The same goes the inmates
are running the jail.
Well, in this particular case at
Rikers Island, that particular
thing is happening literally.
So let's go right into it
from the New York Daily News.
There's a staff
shortage at Rikers Island,
that left to jail units without
correctional officers for more than
24 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday,
there is prisoner reported.
And the city oversight board said
that the ongoing personal problems
factored in a wave of suicides in
the jails since December,
who knew about that?
So Two Rikers units, continue
unnoticed, 3 West and 3 North in
the Otis Bantam Correctional Center
were without correction officers
through at least noon Wednesday.
Leaving inmates in the strange
position of helping other inmates
get to their court transport and
video conferences.
This was all relayed
by Terence Ferguson, this hip
hop artists known as 2 Milly.
He said we're really running
the dorm by ourselves.
I've never seen anything like this.
He's serving two years since,
sorry, he's serving a sentence for
gun possession.
He said Wednesday afternoon that
there had been no officer on his
floor since 6 AM, Tuesday.
I've been answering the phones,
is what he said.
The Department of Correction
officials, they declined to comment
on whether or not parts of records
have gone unguarded for
longer than 24 hours, I wonder why.
But, the department has
acknowledged that a personnel
shortage, which is blamed on
a large number of sick, or
unavailable staff.
That's the part that probably isn't
very surprising about this whole
situation, just maybe the planning
that goes forward for it, and also
what they've done about it since.
So let's get into more about some
of the shortage and staffing.
Correction officers have said that
in July about,
3,500 of Rikers' 8,500 offices
either called in sick or medically
exempt from working with detainees.
Another 2,300 simply didn't come
into work at some point during
the month.
And, I mentioned those suicides
that have been happening, which is
one of the more devastating parts
about this whole thing,
we saw some assisting from inmates
with each other.
Suicides did happen.
Five suicides in nine months along
with an alarming increase in
attempted self-harm signals
a crisis for persons in custody and
for the New York City Department
of Correction,
this is what the board said.
The board called on the city to
move fast to improve conditions,
knowing that absent or
unavailable staff has created,
quote, unsafe conditions, for
Rikers employees and detainees.
But the board didn't offer any
proposals to address the issues,
that's the part that really
should be highlighted.
We got to do something, so lunch.
>> Yeah, so there's a couple of
mysteries in the story.
So at one point, roughly 35% of
the correction officers were out
sick or prevented from working
with the jail population.
That was at the end of July.
So, did they all get COVID?
That is no one vaccinated in
the among the correction officers?
If that's the case,
mandate vaccinations, we can't have
35% of your staff out,
that's insane.
And this is a government
institution, so
you can easily mandate vaccines.
So I don't know what's happening is
or is this like some sort of worker
issue where they're just like,
we're choosing not to come in and
I don't know.
But either way, 35% of the staff
of a prison being out is totally,
utterly, unacceptable.
The second mystery to me was why
all the suicides?
And, they made a good point, Kalief
Browder committed suicide after he
was at Rikers for a couple years.
He hadn't even
committed any crimes.
They brought him in as a teenager.
They just wouldn't give him a
trial, and they put him in solitary
confinement for most of that time.
And that's where he began to have
mental health issues.
So, if they're completely
unattended to, if they're in
solitary confinement, or
with no guards around, some of the
detainees are doing terrible crimes
to the other prisoners, right?
And then that creates mental health
issues, and that leads to suicides.
But all of this is insane.
And, I mean, I assume they
don't have access to the gates but
I mean it is a weird situation
where you leave the prisoners in
charge of the prison.
And instead of breaking out,
there like, I guess somebody's got
to answer the calls.
>> [LAUGH] So they start doing
clerical work, amazing.
Brad?
>> Yeah, it's crazy.
Indeed the kind of reeks of like
blue flu to me and people calling
in because they just don't want to
be there and I understand why
people would not want to be in
prison not just because it's prison
but because I just saw a stat that
in mid 2020, at least, I guess,
no 20 April 2021.
At least 39% of people held in
federal facilities are known to
have been infected with COVID.
So it's almost half the population
has it and
they're around each other all day,
and you gotta go in there, and
they're overcrowded.
What was it?
By year end at 2018,
the prison custody population in 25
states exceeded the maximum number
of people.
So, they're overcrowded,
people have COVID there,
you don't want to be there.
The prison system in America is
a giant nightmare/joke.
And with those are the prevailing
factors on the ground,
then no wonder people don't want
to be there.
And Rikers is
going to get shut down because
it's such a poorly run prison.
They have been delaying when it
gets shut down because of a lot
of issues including COVID.
The prison population is up,
almost 50% this year.
The reason that De Blasio gives is
because we tried to get people
out of it last year.
But this year we kind of gave up
and brought people back in to
a place that they need to close.
And in terms of suicides, people at
Rikers, it's been written that
Rikers there's a lot of suicides.
People learn how to commit
suicide there.
There have been write-ups on that.
And the prison guards and everybody
call it manipulative gestures, so
people can get out of solitary
confinement because that's one of
the go to moves at Rikers,
is just throw them in solitary.
Because it is one of the worst
places to be incarcerated.
>> Yeah, well, that's
one way to get out of solitary
confinement is to commit suicide.
I don't think they're doing
it on purpose.