NEW YORK – The U.S. Justice Department filed legal action against the city of New York in connection with alleged violations of the constitutional rights of young inmates by the use of unnecessary and excessive force against these prisoners, officials said Thursday.
“With this filing, the Department of Justice is taking an important step to ensure the safety and constitutional rights of young people incarcerated at Rikers Island,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “We’ve seen alarming evidence of unnecessary and excessive use of force against juveniles, as well as a systemic failure to protect them from violence and deeply troubling — and potentially scarring — use of solitary confinement.”
Adding, “This action allows the Justice Department to seek necessary reforms to remedy these unlawful conditions, to ensure fair treatment, and to provide all incarcerated young people with the protections, and opportunities to build better futures, that they deserve.”
The Justice Department asked the court to join the pending class action lawsuit – New York City, Nunez v. City of New York, which alleges that the Department of Correction has engaged in a pattern and practice of using unnecessary and excessive force against inmates.
The Implementation of 70 Courses of Action
On August 4, 2014, the Justice Department issued a report that concluded that “a deep-seated culture of violence is pervasive throughout the adolescent facilities at Rikers, and the New York’s Department of Corrections staff routinely use force not as a last resort, but instead as a means to control the adolescent population and punish disorderly or disrespectful behavior.”
The report urged the City to adopt and implement over 70 specific remedial measures.
Although there have been some positive steps by the state’s Department of Corrections in response for this report, including reducing the inmate-to-staff ratio, developing new programming, and moving toward eliminating the use of punitive segregation, much more needs to be done, officials said.
The Justice Department alleges that state officials have been indifferent to the constitutional rights on these young inmates, ages 16 to 18, and this has resulted in “serious psychological and emotional harm” to them, officials maintain.
The Justice Department filed a 36-page so-called Complaint-in-Intervention in its legal filing. Like the August 4, 2014, report, the Complaint focuses on use of force by staff, inmate-on-inmate violence, and the use of punitive segregation.
Specifically, the Complaint alleges:
- Staff use force against Young Inmates with alarming frequency.
- In Fiscal Year 2014, there were 553 reported staff use of force incidents involving Young Inmates at the Robert D. Davoren Center and the Eric M. Taylor Center, the two facilities that housed most Young Inmates.
- These incidents resulted in 1,088 injuries.
- Inmate-on-inmate fights and assaults are pervasive in large part because inmates are inadequately supervised by inexperienced and poorly trained officers.
- In Fiscal Year 2014, there were 657 reported inmate-on-inmate fights involving Young Inmates at both centers.
- Staff use of force and inmate-on-inmate fights and assaults have resulted in an alarming number of serious injuries to Young Inmates, including broken jaws, broken orbital bones, broken noses, long bone fractures, and lacerations requiring stitches.
- Staff frequently punch, strike, or kick Young Inmates in the head or facial area.
- Force is used as a means to punish Young Inmates, and staff unnecessarily continue to use force against inmates who already have been restrained.
- Force is used in response to inmate verbal taunts and insults. Specialized response teams, including probe and cell extraction teams, use excessive force.
- Staff regularly tell inmates to “stop resisting,” even though the inmate has been completely subdued, to justify the use of force.
- Use of excessive force is common in areas outside video surveillance coverage. The state’s Department of Corrections recently transferred many 18-year-old inmates to housing units that have no video surveillance at all.
The Complaint further alleges that the New York City has for years failed to address systemic deficiencies, including:
- Failure to ensure that use of force is accurately reported, and allowing a powerful code of silence to persist.
- Failure to conduct thorough and comprehensive investigations into use of force incidents.
- Failure to appropriately discipline staff for using excessive and unnecessary force.
- Failure to ensure that inmates are adequately supervised.
- Failure to implement an adequate age-appropriate classification system.
- Failure to provide staff with effective training on the proper use of force and how to appropriately manage youth
- In addition, the Complaint asserts that the City has engaged in a pattern and practice of placing Young Inmates in punitive segregation at an alarming rate and for excessive periods of time.
Since issuing its report in August, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has had several meetings with the City’s Law Department regarding the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s proposed remedial measures.
Some of these discussions have included attorneys representing the Nunez plaintiffs, who have been engaging in settlement discussions with the City for several months.
However, despite some constructive dialogue, New York City has been unwilling to commit to an enforceable agreement including the type of reforms and oversight that are necessary to correct long-standing problems at Rikers and safeguard the constitutional rights of inmates.