From [HERE] Steve Martin, the federal monitor appointed in 2015 to help remedy excessive force and escalating violence on Rikers Island, has been involved in corrections for more than 40 years. He’s served as everything from a probation officer, to prosecutor, to corrections executive, to consultant and attorney, and been an expert witness in dozens of cases.

Suffice it to say, he has looked at corrections from every angle, all over the country, for far longer than many of those held on Rikers have been alive. That makes it all the more alarming to read the frustration, anger and patent disbelief in his reports to the federal court overseeing the class action lawsuit, the latest of which came last week.

Chiding what he calls an “entrenched culture of dysfunction,” Martin lays out the same deficiencies that have plagued Rikers for years now, including poor staff supervision and chronically high absenteeism, ineffective security practices and a lack of consequences for misconduct — as well as their gruesome results: detainees effectively running large parts of the facility and inflicting sadistic violence on others with no consequence.

This all despite what the monitor describes as “the bloated size of [the Department of Correction’s] workforce and its extraordinary budget,” with spending per incarcerated individual at least three times higher than in Los Angeles or Chicago. Despite this high headcount, officers often don’t show up to work, partly as a result of a contract granting effectively unlimited sick leave for officers.

The most important part of the new report comes near the end, in the form of a series of specific recommendations. These include the periodic reevaluation of staff on sick leave; the appointment of a security operations manager to develop and implement a security plan; a management system for violent offenders; and better communication between the monitor and DOC staff. Deadlines are set for each.

Under the last mayor, Rikers became a hell hole. It remains one today. If a new mayor and commissioner can’t swiftly dig out, the feds must take the keys.

The introduction of the report states:

The Monitoring Team is issuing this Special Report to advise the Court and the Parties of the continued imminent risk of harm to incarcerated individuals and staff in the New York City jails. The first few months of 2022 have revealed the jails remain unstable and unsafe for both inmates and staff. The volatility and instability in the jails is due, in no small part, to unacceptable levels of fear of harm by detainees and staff alike. Despite initial hopes that the Second Remedial Order (dkt. 398), entered in September 2021, would help the Department gain traction toward initiating reform on the most immediate issues, the Department’s attempts to implement the required remedial steps have faltered and, in some instances, regressed. These failures suggest an even more discouraging picture about the prospect for material improvements to the jails’ conditions. Furthermore, the Department’s staffing crisis continues and the New York City Mayor’s Emergency Executive Order, first issued on September 15, 2021, and still in effect (through multiple extensions) as of the filing of this report, acknowledges that, among other things, “excessive staff absenteeism among correction officers and supervising officers has contributed to a rise in unrest and disorder.”1 The Monitoring Team’s staffing analysis, discussed in detail below, reveals that the Department’s staff management and deployment practices are so dysfunctional that if left unaddressed, sustainable and material advancement of systemic reform will remain elusive, if not impossible, to attain.

The goal of the Consent Judgment and corresponding Remedial Orders is to ensure that the City and Department operate safe jails that meet Constitutional standards. It is the responsibility of the City and the Department to develop and implement the reforms accomplished by the City and Department alone and will require the addition of some outside expertise. The gravity of the current situation demands a comprehensive and tangible shift in the City’s and Department’s focus and priorities, and a corresponding shift in the work of the Monitoring Team in order to catalyze the necessary reforms as soon as possible. The Monitoring Team has concluded that simply proceeding with monitoring-as-usual (i.e., bi-annual reporting on the panoply of requirements, providing recommendations and the requisite technical assistance) would only further protract the reform process and lead to the extension of oversight, rather than hastening its end. Instead, more contemporaneous in-depth reporting on a more limited set of issues, a change in focus with concrete steps and timelines, and appropriate enforcement mechanisms and external resources are necessary if the agency is ever to be reformed. In order to support the Court’s and Parties’ efforts to devise the appropriate remedial scheme, this report provides a summary of the entrenched dysfunctional culture, a description of the persistently unsafe conditions caused by deficient security and staffing practices, initial findings of the Monitoring Team’s staffing analysis, an update on the Department’s efforts to implement the Second and Third Remedial Orders, and finally, recommendations for next steps. [MORE]