By Graham Rayman
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A new Board of Correction report has backed up allegations detailed in October in the Daily News — that jail staffers are involuntarily locking mentally ill detainees in their cells, an unofficial practice known as “deadlocking,” and often failing to document it.
Board staff toured 48 housing areas selected at random over five weeks between April 8 and May 13 and found seven instances where detainees in special mental health units had been involuntarily locked in their cells, including four at the George R. Vierno Center and three at the Rose M. Singer Center, both at Rikers Island, the report said.
The basis for the lock-ins was recorded in official logbooks in only three of the seven instances, the report found.
Correction Department “staff must discontinue the practice of unauthorized ‘deadlocking,’” the board wrote. “Department leadership must employ different tactics to accomplish the discontinuation of this practice.”
The findings offer support to the allegations from former jail social worker Justyna Rzewinski that mentally ill detainees were being locked in their cells for extended periods and denied medical care as punishment or to make officers’ jobs easier.
The Correction Board report, which covered a fairly limited period, found the lock-ins only extended up to 24 hours, rather than weeks as Rzewinski maintained, but the review was sharply limited — it does not go back in time to try to determine the full extent of the practice.
“I am saddened to see that, even six months after my testimony, the NYC Department of Correction continues to unjustly confine individuals, especially those in mental health units, to their cells without documentation or oversight,” Rzewinski said Monday, calling the review “only a snapshot.”
“This continued misuse of involuntary lock-ins, particularly in mental observation units, reflects a serious failure in oversight and a violation of basic human rights.”
Rzewinski noted the report states that once the board staffers informed the Correction Department of the recent lock-ins they discovered, the individuals were released. “Without that intervention, it’s unclear how long they would have remained locked in,” she said.
Board spokeswoman Jemarley McFarlane did not reply to a question from The News on why the review was so narrow in scope.
The report said Correction Department staff justified the seven lock-ins observed by board staff by saying one detainee had lice, three others tried to splash staff with urine or fecal matter, two assaulted staff and one “engaged in self-gratification” in front of officers.
But the board noted the discovery of lice is not a basis for lock-in and urged the Correction Department to make sure officers are documenting all interactions via audits, training and the threat of discipline.
Meanwhile, the board found just two instances of detainees in general population, meaning not in mental health housing, who were involuntarily being kept in their cells. Uniformed staff said those detainees were awaiting transfer to a safer housing area.
“The assessment did not uncover as many instances of involuntary lock-ins in general population housing areas,” the report said.
Rzewinski, who worked in mental health units at the Vierno Center in 2023 and 2024, alleged in the Oct. 12 Daily News report that the practice caused detainees to decompensate — or lose their ability to function.
Medical staff, she alleged, was prevented from giving the detainees medication to stabilize their conditions, triggering behavior like relentless screaming, banging on cell doors and smearing their cells with their own feces. She said she personally noted lock-ins ranging up to two months.
“That was a shock. I had never seen people live like this,” she told The News at the time. “People living on the street looked better than these patients.”
Following the article in The News, Rzewinski testified before the board on Nov. 12. The board approved a resolution condemning the practice and then ordered its review.
In the same meeting, Correction Department general counsel James Conroy said the agency was conducting its own review.
Agency officials would not say what the status of that review was on Monday. “Our standards are about ensuring that people have the space to make personal transformation while in our care. Any practices regarding lock-ins are expected to adhere to departmental policy,” Correction Department spokeswoman Shayla Mulzac-Warner said in a statement.
The board urged the Correction Department to ban the use of the term “deadlock,” and better track involuntary lock-ins. The board also urged Correctional Health Services to insist that its staff report such incidents to supervisors.
But Correctional Health Services countered that the agency “should not and cannot be involved in patient allegations regarding security-related concerns.”
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