Decarcerate Rikers Island right now

For seven hours on Monday, I bore witness to the deadly conditions on Rikers Island. What I saw is beyond anything I experienced as a public defender. Intake cells, where folks should only spend their first 24 hours, are dangerously overcrowded, with people waiting up to seven or eight days without access to attorneys or medical care. Feces, maggots and moldy food cover the floor, and with almost every facility broken, people are relieving themselves in plastic bags.

With close to one-third of employed correction officers calling out sick or simply failing to show up for work, many folks are missing court appearances — appearances that may result in their release — and parts of the jail go unstaffed for extended periods, resulting in emergencies and crises that go unaddressed. People close to Esias Johnson told me he requested sick calls for days before he died. His body was found hours later, cold, because the unit was unstaffed.

Dozens of incarcerated people are going without daily medication, including HIV and mental health medication, and injuries such as broken bones are being left unattended. I spoke to one person with fresh and infected self-harm wounds who told me he was desperate for the mental health care he knows he needs. He had a history of self-harming, but the primary driver for his behavior now was out of desperation to see a doctor which had now only become possible by being placed on suicide watch.

What’s happening on Rikers Island is a full-scale, horrifying humanitarian crisis. Ten people have already died while in custody amidst a tsunami of violence and suicides.

In its past and present iterations, Rikers is a crisis of imagination. It says that policymakers can do no better than warehousing people in overcrowded, dangerous facilities, blasting out statements through email and tweets when a tragedy happens, pointing fingers at other institutions and elected officials as the real ones to blame. To buy into that is to be arrested by a dangerous and fatal lie.

We cannot ignore the calls of public health officials, especially those on Rikers: being held in custody is a potential death sentence. This level of depravity is beyond reform, and the mayor’s new emergency plan is certainly not the answer. Making repairs to broken doors won’t fully address the decades of infrastructure neglect; shifting NYPD staff to courtrooms only means we are investing money in yet another corrupt and harmful institution instead of investing in our communities; and the “threat” of suspending corrections officers who go AWOL falls short of real accountability and only punishes staff for not wanting to work in dangerous conditions.

History shows us that there are real short-term solutions that Mayor de Blasio, district attorneys, judges and Gov. Hochul have the power to implement immediately: decarcerating Rikers.

New York City district attorneys and judges can use their powers to prevent the Rikers Island population from climbing by not setting cash bail, declining to prosecute certain cases and changing pretrial statuses where appropriate. The mayor and the commissioner of the city’s Department of Correction can permit people sentenced to less than one year to serve the remainder of their sentences at home. The governor can sign the Less is More Act, and direct acting state Department of Corrections Commissioner Anthony Annucci to release individuals incarcerated for technical parole violations.

If it sounds simple enough, that’s because it is.

Last year, more than 1,500 people were granted early release from city jails as COVID-19 tore through correctional facilities. The jail population dipped to its lowest level since 1949, and contrary to what those trafficking in scare tactics would have us believe, the sky didn’t fall. Of those released early from Rikers, just 13% were rearrested, with fewer re-arrests for gun charges or murder compared to those released during the normal course of business.

Releasing people was successfully done before. It must be done again.

That’s why, at the end of August, 17 presumptive City Council members, including myself, wrote a letter to the mayor and the city’s five district attorneys urging swift and decarceral action.

“Decarcerating Rikers Island is the only way of addressing the current staffing crisis and inhumane conditions crisis on Rikers,” we wrote.

When leaders act like there’s no solution, they are not telling the truth. There is a way to end this crisis: Release people from jail. The only thing stopping those in power is political will. Each day Rikers remains overcrowded is another day those in custody are at risk of death. People deserve better. We can no longer wait for tomorrow to do the right thing today.

Cabán is a former public defender and current political organizer, and senior strategist with the Working Families Party. She is also the Democratic nominee for the City Council’s 22nd District.