“Every assessment and transfer deadline that passes without action delays the benefits of a transformed Rikers Island for all New Yorkers, especially those in the communities that have been directly harmed by unjust criminalization and environmental injustice.”
“Despite the mayor’s repeated statements that he wants to fund more ‘upstream’ services that address the city’s mental health crisis, his agenda, instead, focuses on post-crisis points and increased law enforcement. To effectively address the City’s mental health crisis, the mayor must invest in more preventive and evidenced-based supports.”
“We must demand systemic changes to ensure that incarcerated mothers have the opportunity to be part of their kids’ lives. Not just during Mother’s Day, but all year round.”
‘City leaders have asked for our trust to embark on yet another massive jail building spree, at the cost of almost $10 billion dollars. But we can learn from the history of “reform” on Rikers Island, and Blackwell’s Island before it.’
‘New York City officials claim people in “alternatives to solitary” will have at least 10 hours of daily out-of-cell time, with counseling and programming. But their actual plan involves people being locked alone in a cell twenty-three hours a day, everyday, for indefinite periods of time.’
Amid the outrage over treatment of jail inmates, corrections officials must also think about how the system treats its employers.Nationwide, COs have a suicide rate 39 percent higher than the rest of the working-age population.
The revelations about systemic brutality in the city’s jails point to the critical role that captains—the first layer of leadership over correction officers—play.
The state’s approval rate for parole applications has been sliced in half since 2005. Inmates convicted of high-profile crimes face almost insurmountable barriers—because of politics, not the penal code.
One increasingly common facet of the problem: Elderly prisoners with dementia so pronounced they cannot remember the crime for which they are incarcerated.
A look back at annual reports on jail conditions shows an emphasis on progress being made, but also an acknowledgement of an increasing violence problem.
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