Althouse: "A federal judge overseeing New York City’s violent jails, including Rikers Island... found the city in contempt for failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facilities..."

November 27, 2024

"A federal judge overseeing New York City’s violent jails, including Rikers Island... found the city in contempt for failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facilities..."

"... and said she was learning [sic] toward taking control of them. The judge, Laura Taylor Swain, said in a 65-page opinion that the city and its Department of Correction had violated the constitutional rights of prisoners and staff members alike by exposing them to danger, and had intentionally ignored her orders....Judge Swain’s ruling came nearly a decade after the city’s jails fell under federal oversight in a settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by prisoners and the Legal Aid Society.... In the past two years, at least 33 people have died in the jails or shortly after being released...."

The NYT reports.

49 comments:

Jersey Fled said...: Government is just another word for things we do together.; 11/27/24, 10:34 AM
RCOCEAN II said...: Oh, she's just going to "Take them over". Okey-dokey. Guess as Philosopher King in robes she can do that. After Judges have taken over school districts and even levied taxes because they decided a "magnet school" needed more money. So why not take a jail system?

BTW, now that Trump is in office, look for Leftwing Federal judges to stop every executive order they don't like with a nationwide ban. The left only needs one judge ( out of 1000) because they can do it.; 11/27/24, 10:42 AM
tommyesq said...: So the city failed to run safe prisons, and the federal government took over ten years ago and also failed to run safe prisons, but the left wants us to trust government to run all other aspects of our lives.; 11/27/24, 10:43 AM
Achilles said...: If you want safe jails you have to identify and restrict the activities of the people who will will perpetrate violence.

You can't do this now because of racist policies that are pervasive in (progressive) jurisdictions.; 11/27/24, 10:54 AM
MadisonMan said...: I agree that Govt has the responsibility to keep prisoners safe while they are incarcerated. I'm not sure the Judge can achieve this with any more success than the State.; 11/27/24, 10:57 AM
Leland said...: My question is her and what tax base is going to take over and afford them?; 11/27/24, 11:01 AM
Biff said...: Some back of the envelope math:

There were approximately 18,000 people who passed through Rikers Island alone in 2022. The average stay was around 100 days. In 2021, the death rate for 25-34 year olds in the USA was 180/100000, or around 0.18%. Assuming that 25-34 year olds are fairly representative of the Rikers population, that translates to...around 32 deaths expected per year from that population alone, and the article reports 33 deaths in the last two years.

Obviously, there are lots of ways to massage those assumptions to give higher or lower numbers (average pre-existing health of inmates, addiction, gang involvement, length of stay, etc.) but the point is that the number is not particularly far from what one might expect for the non-imprisoned population.; 11/27/24, 11:03 AM
Justabill said...: By all means the court should run the prison. That should be entertaining.; 11/27/24, 11:04 AM
Banzel said...: What is the 'expected' mortality number for a comparable population of drug addicts and mental health challenges?; 11/27/24, 11:05 AM
Yancey Ward said...: "In the past two years, at least 33 people have died in the jails or shortly after being released....",

The article is behind the paywall for me but do they break this down to how many died while in the jails and how many died after realease? Further, do they break down the causes of the deaths in both cases? There is a lot of missing information in that little sentence.; 11/27/24, 11:06 AM
tommyesq said...: I believe she could order corrective action and reporting on conditions, and enjoin certain bad practices as an Article III judge, but I am not aware of anything in the Constitution that allows her to administrate a jail. Seems like a violation of separation of power.; 11/27/24, 11:06 AM
tommyesq said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/27/24, 11:07 AM
Wince said...: ...failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facilities...

But how else will the New York lawfare regime threaten their political enemies?; 11/27/24, 11:11 AM
mccullough said...: And yet Epstein and Whitey Bulger died in federal custody. Maybe New York should administer the federal jails.; 11/27/24, 11:16 AM
Readering said...: Courts can appoint receivers to run businesses, so idea of appointing a receiver to run a jail not that esoteric.; 11/27/24, 11:16 AM
Readering said...: Bankruptcy judges can appoint trustees to run insolvent entities. Same idea different title.; 11/27/24, 11:18 AM
Readering said...: Presumably Rikers has a funding source. Funding will go to the receiver for duration of receivership.; 11/27/24, 11:19 AM
Narr said...: "Shortly after being released." I.e. soon after they got back on the street, hanging wid da homies.

Not the jail's fault.; 11/27/24, 11:21 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Under bankruptcy law.; 11/27/24, 11:21 AM
Geoff Matthews said...: Reminds me of when the Missouri Supreme Court took over Kansas City School District in the name of racial equity.
With all of the powers of taxation that involved.
Nothing much came of it.
https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/the-two-billion-dollar-judge/; 11/27/24, 11:22 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: Is Rikers the place they want to put Daniel Penny in but would've practically bent over backwards to keep Jordan Neely out of?; 11/27/24, 11:31 AM
Dixcus said...: Always in contempt, never arrested or hauled off themselves.

Oh, and Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself. He was murdered by our government, after 2 black guards were bribed to shut the cameras off and look the other way. Bill Barr covered it all up and the FBI hasn't arrested a single one of the billionaire pedophiles of Epstein's Island; none are even on the 10 Most Wanted List or even under investigation.; 11/27/24, 11:44 AM
n.n said...: Shortly after? Were they killed while on prison grounds? Assassinated from a guard tower?; 11/27/24, 11:46 AM
Dixcus said...: Remember when the Supreme Court said ObamaCare was a "tax."; 11/27/24, 11:47 AM
Dixcus said...: They can't do that. Those are black people. So they will be accused of racism.; 11/27/24, 11:47 AM
n.n said...: Kicked, trampled as they plead?; 11/27/24, 11:48 AM
Dixcus said...: We had a Supreme Court Justice say under oath she couldn't define the word: woman.

