While Department of Correction officials say that their ability to get detainees to their court appearances has markedly improved over the past year, others say the corrections agency isn’t being forthcoming about its practices.
Read MoreHours before the holiday weekend, the federal monitor overseeing Rikers Island filed a “special report” alleging that Department of Correction brass wasn’t forthcoming about nearly half a dozen recent fatal or near-fatal incidents in the city’s jails.
Read MoreMayor Eric Adams said that he would not take Rikers Island off the table as a potential place to house newly arrived migrants.
Read MoreA 52-year-old Rikers Island detainee died in a Queens hospital on Tuesday, several days after he was severely injured inside the jail.
Read MoreThe Department of Correction has told half a dozen organizations that provide services and programs to jailed New Yorkers that they will no longer be contracted to work with the agency come July.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreDepartment of Correction leaders tapped a longtime city spokesperson to serve as its deputy commissioner for public information.
Read MoreOver 4,000 people who were improperly held in solitary confinement in the city’s jails at various points over the last four years will get a cut of a $53 million settlement the city agreed to last week.
Read MoreA group of city councilmembers introduced Tuesday a plan to lower Rikers Island’s population over the next several years ahead of its legally mandated closure in 2027.
Read More“We will have blood on our hands if we allow these [bail law] changes to be implemented in our New York State budget,” Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani said, following a visit to Rikers Island this week.
Read MoreIn the first major report on Rikers Island since last fall, the federal team monitoring the troubled jail complex says that while conditions remain dire, improvements have very slowly begun to take root.
Read MoreThe Department of Design and Construction on Thursday got an earful from New Yorkers upset over a proposed construction contract that would likely delay the closure of Rikers Island by at least two years.
Read More“No one should be threatened or fearful of a receiver if the goal is to, once and for all, comprehensively, thoughtfully, and successfully address the Rikers mess. It’s long overdue.”
Read More“The inconsistent statements from the administration over the past few days have unacceptably created questions where there should be no questions,” the speaker said. “Rikers must close by 2027 and we cannot allow it to continue undermining public safety issues across our city.”
Read MoreA controversial plan to intercept and digitize detainee mail on Rikers Island has again been kept in limbo after the city’s jail oversight body declined to vote on the plan, months after it was first introduced.
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