DOJ Says Conditions At New York Corrections Rikers Island Violate Civil Rights Of Adolescent Inmates

On August 4, 2014, the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) notified the New York City Department of Correction (DOC) that the conditions of confinement for adolescent males at the DOC’s Rikers Island jail violated the civil rights of adolescent inmates and that a “deep seated culture of violence is pervasive throughout the adolescent facilities at Rikers.” The DOJ had conducted a multi-year civil investigation on use of force by staff, inmate-on-inmate violence, and use of punitive segregation from 2011 through 2013. The investigators identified a pattern and practice of conduct at the Rikers Island jail that . . .