That's the level of the judicial intelligence we have in this country.; 11/27/24, 11:49 AM
Dixcus said...: Sssshhhhhh ... this will hurt Democrat taxpayers. Republicans have already fled New York.; 11/27/24, 11:55 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Just my thought!; 11/27/24, 12:12 PM
Drago said...: Uh, Dixcus, all the races are in crews and have been forever.; 11/27/24, 12:30 PM
Dave Begley said...: Will Pam Biondi look into that? Nice question for the confirmation hearing.; 11/27/24, 12:40 PM
Original Mike said...: "...failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facilities..."

She's going to stem the violence without using force?; 11/27/24, 12:50 PM
Rabel said...: Wouldn't you have to adjust the 100 day number to a full year for those death rates to be comparable?; 11/27/24, 1:00 PM
tcrosse said...: They need to fill the place with a nice class of people. Right now it's a bunch of criminals.; 11/27/24, 1:06 PM
Dogma and Pony Show said...: Arguably, being in jail SHOULD be safer than out in the streets. If you're in jail, the state has taken away much of your ability to keep yourself safe. You have no right to arm yourself against attack, for example.; 11/27/24, 1:12 PM
tommyesq said...: Less and less so these days, now it is pot-users and political prisoners.; 11/27/24, 1:18 PM
Dixcus said...: I doubt it Dave, seeing how she's a lobbyist for Qatar and is in business with the husband of CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Oh, and I see Trump has hired a George Soros goon for Treasury.

Trump has abandoned the people who elected him. It won't end well for him.; 11/27/24, 1:40 PM
Enigma said...: Indeed. The supreme irony of the DEI / LGBTQA+ / Structural Racism / Defund the Police thesis is that Democrats must be 100% responsible for all issues in blue locations that have been managed by Democrats for the last 75 years.; 11/27/24, 1:50 PM
Jess said...: I doubt anyone in the jails is there for singing too loud in church. Jails have never been safe, honest, run with competence, or a safe place for criminals. Avoiding a trip to jail is the best way for people to keep jails safer.; 11/27/24, 2:29 PM
Rusty said...: The COs don't run the jail. The inmates do.; 11/27/24, 3:45 PM
Craig Mc said...: "or shortly after being released"

Er, how is this anyone's responsibility?; 11/27/24, 4:09 PM
mikee said...: If only there was a place the criminally violent could be kept under lock and key to prevent further depredations on their fellow humans. Oh, wait....; 11/27/24, 4:19 PM
Iman said...: Now do same for the Streets of NYC.; 11/27/24, 6:03 PM
Josephbleau said...: "There were approximately 18,000 people who passed through Rikers Island alone in 2022. The average stay was around 100 days. In 2021, the death rate for 25-34 year olds in the USA was 180/100000, or around 0.18%. Assuming that 25-34 year olds are fairly representative of the Rikers population, that translates to...around 32 deaths expected per year from that population alone, and the article reports 33 deaths in the last two years."

Yes, 18,000 persons per year * 100 days per person /365 days per year is about 5000 person-years of exposure. So at 0.18% death per year that would be an expected death rate of 9 each year. (33-9)/21 = 115 % increase in deaths after exposure to prison, (or 33/9 = 366% increase in relative rate) but its not proven to be causal, other things than prison could have caused the deaths. So the judge has a case, but, per Narr, how many died on a post release binge, and how many died of drug related things.

I would expect criminals to die young.; 11/27/24, 7:29 PM
James K said...: Private prisons are much better run, but DEI has hampered their private financing.; 11/27/24, 7:54 PM
Josephbleau said...: I see that the 33 deaths were over 2 years, so I missed that detail. ((33/2)-9)/12.75 = 59% increase due to prison exposure. getting weaker, and since there is no other rikers island, we can't say if this is statistically significant.; 11/27/24, 8:49 PM
Rocco said...: Original Mike said...
"She's going to stem the violence without using force?"

Social Workers will be trained in how to do this.; 11/27/24, 9:08 PM
JAORE said...: Statistics always bow in the direction of the point needed to be made.; 11/28/24, 7:59 AM
Biff said...: @Rabel - maybe, but not necessarily. The methodology used in the NYT article is a little murky to begin with, and you can make a lot of assumptions to move the numbers one way or another. One also could focus on the average number of inmates per day (~5-6k) and look at daily death rates. There also are other factors, like the actual ages of inmates, previous arrest records, home addresses, the data for other jails in NYC, and so on. I wasn't aiming for rigor beyond "back of the envelope" math, which I maintain is good enough to say the difference is not wildly different between what the judge cited and what may be the range for comparable people who aren't incarcerated. To make a truly rigorous analysis, I could imagine adding many more variables and assumptions to the equation.

@Dogma - Yes, that was one of my thoughts, too, but I have no opinion one way or the other. It may well be true that people from violent neighborhoods and/or with previous violent experience could be safer in the right jail environment. Incarceration is not at all my area of expertise, and I imagine it actually would take a fair bit of work to do a proper analysis of the question.; 11/28/24, 9:04 PM