N.Y. pols ask Joe’s help to fix Rikers
New York’s two senators want President Biden to seek a way to end the ongoing crisis at Rikers Island — which last year saw 16 detainee deaths, increased violence, massive staffing shortages and horrific living conditions.
“We write to urge you to explore all options to address the ongoing humanitarian and constitutional violations occurring at New York City’s Rikers Island complex,” Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York wrote in a Dec. 29 letter to Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also signed the letter.
“Not only is Rikers unsafe for guards and detained people, but the facility is unable to provide an adequate level of medical care to its detainees,” the letter said.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio committed to closing Rikers, but the fate of his $8.2 million plan to do so remains a question. Even with a federal monitor in place to oversee the complex, the last year has seen conditions there become horrific, with inmates spending days in their own filth in overcrowded intake units and Correction Department staff calling out sick by the thousands.
“The people held in New York City jails have been all but abandoned by NYC leadership, which is only turning back the clock on efforts to reform this violent, inhumane institution,” Mary Lynne Werlwas, the director of the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, said Thursday.
The city’s public defender groups and criminal justice reform advocates have long called for the closing of Rikers,
and have called on prosecutors to stop seeking high bails and judges to order the release of criminal defendants.
The letter comes amid calls to place the troubled jail complex
out of the city’s hands and into federal receivership.
“The political process — including and especially court orders directed at government officials — has failed,” Hernandez
Stroud of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law wrote in a Daily News op-ed piece Dec. 27.
The federal monitor who has overseen the jails since 2015 said last month that the Department of Correction lacked the “elementary skills” needed to fix Rikers Island.
“We request the Department of Justice and the administration work with state and local officials to halt the ongoing crisis,” the senators wrote
Correction Department press secretary Jason Kersten responded Thursday that conditions on Rikers “have stabilized since last fall,” though the jail complex is still dealing with staffing shortages and the omicron variant of COVID.
“We appreciate the senators’ concerns and have reached out to them to answer any questions they or the president may have,” he said.