Statement on the Federal Court Hearing in Nunez and Receivership

Shining light into the darkness of our city jails has always been necessary, and never more so than now. Over the past nineteen months, people have died in record numbers behind the walls of our jails. Increasingly, the Department of Correction (DOC) has taken deliberate steps to render those walls impenetrable, to try to prevent anyone from seeing the utter chaos and despair that reigns inside and threatens all who are held there and work there. Jail oversight bodies have been denied access to information and generally frustrated in performing their lawfully mandated functions. For decades, community-based providers, including the Fortune Society, have been providing services in the jails that were valued and funded by DOC. In addition to provision of essential services and linkages to the community, these organizations provided community eyes and outside feedback on jail conditions. This all ended when DOC eliminated these contracts, as of June 30.

Yesterday’s federal court hearing in the years-long Nunez litigation was an encouraging step in the right direction, finally allowing the lawyers for people on Rikers, and the federal government, to make the case for appointment of a federal receiver. But the descriptions from the court-ordered monitoring team of conditions inside Rikers Island was stunning, including what they witnessed and learned about just yesterday: multiple incidents including fires, Narcan administration, emergency lock-ins, assaults on staff, and they observed what appeared to be open drug use by people who were apparently so intoxicated they could neither move nor communicate. While these legal proceedings will take months before a final decision is reached, we hope that more immediate action will be taken by DOC to safeguard not just the rights of the people in our jails, but also their very lives.