In response to systemic abuse, neglect, and secrecy inside New York prisons, state legislators Julia Salazar and Danny O’Donnell have introduced a bill to establish a state Office of the Correctional Ombudsman to investigate and report on correctional facilities.
I was lucky enough to get a lot of mail while imprisoned on Rikers Island. Paper mail is one of the few things that keeps prisoners feeling human.
Reginald Randolph is currently serving a two to four year sentence in state prison for stealing cold medicine
Blind in one eye and at risk of losing vision in the other, 58-year-old Reginald Randolph is now on the verge of being sent to state prison to serve out a maximum of four years in state prison.
Despite calls to reduce incarcerated populations, the number of people being detained for minor parole violations has been rising.
The city says COVID-19 budget constraints will set back its plans to close the jail but people incarcerated there are suffering from the disease right now.
New York City’s jail population is close to reaching pre-pandemic levels. Advocates say dishonest fearmongering about bail reform—and the politicians who capitulated to it—have created a very real safety crisis.
The governor has rolled back bail reform, not released enough prisoners during the pandemic, and failed to rein in police abuses, advocates and prisoners say.
As thousands of people are freed from local jails, a group of nonprofits and activist organizations says the city’s housing authority must revamp its policies that banish the formerly incarcerated.
New data obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request paint a dire picture of New York City COVID-19 testing in its jails.
Reductions in budgets related to the novel coronavirus have slowed New York City’s plan to close Rikers by building new jails, and it’s becoming increasingly possible that the city will not meet its January 2027 deadline.
‘I would go to the hospital very often and they wouldn’t do anything for me.’
Twenty-eight people were to attend weeks-long drug treatment programs after violating parole. The COVID-19 pandemic nearly trapped them in jail indefinitely.
‘They’re not supplying us with masks, they’re not supplying us gloves, they’re not supplying us with decent cleaning supplies.’
“Based on this analysis, New York City jails have become the epicenter of COVID-19,” a Legal Aid attorney said.
“The doctors said they were going to come and do screenings every day, but for the past two days, they’ve just come into the dorm and stood by the front door and yelled, ‘Does anybody have any symptoms?’”
“Still no hand sanitizer, no bleach.”
The island’s Communicable Disease Unit is already overflowing with quarantined people.
Late Wednesday, the chief physician at the Rikers jail complex said on Twitter that judges and prosecutors must not leave New York City’s jailed population ‘in harm’s way.’
Advocates, formerly incarcerated people, and lawmakers warned against overhauling the New York law before it has a chance to prove itself.
The debate around bail reform focused predominantly on New York City’s Rikers Island, but the bigger impact may be upstate, where almost two-thirds of the state’s jail capacity is located.
Testimony by an architect of the CIA torture program is a reminder of the problem of torture—and health professionals’ complicity—by domestic law enforcement
What you’ll read today Spotlight: When McKinsey aids ICE and Rikers, is it amoral or immoral? Harris County DA candidate Audia Jones says she won’t prosecute sex work New Orleans jail staff supplied fentanyl that killed incarcerated man, lawsuit says Upstate New York county elects a reformist district attorney Dallas has been sending social workers to respond to 911 calls; the results are promising In […]
Spotlights like this one provide original commentary and analysis on pressing criminal justice issues of the day. You can read them each day in our newsletter, The Daily Appeal. McKinsey & Company is a prestigious management consulting firm known more for being excellent than for being good. Which is to say, only the most die-hard free […]
The billionaire and former New York City mayor defended the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim Americans and mandatory minimum prison sentences for gun possession, among other policies.
The mayors of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco wrap themselves in the language of progressivism, but when it comes to the criminal legal system they’re Trumpian.
The mayor claims that building new jails is the only safe way to close Rikers Island jail complex, but the City Council shouldn’t fall for this Faustian bargain.
Three Bronx friends recount their 2012 arrests in the NYPD’s ‘Operation Crew Cut,’ along with their experiences with the court system and incarceration, and reflect on their lives seven years later.
When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was interviewed this week on a local news network, he was asked about Layleen Polanco, the 27-year-old transgender woman who was recently found dead in her cell at Rikers Island. The specific cause of her death is not known, but why was she held for two months […]
What you’ll read today Spotlight: Bill de Blasio seems perplexed about circumstances that led to a trans woman’s death at Rikers Island. He shouldn’t be. How a D.C. Lawmaker is challenging the racist roots of prison voting restrictions Arrested for shoplifting and dead 2 days later New York lawmakers propose decriminalizing sex work Federal government withdraws […]
Though little is known about how Layleen Polanco died, advocates say her story highlights New York City’s flawed approach to criminal justice.
Instead of building ‘humane jails’ to replace Rikers Island, let’s push the NYPD to cut down on arrests.
‘Worst policy imaginable’ punishes, rather than treats, patients who earn less than a dollar an hour, advocates say.
Our staff picks 12 stories worth reading (or rereading) before the new year.
New York City has reduced its jail population, but those who remain are staying longer.
A new Bronx Freedom Fund report documents these extended pretrial lockups, which threaten people’s jobs and destabilize families.
The rocky implementation of New York’s Raise the Age law shows that young people in detention need love, not force.
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City Council Member Rory Lancman, who was debating Assistant District Attorney James Quinn over the future of Rikers Island, blasted Quinn’s comments on Browder, who spent three years incarcerated without a trial.
News of the victory is spreading rapidly to other cities.