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.
Read MoreThe New York City Council passed a bill on Wednesday that bans the use of solitary confinement in the city’s jails, setting up a potential battle with the mayor who has expressed staunch opposition to the legislation.
Read MoreA federal judge found the Department of Correction in contempt of court on Thursday after it failed to communicate with the federal monitor about the opening of a secure housing unit in November.
Read MoreNearly 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.
Read MoreAttorneys 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.
Read MoreWho is in charge of the city’s troubled Department of Correction? The judge considering whether or not the city is capable of running Rikers Island wants to know.
Read MoreLouis Molina appeared before the Board of Correction for last time as commissioner of the Department of Correction this week. For most of his tenure, Molina largely ignored and fought with the oversight body.
Read MoreThe “promotion” of Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina has done little to convince the federal monitor tasked with keeping tabs on conditions at Rikers Island that the jail complex will get any safer as a result – in fact, it appears to have done just the opposite.
Read MoreDepartment of Correction boss Louis Molina was moved from DOC commissioner to assistant deputy mayor on Tuesday. His job change comes as a federal judge begins to seriously consider whether or not Rikers Island should be stripped away from the city over its inability to tamp down violent conditions there.
Read More“These actions are, simply put, unacceptable,” a federal judge said of Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina’s alleged attempt to influence a report compiled by the monitor in charge of keeping tabs on conditions on Rikers Island.
Read MoreOn the same day a 27-year-old man became the ninth person to die in Department of Correction custody this year, the federal monitor tracking conditions on Rikers Island said reforming the notorious jail complex is a prospect that is “falling even further out of reach.”
Read MoreAfter having been accused by judges, advocates, lawmakers, oversight agencies, attorneys and others of failing to be transparent about what happens on Rikers Island, the Department of Correction may be legally required to open its records, video recordings and more to an oversight board should two bills set to be introduced in the City Council on Thursday pass into law.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe Adams administration has yet to complete a single transfer of land on Rikers Island, a crucial part of the city’s plan to turn the jail complex into a renewable energy hub by 2027.
Read MoreFor the eighth time this year, a person being held in the custody of the New York City Department of Correction has died.
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