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Editorial: Brutality in the Jails
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara handed down an unusual indictment last week: one that, if justice is done, will lead to less time in jail for the culprits. Mr. Bharara produced a searing 79-page report finding, as he put it, “For adolescent inmates, Rikers Island is broken.” His office found that the 16-to-18-year old inmates housed primarily at the Robert N. Davoren Center are subject to assaults not only by each other, but by correction officers, with more than 43 percent of adolescent males subjected to use of force by staff at least once. Correction-union leaders responded that the force was often necessary, both to maintain order and to rescue uniformed or civilian staff and sometimes inmates themselves from brutal assaults.
          
Editorial: Brutality in the Jails
RICHARD STEIER
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U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara handed down an unusual indictment last week: one that, if justice is done, will lead to less time in jail for the culprits.

Mr. Bharara produced a searing 79-page report finding, as he put it, “For adolescent inmates, Rikers Island is broken.”

His office found that the 16-to-18-year old inmates housed primarily at the Robert N. Davoren Center are subject to assaults not only by each other, but by correction officers, with more than 43 percent of adolescent males subjected to use of force by staff at least once. Correction-union leaders responded that the force was often necessary, both to maintain order and to rescue uniformed or civilian staff and sometimes inmates themselves from brutal assaults.

But the report found that officers “routinely use force unnecessarily as a means to control the adolescent population and punish disobedient or disrespectful inmates in clear violation of (Department of Correction) policy... The force use is often disproportionate to the risk posed by the inmate.”

Even worse, the report found, intimidation tactics were sometimes used to prevent civilian staff from reporting unwarranted beatings or excessive force used in clinics or other areas where no video cameras were installed that could capture the assaults. One Teacher at Rikers told investigators, the report stated, that it was understood that Teachers who were in the vicinity of such assaults “should turn their head away, so that they don’t witness anything.”

Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook blamed past “mismanagement” in the correction system. (The report, which covers a period beginning in 2011 and runs through the end of last year, predated the arrival of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte in April.)

That may be true. And issues cited by Mr. Seabrook in the past, including training Correction Officers in how to deal with mentally-ill inmates, and even whether the jail system is the best place for many of those suffering mental illness, are undoubtedly contributing factors to the problems.

But you don’t need specialized training to know that delivering brutal and unwarranted beatings and making sure to do so out of camera range while ensuring that any potential witnesses are too scared to talk is not only wrong but potentially criminal.

Mr. Bharara spoke critically of officers delivering “headshots” to adolescent inmates, “causing significant injuries.” In that case, he failed to distinguish situations in which doing so was necessary to avoid an inmate doing greater damage—a blow to the head or face is sometimes the only way to subdue a rampaging inmate.

Correction Captains Association President Patrick Ferraiuolo challenged Mr. Bharara to work a single shift in the jails and see whether, after an inmate threw urine in his face, he wasn’t inclined to throw a few punches in return.

But the truth is, most people know that being a correction officer can be a tough job, both mentally and physically. That does not give employees a license to mete out their own version of justice that goes beyond the force necessary to restrain or subdue an unruly inmate or inmates. And the fact that some of them have resorted to doling out punishment in areas where they won’t be detected by cameras makes clear that they know they’ve crossed the line.

Law-abiding adolescents can be difficult to deal with when they push boundaries or display the obnoxiousness that sometimes goes with growing up. Among those who have wound up in the jail system, the problems figure to have been compounded several times. But if the jails are to have a rehabilitative function, rather than merely serving to confine and punish, there has to be a clear line between appropriate use of force and simply whaling on miscreants because it might teach them a lesson. (The lesson they take from it might be that brutal conduct trumps justice.)

The jail system is lost if you can’t tell the officers from the inmates without a scorecard. Mr. Ponte and his commanders must ensure that swift and stern discipline is dispensed to officers who abuse their authority and bully colleagues, civilian or uniformed, into going along.

At the same time, a more-searching look must be taken by the city as to whether some mentally-ill inmates, adolescent and adult, would be better served by mental-health facilities rather than imprisonment.

Improved training must be given to officers. And if that means hiring more staff, rather than scraping by on overtime as the department has been doing for years, in order to be able to spare the officers from their regular posts so they can get that added instruction, so be it.

Given the values Mayor de Blasio espouses, he as much as any recent Mayor should understand that the jail system can’t just be about keeping a lid on.

 
© 2003 The E-Accountability Foundation