U.S. Plans to Sue New York Over Rikers Island Conditions

Source: New York Times

Federal prosecutors plan to sue New York over widespread civil rights violations in the handling of adolescent inmates at Rikers Island, making clear their dissatisfaction with the city’s progress in reining in brutality by guards and improving conditions at the jail complex, a new court filing shows.

The decision to take the city to court comes more than four months after the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, issued a blistering report that cited a pervasive and “deep-seated culture of violence” directed at teenage inmates at Rikers. The report found rampant use of excessive force by correction officers, the overuse of solitary confinement and an ineffectual system of investigating assaults by guards.

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In September, Mr. Bharara issued a strongly worded statement after The New York Times reported that city officials had withheld key portions of a report on violence at Rikers from his office during its investigation, and that officials involved in reporting distorted data had been promoted. Mr. Bharara said the revelations did “not instill confidence in us that the city will quickly meet its constitutional obligations.”

In its filing, Mr. Bharara’s office asked a federal judge in Manhattan for permission to intervene in an existing class-action lawsuit, Nunez v. City of New York, over brutality at Rikers that had been filed by the Legal Aid Society and two private law firms. In contrast to Mr. Bharara’s investigation of the treatment of adolescent inmates, the Nunez case focuses on all Rikers inmates, regardless of age.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/nyregion/us-plans-to-sue-new-york-over-rikers-island-conditions.html?partner=rss&emc=rss