By Bill Parry
Mayor Bill de Blasio visited Rikers Island for the first time week to announce the end of punitive segregation for adolescents in city jails. The mayor joined Department of Corrections Commissioner Joe Ponte to say that as of Dec. 4, the DOC had moved all 16- and 17-year-old inmates out of solitary confinement and ended the practice as a form of punishment for the youngest inmates at the nine operational jails on Rikers.
“By ending the use of punitive segregation for adolescents, we are shifting away from a jail system that punished its youngest inmates, to one that is focused on rehabilitation with the goal of helping put these young new Yorkers on the path to better outcomes,” de Blasio said. “Commissioner Ponte is a proven change agent and today’s announcement is one of a series of reforms under his leadership that will begin to stabilize the situation and unwind the decades of neglect that have led to unacceptable levels of violence on Rikers Island.”
Ponte took over the DOC last April and began reforms to develop a new, age-appropriate plan for managing the department’s youngest inmates.
“This reform will promote better behavior, psychological health and emotional well-being among our youngest inmates while lessening violence,” Ponte said. “It represents best practices and the least restrictive environment, allowing us to respond more appropriately to the special needs of this troubled population, and help them reintegrate into the community when they leave our care and custody.”
The following day, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced plans to join a class action lawsuit, against the city, alleging a pattern of unnecessary and excessive force at the city’s jails. The Justice Department has taken this legal step as part of its ongoing effort to ensure that the DOC implements all needed institutional reforms promptly, and that these reforms are lasting, verifiable, and enforceable through the judicial process.
“Sometimes it’s the case that bureaucracy can get in the way of reform-minded thinking and comprehensive cultural change,” Bharara said. “We hope that won’t be the case here. Given the longstanding sad state of affairs at Rikers Island, our impatience is more than understandable. As I’ve said before, one way or the other, we will get enduring and enforceable reform at Rikers Island.”
Meanwhile, a former Rikers Island captain, was found guilty Wednesday of one charge of violating the constitutional right of a prisoner to receive attention for serious medical needs. Howard Beach resident Terrence Pendergrass faces up to 10 years in jail for denying medical care for Jason Echevarria, who had eaten a highly toxic soap ball.
Two former corrections officers testified in the case that they had alerted Pendergrass to Echevarria’s worsening condition on Aug. 18, 2012. Pendergrass told Raymond Castro, one of the officers, “Don’t bother me unless someone is dead,” Castro told the jury.
Echavarria was found dead in his jail cell the following morning. The city medical examiner found that the prisoner died as a result of the ingestion of a caustic substance and that he had chemical burns and scarring on his esophagus and trachea.
