‘Broken institution’
Feds rip Rikers’ brutality to teens
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara on Monday called Rikers Island a “broken institution” where excessive force by guards is commonplace and the civil rights of teenage inmates are routinely violated.
“For adolescents, Rikers Island is a broken institution . . . where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort . . . where beatings are routine while accountability is rare, and where a culture of violence endures even while a code of silence prevails,” Bharara said in a statement announcing the results of a 2¹/₂year Justice Department probe.
“They are entitled to be detained safely . . . not consigned to a corrections crucible that seems more inspired by ‘Lord of the Flies’ than any legitimate philosophy of humane detention,” he added, referring to William Golding’s 1954 novel about marooned teens who try governing themselves with deadly results.
Bharara’s 79page report was addressed to Mayor de Blasio, city Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte and Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter. It seeks immediate reform at Rikers — particularly at its three juvenile jail facilities.
Rikers is a “dangerous place for adolescents” where correction officers use excessive force at an “alarming rate,” often in socalled “forgetaboutme” cells and other prison areas without video surveillance, the report says. It also notes that many affected inmates are vulnerable because they suffer from mental illness.
The report says “the most egregious inmate beatings” routinely take place in locations without video cameras, such as some classrooms, clinics, holding pens and select cells.
It also notes that Bhahara’s of fice during its probe requested video surveillance for about 200 incidents — only to be told that more than 35 percent of those recordings could “not be located.”
“The missing video surveillance is alarming,” the report says.
But even when incidents are reported, inmates get little recourse. One officer was involved in 76 useofforce incidents between 2007 and 2012 — but was disciplined only once, the report notes.
The report stresses that many of the same problems likely hold true for adult inmates on Rikers.
It contains more than 70 recommendations, including a call for housing adolescent inmates in jails outside Rikers.
Bhahara noted that his findings predate de Blasio taking office in January and tapping Ponte to head the embattled Correction Department.
Norman Seabrook, president of the city’s correctionofficers union, said that the department had been “plagued with mismanagement for years” and that the union welcomes some of the report’s suggestions.
However, he also defended some uses of force.
“There may be a few that react with what you might think is excessive force,” Seabrook said, “but in defense of an officer being assaulted by an inmate, a correction officer must use whatever force is necessary to terminate the assault.”
Dora Schriro, who was commissioner when the agency was investigated and now heads Connecticut’s emergencyservices department, did not respond to a request for comment.