After months of praising a shift toward greater transparency at the Department of Correction, the federal watchdog overseeing Rikers Island sharply changed course Thursday, accusing agency leadership of taking steps that could undermine court-ordered reforms.
Read MoreA 41-year-old man who had been held on Rikers Island for over two years was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning.
Read MoreA man who died while in custody was repeatedly ignored by both correctional officers and hospital staff when he tried to voice concerns about his health, a new lawsuit filed on Monday claims.
Read MoreThe Independent Rikers Commission is hoping to remind New Yorkers why the city first began to endeavor closing its dangerous jail complex, even if it has no shot at hitting the legally-mandated 2027 deadline to do so.
Read MoreWhile the federal monitor tasked with tracking conditions on Rikers Island appears optimistic about the leadership of the two new officials in charge of the city’s jails, violence in the troubled complex remains high, the monitor said in a new report.
Read MoreThe commissioner of the Department of Correction on Tuesday defended a nearly 600-officer cut proposed by the mayor, despite asking the City Council for more funds to hire and recruit officers only a couple of months ago.
Read MoreTwo detainees died on Rikers Island in quick succession of each other on Monday and Tuesday as the jail’s top officials were across the Atlantic, touring jails in Europe.
Read MoreInvestigations into alleged abuses by Rikers Island officers will no longer be handled by the Department of Correction, according to a new organizational structure that puts a court-appointed remediation manager in charge of probing misconduct inside the jails.
Read MoreThe city’s Department of Correction may soon begin to implement parts of a local law banning solitary confinement in the city’s jails, nearly two and a half years after the bill was first passed.
Read MoreThe final beam was placed Wednesday atop the $3 billion Brooklyn borough-based jail, which will one day be the first facility to be completed as part of New York City’s long-delayed plan to close Rikers Island.
Read MoreCity Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers’ first visit to Rikers Island came shortly after her election in 2021, when the jails were in an acute state of crisis.
Read MoreAdvocates are urging the Mamdani administration to transfer a long-vacant Rikers Island jail facility out of Department of Correction control, saying the city must revive a jail decommissioning process that came to a complete halt under former Mayor Eric Adams.
Read MoreA 39-year-old man died on Rikers Island on Thursday, marking the first death in the dangerous jail complex this year and the first since Mayor Zohran Mamdani took office.
Read MoreThe city still doesn’t have a timeline to open an already-constructed hospital jail ward meant to hold detainees with serious physical illness, despite new leadership in City Hall and the Department of Correction, who say they are fully committed to reversing the massive delay.
Read MoreThe court-appointed remediation manager responsible for addressing the deeply rooted dysfunction and violence on Rikers Island is expected to cost taxpayers nearly $10 million for his first full year of work.
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