Inmates of New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex are reportedly running amok.
Detainees at the understaffed jail have taken control of entire units, The New York Times reported.
So far this year, 11 Rikers Island detainees have died in custody.
Inmates of New York City’s long-beleaguered Rikers Island jail complex are running amok at the notorious lockup – and some have taken control over entire facility units, The New York Times reported on Monday.
“Rikers has long been dysfunctional, decrepit and dangerous,” Zachary Katznelson told the news outlet. He’s the executive director of a research and advocacy organization called Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform.
But Katznelson added, “What we see today is next level. It is an inability to deliver even the basic services – something we haven’t seen in a long time, if not ever.”
Detainees at the severely understaffed jail complex, which is made up of eight buildings and currently houses about 4,800 inmates, have asserted power over whole units, deciding who can enter and exit them, The Times reported, citing interviews and records.
Some Rikers inmates have stolen keys and used them to free other detainees, according to The Times.
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