DOC boss denies knowing about Rikers’ ‘worst-kept secret’

DOC boss denies knowing about Rikers’ ‘worst-kept secret’

The head of the city’s Department of Correction had little to say when asked about allegations that officers regularly lock up detainees with mental health issues for days or weeks at a time in solitary confinement, blocking their access to medication and attention from doctors.

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Former Rikers worker says DOC locks mentally ill detainees inside cells for weeks

Former Rikers worker says DOC locks mentally ill detainees inside cells for weeks

Detainees with mental health issues are sometimes locked inside cells for weeks or months at a time without access to their needed medication and left to deteriorate, a former social worker on Rikers Island told the jails’ watchdog board on Tuesday. 

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‘Insult on top of injury’: Attys claim DOC falsified records about Rikers detainee’s death

‘Insult on top of injury’: Attys claim DOC falsified records about Rikers detainee’s death

A new filing in a wrongful death lawsuit claims that the city’s Department of Correction falsely claimed in records that they acted quickly to provide Narcan to a 26-year-old dying of an overdose on Rikers Island in 2022 when instead it was the man’s brother, coincidently being held in the cell next door, who attempted to revive his sibling just before he died.

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With Rikers in crisis, power struggle within jail watchdog board overshadows oversight efforts

With Rikers in crisis, power struggle within jail watchdog board overshadows oversight efforts

The Board of Correction on Tuesday spent around an hour of its meeting engaged in an internal power struggle instead of discussing the top item on its agenda – the crisis regarding the city’s stalled plan to close Rikers Island by 2027.

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Rikers receivership case sluggishly moves forward

Rikers receivership case sluggishly moves forward

For the first time in nearly seven months, the city’s Department of Correction on Tuesday appeared before the federal judge currently considering whether or not the city should be stripped of its control of Rikers Island, the troubled jail complex that has seen over two dozen deaths in the past two years.

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