The struggle for meaning amid DOC’s absurdity

Marc Bullaro is a retired NYC Department of Correction assistant deputy warden.

In my quest to speak truth to power regarding the misguided and flawed methods implemented to correct the dysfunction and chaos in the Department of Correction, I’ve been toiling like Sisyphus, the mythological Greek figure who endlessly pushed a large boulder uphill only for it to always roll back down.

Some describe the labor of Sisyphus as futile and accomplishing nothing. In his book “The Myth of Sisyphus,” Albert Camus explained that a conflict arises between the need for meaning and society’s indifference.

The powers that be have created a detestable and monstrous environment on Rikers Island. Detainee violence prevails and jail conditions are unconstitutional.

Absurdity rules DOC with a viselike grip and it won’t let go.

The quality of life for correction officers working in Gotham’s jails is appalling. Everyday a law enforcement version of three-card monte is rigged by the DOC establishment where officers attempt to choose the correct course of action.

Usually the establishment wins, which results in an overkill of suspension and termination cases against NYC’s Boldest that are flung open like switchblades which then pierce the badge worn over the heart of each officer who while deep in thought struggles to understand why DOC betrays its uniformed force.

And although many officers resign, I wonder, did they jump or were they pushed?

Those who remain are knocked down like bowling pins, then propped up only to be knocked down again.

But hearts still beat under the rubble of broken bones, collapsed dreams and crushed promises as officers yearn for safety, judicious leadership and an allegorical sign.

Notwithstanding, the City Council couldn’t care less about correction officers and their families who also feel the pain of unreasonable suspensions and terminations.

The council has to improve significantly just to become useless.

The ripple effect caused by the boulder of inept political leadership dumped in the East River has submerged Rikers Island and drowned the jails in disarray.

And the repetitive mistakes made by those in power were all just another version of the same debacle. Acumen and common sense are nowhere to be found. The approach to solutions by politicians, federal overseers and DOC’s top leadership is like looking directly at the sun to tell time instead of looking at a clock. It’s dangerous and harmful.

The discerning eye of those in authority was blinded. To this day it remains sightless. Now, like an untrained seeing-eye dog, absurdity leads the way.

The last four DOC commissioners behaved more like mercenaries than guardians. They obeyed orders and appeared indifferent to appeals for help.

And ironically, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain and federal monitor Steve Martin blame and censure DOC staff while simultaneously praising and lauding the current DOC commissioner. Go figure!

Consequently, both the officers and detainees are losing. The winners are those that are benefiting financially and politically from the disorder as daily Darwinian battles play out in jail arenas where pugnacious detainees stand toe-to-toe while officers attempt to keep the peace, to no avail.

Entangled in mayhem and dysfunction, DOC is trapped in its own powerlessness. Those in authority ignored warnings and allowed the jails to collapse.

Hundreds of years from now if archaeologists excavate sites on Rikers Island they will find remnants of a paralyzed agency, frozen in time, that tried to survive under unsurvivable conditions. And the echo of uniformed staff heralding the impending danger will still be heard.

History will not be kind to the politicians and top DOC leadership, which refused to speak truth to power, failed to protect correction officers and detainees and refused to challenge those who inhibited progress and whose ulterior motive was always to shutter Rikers Island by any method.

Neither will history forgive the court’s indifference toward DOC’s uniformed force.

If judicial and governmental quicksand continues to sink the department, the new borough jails will simply decorate the NYC skyline while keeping DOC’s dysfunction locked-in and successful jail management locked out.

And if borough jails are in fact the answer, why was the Queens House of Detention shuttered in 2003. Further, why was NYC’s safest and cleanest jail, the Vernon C. Bain Center in the Bronx, closed two years ago?

It’s because the priority is less about the safety and well-being of correction officers and detainees and more about gentrification, land development and profit.

Consider this. Named plaintiff Mark Nunez was awarded $75,000 pursuant to the Nunez v City of New York lawsuit while jail consultants and federal oversight have been paid in the tens of millions and land developers will likely charge taxpayers $20 billion for new high-rise borough-based jails.

Physicist Erwin Schrodinger’s theory in quantum mechanics states that until a particle is measured and observed it can exist in all possibilities. His conceptual experiment places a cat in a box with a vial of poison that can be released if triggered, which hypothesizes that the cat can be both alive or dead until the box is opened and the cat is seen.

Based on this theory, I will concede that until the borough jails are opened and observed they can be either the solution or the problem.

However, unlike Schrodinger’s theoretical experiment with an imaginary cat, the DOC experiment is actual and affects real people. It was conducted by the powers that be, but are they reputable and credible scholars or mad scientists?

During the last decade the experiment created a bureaucratic monster assembled from quixotic ideas, ineffective policies and ambiguous leadership and then haphazardly stitched together. This monster caused havoc on Rikers, yet although proud of their leadership and idealistic vision they won’t take any responsibility for their brainchild.

Now, horrified and bewildered by their creation, with torches and pitchforks in hand they are chasing their monster off Rikers Island and directly into the boroughs where the anticipated new high-rise jails are being similarly assembled.

The absurdity is pointless, but the struggle itself is profoundly meaningful.