When a New York City criminal defendant is booked into a prison, they typically wait much longer than 24 hours before they finally arrive at their place of confinement. This trend, sharpened in recent months by human rights organizations, opens the way for the City to face other issues for contempt of court.
Last Thursday The Legal Aid Society accused the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) of “failing to reliably process” people within 24 hours of entering custody.
“To date, the city does not have basic information about how long those who enter the prison system are forced to languish on admission, at risk of being stored in truly inhumane conditions,” said Kayla Simpson, a prisoners’ rights attorney. in The Legal Aid.
Intake units are short-term waiting areas, used primarily for intake and are not suitable for long-term stays.
Basic services, such as food and medical care, are significantly delayed or not offered in these spaces. Conditions are often overcrowded and unsanitary.
In addition, the federal monitor has described conditions in the intake units as “troubling and inhumane,” and has long noted the high levels of use of force that occur there.
Slower in 14 months
The complaint comes with a request for federal officials to intervene in what they describe as a “humanitarian crisis,” especially at Rikers Island, New York’s largest prison, located in Queens.
The action seeks immediate responses from the City about continued failures in the DOC intake process, after a 2021 court order requires the intake process to be fast and reliable.
Since that time, Legal Aid, a federal monitor, and legal think tanks have raised concerns about the reliability of DOC’s systems for recording the time a detainee must wait for residence assignment. Together they allege that the prison administration system has not complied with the order in 14 months.
To address this dynamic, Legal Aid and a group of advocates are seeking accountability measures, including live, real-time access to a dashboard showing new admissions through weekly reports.
These progress must be demonstrated by the DOC before March 15.
We adjusted admission records
In October 2020, the Federal Monitor, which assesses prison conditions in the Big Apple, reported “the number of suicide attempts that occur in facility admission units, particularly those with a connection point on the ceiling.”
Recognizing the need to limit inpatient stays, the Court’s Second Remedial Order of September 29, 2021 required DOC to process within 24 hours “all incarcerated persons, including, but not limited to, new admissions and transfers within the facility, and place them in an assigned housing unit.”
For their part, DOC sources indicated that they are investigating and following up on the affected admission records, which meant the perfect storm of “little staff” and accumulation of court cases, during the most complicated months of the pandemic.
“We hold transparency and integrity in high regard, and we will continue to hold staff accountable to keep our jails running efficiently and the people in our custody safe,” a spokesperson said.
A look at Rikers:
- 5,800 inmates are currently in New York City possession.
- 19 prisoners died on Rikers Island during 2022 from suicides, drug overdoses, and other undetermined reasons.
- 10,000 medical appointments were missed by the prison population last year for various reasons.
- 12% on average were the failures of custody and medical care personnel during 2022, during the hardest days of the pandemic it rose to 30%.