Riker’s is located in the middle
of the East River and holds about 10,000 inmates. It is a mix of criminals.
Some have committed petty crimes but as much as 80% are awaiting trial. Many
are there just because they can’t make bail money. More importantly the mentally ill make up
more than 40% of the population. Correction officers are not adequately trained
to deal with the mentally ill. The result is a pattern of neglect and excessive
force. It has led the United States Attorney to intervene. His office has found
a culture of violence on top of a culture of silence and looks like corruption
to me. In many cases when a mentally ill person dies, there is no discipline of
the officers at all. Must I be the “Serpico” uncovering corruption in our
Jails?
There are officers there that
have dozens of complaints against them and were never disciplined even once. Homeless
people commit some crime just to go to jail rather than a shelter. But then
they are disciplined and have brain injuries, broken bones and serious physical
injuries are out of control there. It is all compounded by that increase of
mentally ill inmates. Mentally ill people are placed in solitary confinement
instead of treated by doctors. Lawsuits have been filed where a mentally ill
patient was locked there for 6 days with no medication and died there. The
staff walked by each day but failed to help him. He died in his own waste since they cut off
the water to his toilet too. The city declared his death a homicide. To this
day no criminal charges have been filed against any official or staff member
that oversaw his time at Riker’s.
Over 129 serious injuries have
been reported at the prison in one month’s time from the hands of staff members
documented in a report by the N.Y.C. Department of Mental Health and Hygiene. It
was intended for internal use only but the report has been leaked to the
public. The report found that 77% of the injuries were found on the mentally
ill inmates. Their injuries were severe enough to require care beyond the
abilities of prison doctors. Riker’s should be called the largest mental institution
in this country yet the care is grossly inadequate. Even in court testimony, police captains say
don’t bother me unless there is a dead body. In case after case medication is
not provided, counseling is not provided but violence and solitary confinement till
death seems to be normal at Riker’s. Be careful if you have to go there!
‘
No comments:
Post a Comment