said in a recent message to staff members obtained by the Eagle. “There are no easy solutions to the challenges we have but I and my executive team are committed to help all staff and people in custody to work and live in a safe, humane and decent environment.”
“We know there is much more work that we need to do, and we will work hard to get it done,” he added.
The post-pandemic recovery plan aimed to improve safety throughout the prisons, encourage staff to return to work, offer new programming to incarcerated people and implement “greater accountability.”
Among some of the reforms was the promise to end triple shifts, which correctional officers say they’ve been working more and more as their ranks have been depleted over the course of the pandemic.
The agency currently has 8,800 uniformed staff members. However, 1,600 were on sick leave at the end of July – corrections officers have unlimited sick leave – another 1,400 were medically monitored and unable to work with incarcerated people and 2,200 people didn’t show up for shifts last month, according to a DOC spokesperson.
But those numbers have improved, the DOC said.
The agency established a new sick leave process and partnered with Mt. Sinai clinics to “help clear staff to return to duty,” according to the DOC. Since Aug. 2, the sick rate among staff has dropped by 80 percent, the agency said.
A recent lawsuit filed by the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association claimed officers have been forced to work triple shifts in the absence of their colleagues and that they are put in constant danger for a multitude of reasons.
One of those reasons, the lawsuit said, was that not all cell doors were functional.
COBA did not respond to request for comment for this story.
In its New Day DOC update, the agency said that it installed 50 new cell doors at the Robert N. Davoren Complex on Rikers Island by July 31, around 15 days after the plan was first announced.
DOC said it has also begun processing candidates for the new class of officers in the fall, started offering free car service and free catered meals to staff working multiple shifts and instituted a commissary ban for incarcerated individuals who commit infractions, among other reforms.
Correctional officers rallied in Astoria on Monday to demand an end to triple shifts and a hiring spree to increase in their numbers.
The long hours have made the working conditions on Rikers worse and less safe, they said.
“We are first responders,” said Herman Jiminian, the legislative chairman of COBA at the rally. “We are the forgotten agency of the city of New York and it's not fair that our members are subjected to work 24- to 32- hour shifts. Enough is enough.”
DOC’s New Day plan said that it aims to end “triples as quickly as possible.”
While the DOC’s progress report listed updates on practices that improve the number of officers, no firm figure on the number of triples worked in the past month was given.
