Solitary Confinement to End for Youngest at Rikers Island
New York Times; Michael Schwirtz, 9/28/2014
Although experts have spoken for years about the devastating effects of solitary confinement on the mental health of adolescent prisoners, such seclusion has long been the primary form of punishment at the Rikers Island jail complex, where inmates as young as 16 can spend days, weeks and sometimes months locked in a cell for over 23 hours a day.
Now, amid increasingly vocal calls to improve conditions at Rikers, the New York City Correction Department has decided to eliminate solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-old inmates by the end of the year.
The decision was noted in an internal memo by the correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, to Mayor Bill de Blasio, that was obtained by The New York Times. It comes as the department attempts to face down sharp criticism of the often brutal treatment of inmates at Rikers Island, particularly adolescents and those with mental illnesses.
In August, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan issued a highly critical report on the Correction Department’s handling of teenage inmates. It found a “deep-seated culture of violence,” and noted that the use of solitary confinement was “excessive and inappropriate.”
It gave the city 49 days to find solutions. That deadline elapsed last week. A City Hall spokeswoman said the memo was unrelated to the federal inquiry.
New York is one of just two states in the country that automatically charges 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. Teenagers at Rikers have been found to be more violent, to commit more infractions and to suffer more injuries than inmates in other age groups.
This month, Mr. Ponte told members of the city’s Board of Correction, which monitors conditions at Rikers, that city jail operations needed to be changed to better deal with adolescents.
“What we’re struggling with is we’re still operating with adult policies,” he said.
The memo on solitary confinement, dated Sept. 25, described “the first round of changes” intended to “meet our shared commitment to a safe, just and age-appropriate correctional setting” for young inmates. These include improved recruitment of correction officers, better training and expanded educational and re-entry programs.
It is short on specifics. It says that solitary confinement will be replaced by “alternative options, intermediate consequences for misbehavior and steps designed to pre-empt incidents from occurring.”
Solitary confinement, referred to by the Correction Department as punitive segregation, will be eliminated only for 16- and 17-year-olds, who now make up fewer than 300 of the 11,000 or so inmates at the jail. Because of a change in state law, since April inmates ages 18 and older have no longer been permitted to be held with younger inmates. There are currently 51 adolescents in solitary confinement, according to the department.
The idea of eliminating solitary confinement, even if limited to the youngest inmates, was immediately praised by advocates for jail reform.
“I think this is excellent news and long overdue,” said Bryanne Hamill, a member of the Board of Correction who leads its committee on adolescents. “Punitive segregation is not a disciplinary measure thought to be helpful in deterring or correcting youth’s misbehavior.”
Mr. Ponte, a noted correction reformer, came under fire last week when it was revealed that he had promoted two senior correction officials who were once in charge of an adolescent jail at Rikers where official violence statistics had been drastically distorted.
Still, in his five months in office, he has made changes that have drawn praise.
The department has increased staffing for adolescent units, so that the ratio of inmates to guards is now 15 to 1, compared with more than 30 to 1 when Mr. Ponte took office in April.
Educational programs have been expanded, with more focus on vocational training, according to the memo. All adolescents must by law attend classes during the school year.
The department also plans to partner with a nonprofit organization, Friends of Island Academy, to improve discharge planning for young inmates, and has begun using therapy dogs as part of a treatment regimen for youths with mental illness, the memo said.
The memo noted that use of force against adolescent inmates declined from 28 incidents in April to 18 in August.
“You have the commitment of this agency, and my own personal commitment, to drastically improve the level of safety and services offered to adolescents at Rikers Island,” Mr. Ponte wrote in the memo.
Some have questioned whether any measures would be sufficient to address the challenges of holding adolescents at Rikers. Ms. Hamill, from the Board of Correction, said she was “strenuously advocating the adolescents be moved off Rikers.”
Elizabeth Crowley, the chairwoman of the City Council committee that oversees city jails, agreed and raised the prospect of housing young inmates at Correction Department buildings in Brooklyn or Queens.
“The facilities on Rikers are not suitable for holding and supervising adolescents,” she said in a statement. “And exposing young offenders to the culture of violence that exists on the Island — especially during their formative years — can have detrimental lifelong effects.”