Feds, NYC reach deal to curb violence in Rikers Island jails
Federal prosecutors and lawyers for injured inmates have reached an agreement with the city on how to curb widespread violence and other problems that have plagued the Rikers Island jail system for years, according to court papers filed Monday.
The consent decree, summarized in a letter filed in Manhattan federal court, will require city officials to install nearly 8,000 surveillance cameras in the 10-jail complex, retrain correction officers to reduce the use of force, vastly improve internal investigations and punish guards who use excessive force.
The agreement comes six months after U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara joined a class action lawsuit filed by The Legal Aid Society and other lawyers claiming system-wide brutality by guards against inmates at Rikers, and nearly a year after a scathing Department of Justice (DOJ) report detailed troubling conditions for teenage inmates.