To improve jails, talk to the staff
Staten Island: In the last 12 years, the leadership and management in the Department of Correction has been a dismal failure. Unfortunately, officers and uniformed managers have been made the scapegoats. Over the years, and as recently as Aug. 26, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has warned the city and the department that when crimes are committed behind bars, “there must be administrative tools for swift and certain punishment” and “we cannot prosecute our way out of this.” The jails are out of control because the mayor, City Council and other lawmakers have systemically removed all accountability from the people incarcerated in them.
The Bloomberg and de Blasio administrations removed uniformed managers from decision-making and appointed commissioners with absolutely no experience running a jail system or running a jail. Since then, officers and uniformed managers were rarely, if at all, consulted when programs, policies and procedures were instituted inside city jails. From 2009-2021, the city paid tens of millions of dollars to consultants, and 12 years later the jails are worse than ever. It is the belief among the rank and file that the last four commissioners gave up control of Rikers Island in return for a blip on a resume.
Since 2009, decision-making has been given to outside agencies and watchdog groups. The mayor, City Council, Board of Correction, hired consultants, a federal monitor and reform organizations have made bad management decisions that made the current crisis. Correction officers, staff and inmates have been subjected to rules and policies that sound good in the world of algorithms and politics but are not practical in the everyday operations of a large jail system.