Rikers Island Gets Last Chance - Graduations on Rikers - NYSDOCCS Guard Reveals Abuse on Prisoners

Corrections officers at the Rikers Island jail complex would be barred from holding incarcerated people alone in cells for extended periods of time under legislation that Public Advocate Jumaane Williams plans to unveil today. The draft legislation, shared first with Gothamist, would allow officers to put people in solitary confinement only for a few hours if someone poses an immediate danger. Medical staff would also need to check on them every 15 minutes, and mental health clinicians would be required to conduct rounds once an hour. The bill is the latest effort to ban the use of a practice that human rights advocates have labeled as torture, after similar efforts were scuttled under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Rikers Island is not a safe place to be right now, and how we’re operating is leading to that,” Williams told Gothamist. “So, if everyone’s agreeing that there’s problems of minimum standards, there’s problems of staffing, solitary confinement makes all of those t