We commend New York City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Comptroller Brad Lander for their unannounced visit to the great shame off the coast of Queens: Rikers Island.
As has been made clear by the Department of Correction’s years of dodges and obfuscations, including the recent stunt of touting dropping sick leave numbers without noting that the overall staffing levels remain the same, it’s clear that the best way to understand the crisis is through one’s own eyes and ears.
While the trio acknowledged that conditions overall seem to have improved from the absolute horrors that the island became notorious for, that’s a low bar to clear, and there is plenty of violence that the still occurs away from the gaze of city electeds (and, all too often, correction officers themselves, who seem to be deployed in a way that leaves swaths of the detention center unmonitored).
