In-person visits return to Rikers
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In-person visits returned to Rikers Island Wednesday after being shut down for over a month due to rising COVID-19 cases inside the jail. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File
by Jacob Kaye
As COVID-19 cases continue to drop throughout the state in the city’s jails, Department of Correction officials announced this week that in-person visits have resumed at Rikers Island.
Family visits inside the city’s troubled jail complex were put on pause in December as case counts reached nearly 20 percent among detainees. The positive infection rate would go on to surpass 30 percent in the following weeks, according to DOC data.
But as has been the case throughout New York City and State, case numbers have begun to drop down to single digits – as of Feb. 8, the DOC’s 7-day average COVID positivity rate was around 3 percent.
With the reduction of case numbers, in-person visits on Rikers Island resumed on Wednesday, Feb. 9.
“I am very pleased that we have crossed another threshold in our fight against this virus and can now resume visits,” said DOC Commissioner Louis Molina. “In-person visits are important because they keep people in custody connected to their families and communities and contribute to their emotional wellbeing, all of which make our jails safer and more humane.”
From Feb. 9 through 15, all in-person visits will be walk-in visits, and will take place on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
All visitors will be required to take a rapid COVID-19 test and test negative prior to the visit – the tests will be free and available at the visitors center at the Vernon C. Bain Center. All visitors 5 and older must also show proof of vaccination.
Those who cannot show proof of vaccination or who test positive for COVID-19, can either register for a virtual visit or for a future in-person visit.
Starting Feb. 16, visitors will have to pre-register for appointments, which can be scheduled on the DOC’s website.
Virtual visits will continue to be made available on Saturdays and Sundays.
“In-person visitation is important to our patients’ mental health and emotional wellbeing, and we support the Department reinstating this vital service, as the COVID positivity rate in the jails continues to decline,” said Dr. Patsy Yang, the senior vice president of NY Health + Hospitals for Correctional Health Services.
In addition to visitation, religious services and access to the law library were suspended in what was one of former DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi’s last acts as the head of the agency.
Preceding the shutdowns, Schiraldi wrote a letter to a number of the city’s public defense attorneys and district attorneys, explaining that he felt he had “no choice,” and implored them to do what they could to get detainees out of the jail complex.
“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.”
Access to the law library and religious services remain limited, according to a DOC spokesperson who added that the agency “will continue to resume as many services as quickly and as safely as possible.”
Detainees can access the law library by request only and only two people are allowed in the library at once, the spokesperson said.
Religious services are currently available virtually and a chaplaincy hotline and one-on-one services have been created.
