Council will vote to require data on Rikers inmates in solitary

[hrmjustin]

Gloria Pazmino

The City Council plans to vote next Thursday on a bill that would require the Department of Correction to compile extensive data on inmates being kept in solitary confinement or “punitive segregation” at Rikers Island.

Councilman Danny Dromm of Queens introduced the measure in April after several reports about violent conditions at the jail, including allegations that officers routinely beat inmates and expose them to violent and dangerous conditions.

Dromm's bill also came on the heels of two deaths at Rikers, including one of a mentally ill inmate who “baked to death” in an overheated cell.

The bill, which has 26 sponsors, would require D.O.C. and the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to gather quarterly data specifically on the use of “punitive segregation,” or solitary confinement as a form of punishment, and submit the information to the Council.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/08/8550826/council-will-vote-require-data-rikers-inmates-solitary

[hrmjustin]

1. Bill targeting solitary confinement at Rikers Island passes City Council committee

ERIN DURKIN

With Rikers Island under fire amid reports of rampant violence against inmates, a City Council committee passed a bill Wednesday to force jail bosses to go public with stats on the fate of inmates thrown into solitary confinement.

The Department of Corrections would have to publish four reports a year detailing how many inmates are placed in solitary, what they’re sent there for and how long they stay, whether they attempt suicide or are physically or sexually assaulted, along with a host of other stats.

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/bill-targeting-solitary-confinement-rikers-island-passes-city-council-committee-blog-entry-1.1910527

[hrmjustin]

2. At Department of Correction Graduation, Leaders Defend an Agency Under Fire

Jillian Jorgensen

While a City Council committee considered legislation aimed at reforming the use of solitary confinement at Rikers Island this morning, soon-to-be city correction officers marched down the aisles of a Queens auditorium to start careers that would likely send them to work in the jail complex.

“It’s very easy to view this agency in a negative way, if all you know about us is what you read in the press,” new Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte told the graduates and officers being promoted at the ceremony at York College. “The majority of our staff are committed to the agency’s goals and perform their duties in a professional manner, day in and day out, under very difficult circumstances.”

At the first graduation ceremony since Mr. Ponte joined the department in April, it was no secret that the department has been under fire—in the press, with elected officials and from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara—as Mr. Ponte and union leaders sought to defend the department’s reputation.



Read more at http://observer.com/2014/08/at-corrections-graduation-leaders-defend-a-department-under-fire/#ixzz3Ay1goXIG