Tag: ABUSE
The City has reached a settlement over the class-action lawsuit championed by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara over the deplorable conditions at Rikers Island. The agreement will lead to several reforms, including the instatement of a federal monitor over the Department of Corrections. From the Observer: “I have repeatedly made clear our unwavering commitment to enduring […]
Two women who were incarcerated at Rikers Island’s Rose M. Singer Center, the complex’s women’s jail, have filed a horrifying class action suit against the City of New York alleging that they were repeatedly raped and sexually abused by a corrections officer named Benny Santiago. The lawsuit, according to Capital New York, was filed in […]
People lament the state of journalism these days, but when you see it working as it was truly meant to — to inform the people and enact real change — it’s a wonderful, soul-affirming thing. It’s too early to see just how substantive the reforms will be, but days after the New York Times published […]
Among the many counterproductive and illogical ways that a city can fill its jails and overburden its criminal justice system is by criminalizing things that homeless people do in order to survive. New York City, perhaps more than any other city, excels at spending money on arrests, prosecutions, and jails, rather than on programs that […]
On Wednesday, a jury found former Rikers captain Terrence Pendergrass guilty of a civil rights violation in the death of an inmate two years ago. The New York Times reports that Pendergrass is the first officer to be tried for such a crime “in more than a decade.” He may serve up to 10 years […]
On Thursday, the City Council passed a bill requiring Rikers Island officials to issue quarterly reports on inmates in solitary confinement. The bill follows public revelations of chronic abuse and misconduct, including this month’s 79-page report from the United States Attorney’s Office in Manhattan which describes the correctional officers’ disturbing culture of violence, often targeting juvenile inmates. CBS New York reports: Under the […]
On WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show on Tuesday morning, fill-in host Manoush Zomorodi was doing a segment about yesterday’s Department of Justice report on the rampant abuses, corruption and civil rights violations of adolescent inmates at Rikers Island. Toward the end of the segment, around the 26-minute mark, Zomorodi goes to the phone lines to take an anonymous […]
Police officers beat a handcuffed man on a stretcher, according to two FNDY EMTs, the Daily News reports. The EMTs were called to the 67th Precinct in Brooklyn to restrain an emotionally disturbed patient for transport on July 20th. They described the patient as “combative” and witnessed him spit in the face of an officer. The […]
Rikers Island inmates aged 16-18 are subject to institutionalized abuse, constitutional rights violations and systemic corruption, according to the findings in a blistering U.S. Department of Justice report released on Monday. The 79-page report out of the United States Attorney’s Office in Manhattan details horrific conditions for male teenagers housed there between 2011-13. DOJ investigators say there is a […]
When NYU began constructing their satellite campus in Abu Dhabi, a region notoirous for exploiting migrant workers, the school’s representatives vocal about protecting the rights of those hired to build it. They promised that the workers would live in safe and decent conditions, hold onto their passports and have the right to object to unfair […]
