Stephen Rex Brown
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — Three former high-ranking members of the Department of Correction will receive a $275,000 settlement after alleging discrimination and manipulation of statistics on violence behind bars due to pressure from City Hall.
Former Senior Deputy Commissioner Charles Daniels, former Deputy Commissioner of Operations Errol Toulon and ex-Assistant Commissioner Keith Taylor said a glass ceiling at DOC resulted in black executive staff being treated differently than their white peers. They said they were forced out in 2017 after refusing to “undertake in the falsification and manipulation of facts regarding violence within Rikers Island.”
The settlement, which includes legal fees, was revealed on Thursday and requires a judge’s approval. It will be split among the three men, who remain prominent figures in the corrections world. Daniels now runs daily operations for male prisons in Alabama, Toulon was elected sheriff of Suffolk County, and Taylor is an adjunct professor at John Jay College in New York City.
“Considering the condition it’s in, DOC — and New Yorkers — had the best of the best,” said attorney Rocco Avallone. “Because of the discriminatory bias some individuals had, they let them go. Within a year, other people immediately picked them up!”
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court in December 2017 cast a harsh light on the tenure of former Commissioner Joseph Ponte, who Mayor de Blasio hired in April 2014 to curb violence at city jails.
Daniels accused Ponte of berating him in a hallway at City Hall “for not covering up the violence” after a presentation about conditions at Rikers Island. Then-Deputy Commissioner Cynthia Brann “intentionally tried to cover up the violence within Rikers Island and keep African-American supervisors in the dark,” according to the lawsuit. Daniels, who had a decorated career in the upper ranks of the federal Bureau of Prisons, lasted at DOC only four months in 2017.
Toulon said he was denied benefits and office space given to white employees of similar rank. Then–DOC Chief of Staff Jeff Thamkittikasem, among others, made him the scapegoat for Departmental failures beyond his control, he said. Toulon was forced out after more than two years on the job.
Taylor’s requests for additional support, personnel and equipment were ignored, he said. He pointed the finger at Brann, accusing her of instructing his own staff to ignore orders. He lasted two years before being forced out.
“There is no room for discrimination of any kind at our agencies. While we dispute these claims and did not admit wrongdoing, it was in the best interest of all parties to settle this case,” a Law Department spokesman said.
Avallone said the controversy represented a missed opportunity.
“They were treated unfairly during their employment in DOC, to say the least. It’s just a shame that the city did not utilize my clients’ talents to fix a system that is broken. The settlement of this case underscores that the city has a lot of work to do in order to repair the DOC,” Avallone said.
Allegations of discrimination in the DOC’s upper ranks continue to surface. In December, Deputy Commissioner Nichole Adams-Flores, who is black, alleged she had been discriminated against and had also raised questions about jail statistics. She was fired last week for allegedly ordering subordinates to run her personal errands. Avallone, who is also representing her, denied the accusations and said she’s been retaliated against for filing a $5 million lawsuit.
In August 2016, the Daily News exclusively reported that jails sources noticed that violent incidents were being “downgraded” to less serious incidents to give the impression that the problem was under control. A federal monitor investigated the allegation and said the practice “sends a troubling and confusing message to staff.”
Ponte resigned in May 2017 after an investigation found he’d misused his city car for trips to his home state of Maine and elsewhere.
Brann succeeded Ponte as commissioner. She testified to the City Council last week that the rate of violent inmate on inmate incidents increased by 28% in the first four months of the 2019 fiscal year, compared with the same period last year. Such increases, jails officials say, are due to the inmate population falling dramatically, leaving a “more challenging” group of incarcerated people. There was a decline in stabbings and slashings by 22% between July 2018 and October.
Thamkittikasem now serves as director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations and is a point person for the proposed plan to close Rikers. Efforts to reach Ponte were unsuccessful.
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