NYC hasn’t learned from DOC’s recent history of detainee violence

On Jan. 9, The Chief reported that newly-elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued an executive order banning “solitary confinement” in NYC jails and “directed the Law Department to work with the federal monitor and all Nunez parties to develop a plan to implement Local Law 42, which bans solitary confinement."

The executive order was issued even though solitary confinement isn’t in use and hasn’t been for years.

And this is the same federal monitor, Steve Martin, who while on his 10 year quixotic search for jail reform has instead deformed NYC’s jails to the detriment of detainees, correction officers and New Yorkers.

Notwithstanding, this is Mamdani’s opportunity to improve jail conditions for detainees and the work environment for correction officers by restoring safety and order to Rikers Island.

I hope he succeeds.

I ask you, have we learned anything from the carnage in NYC jails during the last decade at the hands of dangerous and violent detainees with a history of jail violence?

Since 2015, DOC has reported about 10,000 detainee assaults on staff, 2,400 slashings and stabbings and 100,000 infractions for fighting and assault. Fiscal Year 2022 had the most detainee violence in 25 years with 491 slashings and stabbings.

The number of facial stitches applied to close wounds has risen like a bull market on Wall Street and the tears shed by victims and family members stream like a waterfall.

In part, this violence is the result of lack of detainee accountability and the failed restrictive housing policy presently in use.

There is little administrative or criminal accountability for assaultive detainees, yet DOC disciplines correction officers like they’re swatting a fly with a sledge hammer.

The city’s objective should be to eliminate constitutional violations by reducing uses of force and protecting the incarcerated population together with insuring safety and order. If safety and order are not attained the detainee violence and use of force will continue and the elimination of constitutional violations becomes an insurmountable task.

Reasonable measures to prevent jail violence can be taken but some politicians have a zero-sum perspective. It seems they don’t seek an end to the violence but only a win for them and a loss for DOC. As daily jail attacks persist with no end in sight elected officials continue to double down on their failed ideas.

There are several reasons why lawlessness and violence in jail endure. Partly, it’s because of the unwillingness of legislatures to isolate detainees who have a history of jail violence because of potential psychological issues that may occur due to that isolation.

It has been said many times by many people, NYC does not use solitary confinement. Still many use the terms solitary confinement and torture as dysphemisms to mislead the public.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams has previously declared that "there is isolation that the U.N. has called torture, and that is what we want to end.”

Williams cites the U.N. but not the U.S. Supreme Court which has consistently held that solitary confinement is constitutional and not torture. Further, doesn’t Williams also have an obligation to represent detainees and correction officers who are victims of violent detainee assaults on Rikers?

In the recent past, DOC successfully used “punitive segregation” units to house detainees that are assaultive in jail to curtail violence. Now it utilizes “restrictive housing” which is not successful for several reasons including because it only allows for an additional four hours of “lock-in time” for violent offenders. That’s like locking your doors for security and leaving your windows wide open.

As a result, restrictive housing areas have seen even more violence than the already high rate of violence in general population.

Clearly, solitary confinement, punitive segregation, restrictive housing and jail are not pleasant experiences. But neither is getting slashed across the face and requiring 100 stitches to close the wound, suffering a broken nose or being sexually assaulted. Some politicians and advocates appear nonchalant and unconcerned regarding the physical and psychological damages victims encounter during and subsequent to a violent crime.

Shockingly, preventing violence and keeping people safe isn’t the priority in NYC jails.

DOC has been sentenced to a life of hard labor without the possibility of reform. The agency is handcuffed at the expense of non-violent detainees and correction officers, and paralyzed as it sinks in bureaucratic quicksand surrounded by legal skyscrapers and political gridlock that are motivated, not by altruism and reform, but by gentrification, profit and self-serving ambitions.

Instead, sections of jails should be transformed into universities, vocational training academies, performing arts studios and institutes for inner-development for incarcerated persons who desire that path. In fact, jails need a medley of programs including voluntary faith based initiatives that have been successful nationwide.

However, that is not possible when disorder, dysfunction, disarray and danger dominate. A university will not be built in a war torn country that is being bombed everyday and similarly jail programs can’t be successfully implemented when lawlessness, violence and anarchy prevail.

The city and DOC have a moral and legal duty of care to people in custody. To prevent further attacks, violent detainees must be housed in a restricted environment separated from people in general population.

Politicians and so-called detainee advocates that oppose reasonable policies designed to protect incarcerated persons are doing them a major disservice.

Federal oversight and politicians continue to provide ineffective leadership while detainees and correction officers suffer the consequences. And let’s not forget the collateral damage to the families of correction officers and those incarcerated. This damage permeates into areas far beyond Rikers Island.

I commiserate with correction officers and their families and detainees and their families who suffer because of the current policies that actually encourage detainee violence.

Regretfully, without accountability, effective restrictive housing and sincere political support, the detainee violence will continue.

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”