Can the Department of Correction's new commissioner fix Rikers Island?
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Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie says she can reform the jails on Rikers Island, but decades of dysfunction suggests otherwise.
Read MoreFamily of man who died after Rikers Island detention sues city for $100 million
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The family of a 31-year-old man whose death in Department of Correction custody remains disputed over a year after it happened recently filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city.
Read MoreCouncil looks to ban recording of detainee phone calls
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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.
Read MoreFormer Corrections boss to lead Deptartment of Citywide Administrative Services
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Former Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina has been tapped by Mayor Eric Adams to lead the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Read More‘Dysfunction remains the reality’: Legal Aid makes final arguments for federal takeover of Rikers
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Despite the city’s instance that if given more time it can turn around its troubled jail complex on Rikers Island, the Legal Aid Society said in a Thursday court filing that enough was enough, and reiterated its call for a federal judge to strip control of the jail from the city and hand it over to a court-appointed authority.
Read MoreJail programming suffers a year after DOC cut nonprofit contract
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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.
Read More‘A little perplexed’: Questions raised over city’s $4 billion contract for construction of Queens jail
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Advocates and a lawmaker on Thursday spoke out against the city’s proposed $4 billion contract for the building of Queens’ borough-based jail, which may be completed four years after the city’s legally-mandated deadline to close Rikers Island.
Read MoreFour billion dollars and four years late: Queens jail is over budget and behind schedule
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Queens’ borough-based jail set to be built in Kew Gardens will cost taxpayers at least $4 billion and may be completed four years after the city’s legally-mandated deadline to close Rikers Island, city records show.
Read MoreCouncil blasts DOC for ignoring Rikers detainee complaints
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Missed medical appointments, alleged sexual harassment and abuse, dirty cells and frequent violence – detainees on Rikers Island have had a lot to complain about.
Read MoreCity fails to offer school to young detainees on Rikers, LAS says
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Young detainees on Rikers Island are being deprived of their right to take high school classes while behind bars, the Legal Aid Society alleged in a new filing in federal court this week.
Read MoreCity claims Rikers receivership isn’t needed with new commissioner at helm
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Attorneys for the city on Tuesday told a federal judge that Rikers Island should remain in the hands of the city as a new, reform-minded commissioner takes a stab at curbing violent conditions at the notorious jail complex.
Read MoreMayor claims borough-based jails can’t be built by Rikers’ closure deadline
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Repeating what top members of his administration have begun to suggest in recent weeks, Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday that his administration has little to no shot of building four borough-based jails by the time Rikers Island is legally-mandated to shutter as a jail complex in 2027.
Read MoreNonprofits given ax by DOC last year return to work on Rikers for free
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A little more than half a year after the Department of Correction cut a contract with several nonprofit service providers, two of those organizations have been asked to again provide programming to detainees on Rikers Island – and to do it for free.
Read MoreSome Rikers detainees haven’t gotten outdoor rec in over a year, oversight board finds
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Some detainees on Rikers Island haven’t been allowed outside for recreational time for over a year, according to officials with the jail’s independent watchdog board.
Read More‘Unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous’: Use of pepper spray skyrocketed on Rikers Island, new report finds
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In a single month last year, Department of Correction officers used pepper spray on eight different detainees attempting to hang themselves, highlighting a concerning pattern in violation of department policy, according to a new report from the department’s citizen watchdog board.
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