Judge Frees Rikers Inmate Says Inmates Are Running Jail and Running a ‘Fight Club’

An environment of fear is ruled by prisoner “leaders” whose power overwhelms the authority of correctional officers.

A gladiator-style “fight club” is organized for the entertainment of the aforementioned leaders, separating the poor prisoners from each other because of that monstrosity.

Little access to food, mattress or sunlight.

This is the testimony of a Rikers Island Prisoner who was released from custody after a Manhattan state court judge judgment on wednesday that the New York Department of Corrections and Mayor Bill de Blasio had “completely failed” on him.

Judge April Newbauer’s decision, first reported by Daily News, tells the harrowing story of Relator G, the pseudonym given to an inmate who was sent to Rikers in June after being charged with first-degree burglary.

Relatives G, who filed a complaint in October demanding his release after facing “severe conditions” and “pervasive violence” among inmates, said his time he’s in a much besieged prison, currently going on through a nasty COVID spike, betrayed from the very beginning.

Instead of being transferred to a housing complex within 24 hours of arriving at the prison in June, according to policy, Relative G testified that he was held in a reception unit with 15 inmates. another in three days. Unit has one bathroom and no mattress.

Relator G was then placed in a series of housing complexes and moved in from two of them after facing assaults from other inmates. This was followed by 11 days of detention in a separate cell without a mattress, the judge’s ruling announced. On some days, he does not get food. On the days he does, his meals consist of only one serving of cereal and one scoop of jelly.

While incarcerated, Relator G described a “skeleton staff” of correctional officers who “cede control” to other inmates known as “leaders” of the housing units. Leaders controlled access to food and water in the units, Relator G testified. To make a phone call, he had to “ask” the leader of the unit.

But perhaps the most egregious thing Relator G described, according to the verdict, was a “night fight” he said he was forced to take part in.

Relatives of G testified that unit leaders forced inmates to fight in a small cell one October night while others “circled and cheered.” After watching the two fights, Relator G said he hit himself and testified that he did so with “full force” against another man until the unit’s leader said that he can stop.

The spoils of his war: tobacco and food.

According to Relator G, the correctional officers in the unit were “fully aware” of the night’s fighting. Video evidence shows that after the first two scuffles, a corrections officer told the leader “to keep things quiet.” More video evidence shows another editing officer watching the fights and not breaking them.

When asked by lawyers for the DOC why he never reported incidents of violence to employees, Relator G said he had heard about the potential for retaliation when he filed a complaint.

In a statement to The Daily Beast, a spokesperson for the DOC said they were “very transparent” about the crisis in their prisons. The staffing and facility conditions issues have been publicly discussed for months and we are continuing to work to fix these issues.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office did not return a request for comment.

This inmate’s gruesome testimony, along with recent reports from an independent court-appointed monitor of the prison, provide an update on violence in the prison since 2015. In one reported in August, the custodian described the prison as having “pervasive levels of disorder and chaos” stemming from the culmination of decades of mismanagement and dysfunctional personnel practices. “

Many of the prison’s problems are due in part to a massive shortage of correctional staff. The ruling noted that on the day of the night of the engagement, 1,467 adjusted sick leave officers and 31 officers were not on duty.

Attorneys representing the DOC acknowledged the staffing crisis, according to the ruling, but denied being “deliberately indifferent” to Relator G and his safety. They argued that his injuries were not serious and that the leader of the Relator G residence was merely “bullying” the man by refusing food and water and forcing him to fight.

They also worry that a ruling in Relator G’s favor would “open the door” to future legal challenges from inmates.

Despite these arguments, the judge disagreed and concluded that the DOC “did not act — and continue to do so — with reasonable care” to protect Relator G and others in custody from violence. force.

She ruled that the DOC and de Blasio had “completely failed” the public and Person G involved in “ignoring the looming threat of a crisis” at the prison and did not take the approach. “all hands on deck”.