it's a city jail complex so
notoriously it's been making
headlines for all the wrong
reasons we go inside Rikers
Island for an exclusive look
with the new correction
commissioner who tells me he's
ready to take on these
longstanding challenges inside
the are in DC jail one of eight
on Rikers Island we go through
multiple checkpoints with DLC
commissioner Luis Molina he's
the first Hispanic to head the
troubled agency we just faced
violence corruption and
mismanagement and understaffing
issues for a very long time he's
made changes around the world
and high-level law enforcement
military and Corrections
position now he's back to face
persistent problems that several
administrations and a federal
monitor could not solve for this
commissioner I decorated United
States Marine Corps veteran the
mission is personal. I grew up
in the Bronx I was very
fortunate in my household have
both my mom and my dad not a lot
of kids don't have that but I've
also had family members that
have been the victim of violent
crime and I've also had family
members that have I've been just
involved to include
incarceration so this work is
very important to me and the
more than 5,600 people
incarcerated here Melina said he
was surprised to learn some
basic security practices we're
not being followed like gang
violence prevention he
immediately changed the policy
of grouping gang-affiliated
detainees into the same housing
units which made it more
dangerous for everyone this was
totally was one of the Phillies
where they were the pride
ministration was housing by gang
affiliation and it it really
place is the office is at a
disadvantage to where we started
doing we re Blended and
rebalance Boulevard gang houses
and we moved away from housing
the population that way like
weapons and Contraband searches
of inmates and housing areas the
result some detainees broke
Windows to get pieces of
plexiglass they could sharpen
into homemade knives a reason
slashings BK so common now he
says it's all tan uniform staff
and drop by 25% and they're down
by 45% against other staff so
far this year and we will call
it over 80 Contraband weapons K2
and drug paraphernalia so you
know for many many years as the
Practical security measures in
Corrections which is not being
done a huge problem facing
Rikers Island during the
pandemic was a severe shortage
of correction officers which
resulted in some cioz doing
double and even triple ships
Molina says he's brought back
more than 1,300 correction
officers and reduced overtime
and five jails so that they're
doing regular 8-hour shifts the
commissioner is also
prioritizing badly-needed safety
repairs like replacing cell
doors that do not lock to listen
to the old door these doors
would easily palpable and took
to be unlocked by the detainee's
which for all of us has
prevented a security issue what
we what they done is we've
upgraded for housing in the
doors and ignition is empty so
it's under construction and
these are the new doors which
are not easily open and when
it's light is green it signifies
that the door is locked but
security has been his main focus
commissioner bellina believed it
was equally important to bring
back outside programs like those
found at the Peace Center piece
stands for program education and
Community engagement detainees
who follow the rules are
eligible for driver's ed
Horticulture digital literacy
and other programs that keep
them motivated and get them
job-ready certifications when
they get out the goal is for
them to never come back this
doesn't look like a jail at all
yeah I mean this is it's a
school right it is it happens to
be a school that's out of jail
right and we want to be able to
normalized our delivery of
education services to our
students inside the women are
there GED classes cosmetology
courses and even cooking and
food preparation training
commissioner Melinda says most
of the Rikers Island staff in
and out of uniform come from the
same communities as those who
are incarcerated he sees that as
an opportunity to change the
Rikers experience and the
outcomes for everyone he's well
aware it won't be easy we still
have a long way to go with
trending in the right direction
with climb riding in the city
and police making more arrests
the number of detainees who need
to be house will continue to
grow and so no doubt with the
questions about the best way to
handle it on Rikers Island I'm
Lisa Evers Fox 5 News