‘I cried that whole night’: Families say DOC did little to tell them their loved ones died on Rikers

‘I cried that whole night’: Families say DOC did little to tell them their loved ones died on Rikers


A City Council bill discussed Friday would define the procedures the DOC and Correctional Health Services – the branch of the city’s hospital system that provides medical care on Rikers Island – should take to notify an incarcerated person’s emergency contacts when that person is seriously injured, hospitalized or attempts suicide.

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Council looks to ban recording of detainee phone calls

Council looks to ban recording of detainee phone calls

The City Council on Thursday introduced a bill that they say would stop the city’s Department of Correction from recording calls made by detainees inside Rikers Island without first getting a warrant.

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Jail programming suffers a year after DOC cut nonprofit contract

Jail programming suffers a year after DOC cut nonprofit contract

The city’s Department of Correction has continued to struggle to provide re-entry services, educational programs, life skills training and other programs to detainees on Rikers Island a year after the agency cut a contract with half a dozen nonprofits and opted to provide the programming themselves.

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Mayor restores programming on Rikers months after cutting funding

Mayor restores programming on Rikers months after cutting funding

The Adams administration late Monday announced that it planned to mostly restore nonprofit-provided programming for detainees on Rikers Island after the city attempted – and largely failed – to provide the programming itself following a budget cut ordered by the mayor last year.

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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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No sprinklers or guards as detainees were trapped during Rikers fire, report says

No sprinklers or guards as detainees were trapped during Rikers fire, report says

Detainees were held in locked cells that were filling up with smoke for nearly a half hour as a fire spread through a Rikers Island facility in April, a new report from the city’s Board of Correction found.

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Mayor names new jails boss

Mayor names new jails boss

Nearly a month after City Hall said a new agency head would be named to replace Louis Molina, whose long-awaited “promotion” to serve as assistant deputy mayor of public safety was also made official Friday, Mayor Eric Adams tapped Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, an eight-year veteran of the DOC, to serve as Molina’s successor.

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Rikers monitor says relationship with DOC has ‘eroded’

Rikers monitor says relationship with DOC has ‘eroded’

With his days as Department of Correction commission numbered, Louis Molina was given a scathing review by the federal monitor charged with keeping track of violence on Rikers Island.

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Month after ‘promotion,’ Molina remains DOC boss

Month after ‘promotion,’ Molina remains DOC boss

City Hall said Louis Molina would move from Department of Correction commissioner to assistant deputy mayor in “mid-November.” But in a sworn affidavit this week, Molina said he remains in charge of the agency, and doesn’t know when a successor will be named.

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Legal Aid officially files for federal takeover of Rikers Island

Legal Aid officially files for federal takeover of Rikers Island

Attorneys with the Legal Aid Society and prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York officially asked a federal judge on Friday to strip the city of its control over Rikers Island and hand the jail complex over to a federal authority.

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