Suit over jail vid rules
As fed takeover looms, correx bigs hit for hiding info
Members of the city Board of Correction on Wednesday sued the Correction Department for blocking access to security video at Rikers Island and other jails necessary to perform its oversight role.
The suit, filed in Bronx Supreme Court, comes as a Manhattan federal judge is expected to hear arguments Thursday about putting Rikers Island and the rest of the city’s jail system under federal receivership amid the difficulties Mayor Adams’ administration has had curbing violence and reducing deaths among city detainees.
Receivership isn’t expected to happen quickly. At the hearing, Judge Laura Taylor Swain is expected to consider whether to begin the process of appointing a receiver.
The Board of Correction lawsuit charges that Correction Commissioner Louis Molina’s move Jan. 9 to bar access to jail security video “unlawfully” denied the board access it is entitled to under the City Charter.
“DOC’s decision to terminate the board’s direct access and to impose restrictions flies in the face of the express inspection rights granted to the board ... and represents a radical, inexplicable reversal of longstanding department practice,” the lawsuit said, noting its investigations into jail deaths have been “severely stalled” as a result of the video restrictions.
The filing of the lawsuit followed publication of a Daily News op-ed in which five of the board’s eight members argued in favor of federal receivership. The board members said they have “grave concerns ... over the compounding failures that plague the jails.”
The board members signing the oped were Dr. Rachael Bedard, Dr. Robert Cohen, Felipe Franco, DeAnna Hoskins and Jacqueline Sherman.
“Rikers has had longstanding, complicated challenges. Nevertheless, in the past the Department of Correction has engaged diverse perspectives to achieve necessary reforms,” Franco said. “Light and transparency are essential for the culture change needed in our jails but, sadly, DOC [the department] is wedded to opaqueness and isolation.”
Board Chairman Dwayne Sampson, who Adams named to the post in May, and board members Joseph Ramos and Jacqueline Pitts, two former Correction Department employees, did not sign the op-ed.
The lawsuit — a first for the agency, which was created in 1957 — seeks an injunction to prevent the Correction Department from continuing to block access to video.
“Commissioner Molina’s arbitrary exercise of authority is of a piece with DOC’s pattern and practice of attempting at any cost to evade oversight, transparency and accountability,” the lawsuit said.
Notably, sources said, the city Law Department, which usually represents city agencies, has decided not to represent either side in the dispute. A Law Department spokesman declined to comment. The Paul, Weiss law firm is handling the case on behalf of the board.
The Correction Department did not comment on the lawsuit.
The city filed a letter Wednesday letter in the federal receivership case, in which it argued to Swain that “unquestionably,” progress in improving the jails has been made.
The city’s lawyers offered statistics which showed that stabbings and slashings are down 31% and serious injuries to detainees are down 39% from the last six months of 2021.
Overall uses of force are also down by 16% and uses of force that result in a serious injury are down 57%. Assaults on staff are also down by 42%. The number of officers out sick has also declined, the department said.
Dr. James Austin, a correction expert hired by DOC. wrote in an affidavit filed Wednesday that he recommends against appointment of a receiver.
“[Detainees] are now properly classified and generally assigned to their appropriate housing units. In so doing this reduces the level of violence in the jail system,” Austin wrote. “The results of these reforms are promising . ... There are many problems associated with appointing a receiver, which may stall or even deter change in a jail facility instead of enacting change.”
Receivership supporters include the Manhattan U.S. attorney, the Legal Aid Society and a range of other groups who believe the problems in the city’s jails are so profound that the city cannot be trusted to fix them on its own.
Swain’s scheduled hearing on Thursday is being held in what is known as the Nunez class action lawsuit, in which a federal monitor was installed eight years ago to track reports of violence, excessive use of force by correction officers and other issues, including detainee deaths.
The monitor has urged Swain to begin moving toward holding the city in contempt of court over its treatment of detainees at Rikers Island and other city lockups.
The monitor has found that nearly every indicator on violence and use of force in the jails is worse today than it was eight years ago.
Dozens of city detainees have died at Rikers Island and elsewhere in Correction Department custody in recent years.
Sixteen jail deaths were reported in 2021, another 19 deaths occurred in 2022, and seven deaths have been reported so far this year.
Another federal monitor, appointed in a class action suit over the conditions of facilities at Rikers Island and elsewhere in the jail system, reported thousands of violations in a recent report in fundamental areas such as sanitation, ventilation and fire safety.
“Rikers has been in crisis for years,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said July 17.
“After eight years of trying every took in the tool kit, we cannot wait any long for substantial progress to materialize”