Federal Judge Finds New York Corrections Department in Contempt for Unconstitutional Jail Conditions

A view of the entrance to the Rikers Island prison complex in New York City on May 17, 2011. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A federal judge granted a motion on Wednesday to hold New York City and the Department of Corrections in civil contempt for its failure to remedy patterns of excessive use of force and hazardous living conditions at the Rikers Island jail.

“As the record in this case demonstrates, the current rates of use of force, stabbings and slashings, fights, assaults on staff, and in-custody deaths remain extraordinarily high, and there has been no substantial reduction in the risk of harm currently facing those who live and work in the Rikers Island jails,” U.S. District Judge Laura Swain wrote in her 59-page opinion.

A spokesperson for the New York City government didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment by publication time.

The Legal Aid Society (LAS) filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of the plaintiffs, who are inmates at the jail. It holds that the defendants haven’t complied with four court orders calling for corrective action.

LAS and other attorneys praised the judge’s ruling.

“This is a historic decision,” LAS said in a statement on the ruling. “The culture of brutality on Rikers Island has resisted judicial and political reform efforts for years. As the court found, the City has repeatedly demonstrated its inability to provide the oversight necessary to ensure the safety of all individuals housed in local jails.”

The case began in 2012, when LAS filed a class action lawsuit against the defendants “challenging systemic brutality” that it alleged the inmates suffered.

“After nearly a decade of oversight by the court and the federal monitor, and successive court interventions and remedial orders, DOC continues its pattern and practice of unconstitutional use of force, and in November 2023, counsel filed a contempt motion and application for receivership,” LAS said.

The defendants entered into a 2015 settlement agreement that required actions to “remedy a pattern and practice of violence by staff” and to execute new policies that will “protect the constitutional rights of the inmates confined in jails operated by the Department.”

The parties also agreed to have a court agent monitor the department’s progress in complying with the order.

The court’s agents reported that the defendants ignored feedback and persisted in their noncompliance, and at one point, they described an alarming “level of disorder and chaos.”

“The use of force rate and other rates of violence, self-harm, and deaths in custody are demonstrably worse than when the Consent Judgment went into effect in 2015,” Swain said.

Swain concluded that the defendants haven’t shown that they are willing to comply with the provisions “in a reasonable manner.”

The judge said it’s been nine years since the parties first reached an agreement on the “alarming and unacceptable” conditions that violated both inmates’ and staff’s constitutional rights.

Swain ordered the monitoring team to continue to meet with the parties and to file a report on progress and a memorandum describing a proposed framework for a remedy by Jan. 15, 2025.