Nothing Can Truly Prepare You for Your First Time Behind Bars
A new book offers an inside look at incarceration at Rikers Island, from intake to release.
Nothing Can Truly Prepare You for Your First Time Behind Bars
A new book offers an inside look at incarceration at Rikers Island, from intake to release.
After years of dysfunction and court battles, a judge has seized control of Riker’s Island prison in New York City. Read more from @ABCNews@flipboard.com
https://flip.it/UW6RvV
#Prison #NYC #Judge #NewYork #Rikers #RikersIsland
After years of dysfunction and court battles, a judge has seized control of Riker’s Island prison in New York City. Read more from @ABCNews@flipboard.com
https://flip.it/UW6RvV
#Prison #NYC #Judge #NewYork #Rikers #RikersIsland
Through the administrations of 2 mayors & several correction commissioners, the #jails continued to devolve, acc/to prisoners’ rights advocates & the monitor’s reports. In November, the judge found #NYC in #contempt for failing to stem #violence & excessive #force at the facility, which is currently run by Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie.
The class-action lawsuit that led to the takeover, known as Nunez v. City of New York, was settled in June 2015 & required that the jails, particularly #RikersIsland, be overseen by a court-appointed monitor who would issue regular reports on conditions there but would wield no direct power to effect change.
Through those reports, Judge Swain was given an extensive history of the cyclical nature of the #jail system’s problems.
A NYT investigation in 2021 found that guards are often stationed in inefficient ways that fail to protect inmates. And although the #jail system has consistently been the most well-staffed in the United States — there is roughly one uniformed officer for each inmate at Rikers, according to city data — an unlimited sick leave policy & other uses of leave have meant that staffing can drop to dangerous levels.
#NYC has held onto its control of #RikersIsland w/white knuckles — struggling to show progress & reaching the brink of losing #oversight of the #jails as critics of the system called for an outside authority. Conditions have not improved, acc/to lawyers for the plaintiffs & the federal monitor.
NYC has spent >$500k per inmate annually in recent years, acc/to city data, well beyond what other large cities have spent, & yet detainees still sometimes go without food or proper medical care.
The order comes nearly a decade after #NYC’s jails, which include the #RikersIsland complex, fell under #federal #oversight in the settlement of a #ClassAction lawsuit. The agreement focused on curbing the use of #force & #violence toward both inmates & correction officers. A court-appointed monitor issued regular reports on the persistent mayhem.
The official, called a remediation manager, will work with the #NYC correction commissioner, but be “empowered to take all actions necessary” to turn around the city’s #jails, Judge Swain wrote.
“While the necessary changes will take some time, the court expects to see continual progress toward these goals,” she wrote.
A federal judge overseeing #NYC’s #jails took #RikersIsland out of the city’s control on Tues, ordering that an outside official be appointed to make major decisions regarding the troubled & violent #jail complex.
The judge, Laura Taylor Swain, said in a 77-page ruling that the official would report directly to her & would not be a city employee, turning aside Mayor #EricAdams’ efforts to maintain control of the lockups.
#law #PrisonReform
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/nyregion/rikers-island-receiver-nyc.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=DCD52F94-91CF-4B52-8FA4-9B150ACB6903
John Kiriakou: US Prisons Under Trump’s Watch
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/04/17/john-kiriakou-us-prisons-under-trumps-watch/
Here’s a look at the blighted prison system that Donald Trump took over from Biden, along with some new scandals that have already occurred since Trump’s inauguration. By John Kiriakou Substack I wrote just before the 2024 presidential election that…
#Politics #Commentary #HumanRights #Legal #Prisons #TrumpAdministration #U.s. #BureauOfPrisons(bop) #CollettePeters #Corecivic #EddieHumes #JohnKiriakou #MarktaviousTwilley #MetropolitanDetentionCenter(mdc) #RikersIsland #RobertL.Brooks #Sr. #TrousdaleTurnerCorrectional
#DemocracyNow: #NewYork Mayor Eric Adams Orders #RikersJail to Reopen ICE Office
Headline, Apr 09, 2025
"Here in New York, Mayor #EricAdams is reopening an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office inside the #RikersIsland jail complex. Adams first signaled the move after he met with Trump’s so-called border czar #TomHoman in February. The #NewYorkCivilLibertiesUnion slammed the Adams administration for 'selling out New Yorkers for Trump’s dangerous deportation regime.' The group said in a statement, '#ICE’s presence on Rikers serves no legitimate purpose, and opens the door to unlawful collusion between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials in violation of our city’s well-established sanctuary protections. … New Yorkers see this for what it is: Mayor Adams skirting the City Council, cozying up to Trump, and putting immigrant New Yorkers in harm’s way.'"
Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/9/headlines/new_york_mayor_eric_adams_orders_rikers_jail_to_reopen_ice_office
#NYCLU #ICE #ICEDetention #RikersIslandPrison #MayorEricAdams #USPol #ViewerSupportedNews
NYC Mayor #EricAdams announced Thurs that he would issue an #ExecutiveOrder to allow federal #immigration authorities into #RikersIsland jail, a shift in the city’s #sanctuary policies.
Adams said that he would move to allow #ICE into the jail to assist in criminal investigations, “in particular those focused on violent criminals & gangs.”
The move followed a meeting Thurs between Adams & #Trump’s border czar, #ThomasHoman, in Manhattan.
#law #QuidProQuo #EmilBove
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/nyregion/adams-ice-rikers-homan.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
[19:01] Ailing Harvey Weinstein begs for earlier retrial after judge sets April date
Harvey Weinstein begged a judge on Wednesday to hold his sexual assault retrial as soon as possible, telling him "I don't know how much longer I can hold on" with cancer, heart issues and harsh conditions at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex.
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-america/ailing-harvey-weinstein-begs-for-earlier-retrial-after-judge-sets-april-date/a1489736316.html
#HarveyWeinstein #Wednesday #NewYorkCity's #RikersIsland
JOHN KIRIAKOU: US System of Prison Injustice
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/06/john-kiriakou-us-system-of-prison-injustice/
As we bump up against the end of the Biden administration, here’s a look at this president’s final year in office and his criminal-justice legacy. By John Kiriakou Special to Consortium News I wrote in October that Joe Biden, in…
#Politics #BidenAdministration #CivilRights #Column #Commentary #Legal #Prisons #TrumpAdministration #U.s. #U.s.JusticeDept. #BureauOfPrisons(bop) #JohnKiriakou #NedMccormick #NicholasFeliciano #PresidentJoeBiden #RikersIsland #TheNewYorkCityDepartmentOfCorrections
"The judge wrote that she was “inclined” to impose an outside authority, known as a receiver, which she said would be a “remedy that will make the management of the use of force and safety aspects of the #RikersIsland jails ultimately answerable directly to the court.” https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/nyregion/rikers-contempt-receivership.html
RaiNews by undefined
Harvey Weinstein ha un cancro del midollo osseo
Weinstein è in cura in prigione a Rikers Island a New York
Translated:
Harvey Weinstein has bone marrow cancer.
Weinstein is in prison at Rikers Island in New York.
#Weinstein #RikersIsland #US #HarveyWeinstein #NewYork #cancer
https://www.rainews.it/articoli/2024/10/harvey-weinstein-ha-un-cancro-del-midollo-osseo-dcc26092-695b-4c5f-8ea3-91da300bbeb6.html
Judge orders NYC to discuss federal takeover of #RikersIsland jail
"The order came after Judge…Swain heard arguments Wednesday on whether the city was in contempt of court for failing to stop violence & excessive use of force. The contempt motion is an intermediate step toward federal receivership."
Swain cited "9 years of the city promising to improve conditions inside the jails only to demonstrate what [she] called “backsliding.”"
https://gothamist.com/news/judge-orders-nyc-to-discuss-federal-takeover-of-rikers-island-jail
#SteveBannon Might Be Headed To #RikersIsland...He's Not Handling It Well
@LALegault Permission to exit #RikersIsland.