By Bryan Denson
The Oregonian
PORTLAND, Ore. — Government lawyers this week reported that corrections officers in New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex systematically violated the civil rights of male teenagers and failed to protect them from the rampant use of unnecessary and excessive force, The New York Times reports.
“The office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, released its findings in a graphic 79-page report that described a ‘deep-seated culture of violence’ against youthful inmates at the jail complex, perpetrated by guards who operated with little fear of punishment,” the Times wrote.
“The report, addressed to Mayor Bill de Blasio and two other senior city officials, singled out for blame a ‘powerful code of silence’ among the Rikers staff, along with a virtually useless system for investigating attacks by guards,” according to the Times. “The result was a ‘staggering’ number of injuries among youthful inmates, the report said.”
The Bronx district attorney’s office, in what the Times called “a striking case study of just how rare it is for Rikers guards to be punished,” declined to prosecute the officers.
A federal lawsuit filed over the weekend accuses the Franklin County Jail, in south-central Washington, of routinely subjecting inmates to “inhumane and barbaric practices,” reports the Tri-City Herald. “Mentally ill inmates are chained to a fence for days, pepper-sprayed without reason, left unsupervised in restraint chairs and forced into isolation, the lawsuit claims.”
In California, corrections officials recently proposed new policies against the usage of force against the mentally ill, reports the Jurist.
“The policy changes, filed in Sacramento federal court as part of a long-running legal battle, essentially require prison guards to stop and consider alternatives to force as they get mentally ill inmates who are acting out to comply with commands,” the Sacramento Bee reports.