In his eight years overseeing NYC jails, conditions have only worsened, the federal monitor says.
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.The federal monitor overseeing city jails recommended Monday that a judge consider holding the Adams administration in contempt for failing to implement promised improvements to safety on Rikers Island, possibly paving the way for a federal takeover of city jails.to U.S.
While Martin didn’t mention the word “receiver” in his 288-page report, some activists, defense attorneys, and elected officials who have argued for receivership in recent months read his comments as signaling support. SwainMartin has had oversight over the jails at Rikers Island and elsewhere in the city,of about $20 million, since 2016. He was installed through a federal consent decree following a lawsuit over excessive violence and officer use of force.
“This incident is but one example of the Department’s continued efforts to minimize staff’s culpability in such tragic outcomes and to ignore its duty to identify such conduct for what it is—poor security practices that elevate, rather than minimize, the imminent risk of harm to people in custody,” Martin wrote.
A picture included in the report shows detainees beating another detainee in an area that lacked officers; when an officer tried to go upstairs to intervene, a detainee blocked the office’s path. So the officer watched the beating, which ultimately required hospitalization, from a stairwell. In recent months nearly 60 staffers have been suspended for using head strikes, chokeholds, body slams, kicks, and racial slurs against detainees.
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