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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New correction commissioner promises to work better with oversight board

New correction commissioner promises to work better with oversight board

Top officials at the city’s Department of Correction and its independent, citizen watchdog group the Board of Correction took the tenants of the new year to heart on Wednesday, promising to have a more collaborative and less confrontational 2024 than they did 2023.

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BOC chair absent from crucial Rikers oversight hearing

BOC chair absent from crucial Rikers oversight hearing

The embattled chair of the Department of Correction’s oversight body was missing in action on Friday during the Board of Correction’s monthly meeting, the first to be held since the oversight board sued the DOC over the agency’s decision to revoke the board’s remote access to video surveillance footage from within Rikers Island.

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Board of Correction sues DOC over revoked video access

Board of Correction sues DOC over revoked video access

The Board of Correction, the citizen watchdog board charged with providing oversight to the Department of Correction, sued the agency in an effort to regain unfettered access to video from within Rikers Island after DOC brass revoked the board’s ability to view it remotely earlier this year.

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Jail oversight board bungles monthly meeting – again

Jail oversight board bungles monthly meeting – again

The Board of Correction’s monthly meeting fell into chaos after technical difficulties left the board’s livestream sputtering, and after the board’s chair clashed with a criminal justice reform advocate and his fellow board members agitated by the board’s inability to hold its scheduled public hearing.

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