Rikers Island — Jail and Prison Conditions — Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

NYC pushes forward with plans to convert Rikers Island into public space

“New York’s City Planning Commission certified an application on Monday that would rezone Rikers Island as a public space. The application launched the beginning of the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) for the conversion, which would ban jails from operating on the 400-acre island after December 31, 2026. The application is just one step involved in the controversial plan to replace Rikers with four borough-based jails, which was approved by the City Council in October.“

The Architect’s Newspaper

December 3, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesDecember 5, 2019The Architect's Newspaper, Rikers Island, New York CityComment

New York’s Jails Are Failing. Is the Answer 3,600 Miles Away?

“In recent months, city officials have set out to find answers, touring facilities across the United States and in Europe. In late September, they touched down in a place far different from New York: Norway, a welfare state with a low crime rate whose population is fairly homogeneous and smaller than New York’s.“

New York Times

November 12, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesNovember 12, 2019New York Times, Rikers Island, NorwayComment

‘A stain on New York City’: As lawmakers vote to close Rikers Island, some see history repeating itself

“Today, however, the jail complex — the second-largest in the United States — is nearly synonymous with the tolls of mass incarceration and its disproportionate effects on blacks and Hispanics. Thousands of inmates have been held there for years on end as they await trial, critics say, in facilities that have been rife with abuse, violence and mismanagement for decades. Now, Rikers will probably be closed for nearly the same reason it was opened.“

Washington Post

October 18, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesOctober 18, 2019Washington Post, Rikers Island, New York CityComment

Opinion: How to Close Rikers Island

“Owing in large part to the reforms, New York City officials project that by 2026 the city’s jails will be tasked with housing no more than 3,300 people. With that number in mind, the City Council is expected to vote this month on a plan to close the jail complex at Rikers Island completely by 2026 by sending New Yorkers instead to four jails spread across the five boroughs. The plan would be safer for inmates, safer for guards and more compassionate for the residents of a city that is playing a lead role in ending the era of mass incarceration.“

New York Times

October 13, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesOctober 13, 2019New York Times, Rikers Island, New York CityComment

A Floating Jail Was Supposed to Be Temporary. That Was 27 Years Ago.

“In the years since it opened, the Bain Center has stayed relatively the same. Inside, the walls and ceilings are still colored an off-white gray. The barge sways with the waves. Inmates can exercise on the top floor inside a caged-enclosed recreational area that has views of Rikers Island. From their cells, inmates can look out through tiny portholes.“

New York Times

October 10, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesOctober 10, 2019New York Times, Rikers Island, Bain Center, New York CityComment

Closing Rikers: Competing Visions for the Future of New York City’s Jails

“Listening to her speak reminded me of reading de Blasio’s 2016 comment that the closure of Rikers was “unrealistic,” and made me think how little had truly changed since. It fell to the abolitionist Mariame Kaba to warn of the cost of failing to realize what’s possible: “We will be back in this room, I promise you, in ten years, if these four new facilities are built, calling these facilities inhumane.”“

New York Review of Books

October 4, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesOctober 4, 2019New York Review of Books, Rikers IslandComment

Call inmates by name at NYC jails, council bill demands

““This is about treating people like human beings,” said Councilmember Keith Powers (D-Manhattan), the bill’s sponsor. “And this is one amongst many requirements we’re putting forward that will start treating people like human beings and start making these new facilities feel much different than what we’re leaving behind with Rikers Island.”“

The City

September 26, 2019

Jail & Prison ConditionsPhillip ReevesSeptember 26, 2019The City, Rikers Island, New York CityComment

New stats show surge in violence at Rikers Island

“Violence between inmates surged to 69.5 incidents a month for every 1,000 people in the jail population during the 2019 fiscal year, from 55.8 incidents the year before. Serious injuries in those attacks also jumped, from 2 to 2.5. Inmate assaults against staff jumped to 12.6 for every 1,000 detainees, up from 9.2 in 2018. Use of force by correction officers against prisoners jumped nearly 30 percent, from 5,175 incidents in 2018 to 6,670 in the most recent fiscal year, which ended in July.“

Politico

September 17, 2019

Prison ViolencePhillip ReevesSeptember 17, 2019Politico, Rikers IslandComment

“It Smelled Like Death”: Reports of Mold Contamination in Prisons and Jails

“The chronic presence of mold is frequently a component of what is referred to as Tight Building Syndrome or Sick Building Syndrome – terms that have been coined to describe a relatively new occupational health and safety problem for people who work or spend excessive amounts of time indoors. This is not a new phenomenon; it has been a source of concern for governmental entities such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the subject of numerous class-action lawsuits over several decades.“

Prison Legal News

April 2, 2019

Jail & Prison ConditionsPhillip ReevesSeptember 13, 2019Prison Legal News, Rikers IslandComment

De Blasio says city will shrink planned jails

“De Blasio said the city will consider moving different agencies to Rikers Island after closing the jails. The number of detainees in New York City jails has decreased by roughly 30 percent since 2013, the year de Blasio took office. State and city criminal justice reforms related to bail and prosecution of low-level offenses are expected to further decrease the city’s jail population.“

Queens Daily Eagle

May 22, 2019

Prison DesignPhillip ReevesMay 22, 2019Queens Daily Eagle, Rikers Island, New York CityComment

Do Jails Kill People?

“There may be no worse place to live in New York City than on Rikers Island, and it is an even worse place to die—locked inside of a jail, forcibly separated from family and friends. Most people whose lives end on Rikers die of natural causes, but there is no doubt that some deaths there have been caused by the culture and conditions of Rikers itself.“

The New Yorker

February 20, 2019

Death in PrisonPhillip ReevesFebruary 20, 2019The New Yorker, Rikers IslandComment

Do Jails Kill People?

“Reporters have virtually no access to the jails on Rikers Island, but, for many years, Venters had a rare vantage point from which to observe its inner workings. He started working on Rikers in 2008, overseeing health care for thousands of people imprisoned there. On an island known for abuse and violence, Venters became a legendary figure; he often spoke about human rights and was known for his persistent advocacy on behalf of inmates. He left the city’s jail-health service in 2017, and now he has written a crucially important book, “Life and Death in Rikers Island,” in which he examines one of the most overlooked aspects of mass incarceration: the health risks of being locked up.“

The New Yorker

February 20, 2019

Jail & Prison ConditionsPhillip ReevesFebruary 20, 2019The New Yorker, New York City, Rikers IslandComment

The risk of replicating Rikers: Inmates with mental illness need help, not jail

"The city’s efforts to close Rikers Island are commendable and long overdue. But as the de Blasio administration’s new blueprint to shutter the jail complex reflects, New York is still struggling, as are cities and states across America, to manage the many people with mental illness who are thrown in jails and prisons that, for all intents and purposes, have become psychiatric hospitals without the services."

New York Daily News

August 16, 2018

Rikers: An American Jail

"While many promising changes have long been underway in New York City—even with its largest jail still years away from its promised closure—could replacing Rikers Island be the catalyst for a more root-and-branch reform of the system, and the opportunity to meaningfully address the harms caused by decades of an over-reliance on incarceration, especially to communities of color?"

Center for Court Innovation

July 31, 2018

Jail and Prison Conditions

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