You Have the Right to Remain Beaten
THE MAELSTROM OF VIOLENCE AT NEW YORK CITY’S BIGGEST JAIL HAS FORCED THE FEDS TO COME IN SWINGING
RONALD SPEAR wore glasses and walked with a cane. While the 52-year-old awaited trial at Rikers Island, a New York City jail so violent it’s under federal oversight, he was housed in a medical unit because his kidneys were failing and he needed regular dialysis. On his wrist was a bracelet that read, “Risk of Fall.” Early on December 19, 2012, Spear demanded to see a doctor.
Corrections officer Brian Coll was working in the infirmary that morning. When a doctor said he couldn’t see Spear until later, Coll and Spear started to argue, and Coll began to punch him in the face and body. After other correction officers ran in and tackled Spear, Coll yelled, “Motherfucker!” and repeatedly kicked Spear in the head.
Inmates stood on their beds so they could see the beating; some yelled, “They’re killing him!” They were right.
Coll then kneeled down, lifted Spear’s head off the ground and told the dying man, “That’s what you get for fucking with me. Remember that I’m the one who did this to you.”
Coll was charged with the beating death of Spear and a cover-up. Following a 10-day trial notable for grisly testimony that underscored the constant violence that plagues Rikers Island, he was found guilty on all counts on December 15, and he now faces the possibility of a life sentence on the other side of the bars.
His conviction is the latest event that highlights how treacherous it is to be imprisoned on Rikers Island—where 9,000 officers watch over 10,000 prisoners—and shows how pervasive the code of silence that conceals negligent or criminal actions can be. New York City paid $5.75 million in September to settle a lawsuit over the death of Bradley Ballard, a mentally ill man who died after he was locked in a jail cell without his medication for a week in 2013. A homeless veteran died in a sweltering hot cell there in 2014. In 2015, the family of a prisoner who was ignored by guards after he swallowed a toxic soap packet and begged for help as he died received a $3.8 million settlement. In September of last year, six Rikers Island correction officers were sentenced for beating a prisoner, and in October, another four were convicted for beating an inmate and covering it up.
The violence at Rikers Island— which also includes inmate attacks on guards—forced the federal government to step in. The Department of Justice joined a lawsuit against the city in 2014. That led to sweeping reforms, but while the federal monitor team said in May that significant progress has been made at Rikers, they also raised concerns about the use of force against inmates.
“Coll killed Spear by repeatedly kicking him in the head as he lay restrained on the ground, telling him before he died not to forget who did this to him,” said Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, when the verdict was announced. “The FBI investigators and career prosecutors on this case did not forget. And today, neither did the jury.”