As families in Queens and across New York look forward to spending time with their families over the holidays, many families, including those here in Queens, will spend the holidays grieving their loved ones who died while incarcerated. Unfortunately, there are a growing number of such families throughout New York.
Deaths of people in custody is not new – jails and prisons have long been dangerous, unsafe places for human beings. But there is more attention on these issues right now because of a few recent, high-profile scandals in New York.
Just over a year ago, Robert Brooks was brutally murdered by correctional officers in New York’s Marcy prison – the murder was caught on tape and the footage flew around the internet. Shortly after, there was the brutal murder of Messiah Nantwi at Midstate prison. These are gut-wrenching examples of how racist, violent, and deadly the situation is within the New York State Department of Corrections.
It is heartbreaking and infuriating that these are not unique experiences. Members of the Katal Center – where I serve as organizing director – have shared story after story about how this type of violence and killings occur frequently within New York State Prisons & jails.
Right here in our own city, and here in Queens at Rikers, I see how this system is killing our community members. Under the Adams administration, at least 47 people have died in city jails, and the rate of violence at Rikers has reached a new high.
Mayor Adams abandoned the city’s plan to shut Rikers, ignoring the law requiring the jail complex to be closed. Mayor-elect Mamdani has vowed to follow city law and he must follow through to shut Rikers down. However, Governor Hochul also has a responsibility to address these horrific conditions – not just at Rikers but also in prisons statewide. And she can do so right now.
In June, the New York Legislature passed a Jail and Prison Oversight Omnibus Bill, S.8415 (Salazar)/A.8871 (Dilan), which consists of ten prison oversight and accountability bills, including one to overhaul the State Commission of Correction (SCOC). The SCOC is the state watchdog agency with the constitutional authority to ensure that all jails and prisons in New York are kept in “safe, stable, and humane” conditions. The SCOC has the power to shut down correctional facilities that are not in compliance with this mandate. In fact, in 2018, the commission released a report concluding that Rikers must be closed. But for more than 20 years, the SCOC has failed to do its job. In fact, seven years after issuing their own report calling for Rikers to be closed, they’ve done nothing to advance that recommendation, despite having the power to do so.
The bill currently on Gov. Hochul’s desk will overhaul the SCOC to ensure its membership is more diverse and includes people with experience in public health and legal defense work, as well as people who have been previously incarcerated. More than 160 organizations across the state have signed on to support this proposal. And many directly impacted people, including Katal members, have fought years to pass this legislation.
Gov. Hochul now has until Friday, December 19th, to sign the bill into law. It is disheartening that she has waited this long to take meaningful action to address the ongoing crises in New York State jails and prisons, but we call on her to sign the bill, and to do so now, as is, with no changes. Lives are at stake, and there is no time to waste.
Before Governor Hochul takes her holiday break to be with her own family, she should sign this bill to make sure that there is greater oversight and accountability in jails and prisons across our state. Families with incarcerated loved ones – and the tens of thousands of people currently incarcerated in dangerous jails and prisons throughout New York – deserve nothing less.
Melanie Dominguez is the organizing director at the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. She lives in Elmhurst.