The Rikers Island Jail Complex
The first jail on Riskers Island was established in 1935, and it currently serves as the primary jail facility in New York City, the capital of the United States. (Gilligan & Lee, 2013).
The Rikers Island complex is run by the New York City Department of Correction (NYCDOC), and it typically has a staff of about 9,000 officers and a yearly budget of about $860. (Stringer, 2016).
About 10,000 prisoners are admitted each day at Rikers Island, where about 1,500 civilian officials oversee about 100,000 admissions annually. (Stringer, 2016).
The New York City Department of Correction (NYCDOC), which controls and manages Riskers Island jail complex, is a component of New York City's municipal government (Tillman-Davis, 2007).
The NYCDOC has the responsibility of ensuring the control, custody, as well as care of the imprisoned population in Rikers Island jails (Tillman-Davis, 2007).
Additionally, the NYCDOC is responsible for ensuring proper work performance in Risker Island jail complex, as well as offering appropriate training for the inmates (Stringer, 2016).
Other duties of the NYCDOC include inspection of the Risker Island jails to ensure prisoners' security and safety, safeguarding against supplies of illegal equipment, ensuring proper medication for the detainees, guarding prisoners during transportation, as well as supervising the prisoners' visitors, recreation, and meals (Stringer, 2016).
Special Programs at Rikers Island
Rikers Island has a broad range of special programs initiated to benefit the inmates in different ways. The programs aim at enhancing and expanding the detainees' basic literacy, skills, as well as providing vocational training for several inmates (Stringer, 2016).
All the prisoners aged 18 years and below are required to attend school within the Riskers Island Complex while those aged between 19 and 24 years get opportunities to engage in a broad range of training programs (Gilligan & Lee, 2013).
Additionally, Riskers Island complex has several classrooms, correctional officers, and instructional staff charged with the responsibility of guiding the inmates through various educational programs (Stringer, 2016).
At Riskers Island, the inmates are allowed to participate in various payable activities to help them raise money to offset bails (Tillman-Davis, 2007).
The NYCDOC's education department also launched an outreach program on Riskers Island aimed at identifying inmates with low literacy skills as well as those who are non-readers so as to recruit them for various services (Stringer, 2016).
The Jails and Challenges at Rikers Island
Rikers Island has ten jails, which can collectively house up to 15,000 inmates at a time. The Riskers jails or facilities include one jail for detainee and sentenced females, one jail for sentenced males, and another one jail which acts as a detention center for adolescent males aged between 16 to 18 years. All the remaining seven jails on the Riskers Island, house adult male inmates (Tillman-Davis, 2007).
Almost fifty percent of the prisoners, mostly adolescents, who leave Rikers Island return within a period of one year, thereby putting pressure on the jail capacity on Rikers Island (Gilligan & Lee, 2013).
Due to such a huge population, Riskers Island is always overcrowded, and most inmates, once detained, remain within the Island due to their inability to afford bails. The overcrowding problem makes the entire complex have unhealthy environment characterized by smelly jails, limited food, and poor sanitation.
Rikers Island has, in the recent past, faced cases of neglect and abuse of prisoners, a situation which made it attract increased attention of both the judiciary scrutiny and the media (Stringer, 2016).
Rikers Island also faces challenges relating to several cases of assaults on staff by the inmates, which usually result in serious injuries, and making Riskers Island be considered one of the most dangerous correctional facilities in the New York City (Gilligan & Lee, 2013).
According to Stringer (2016), jailhouse lawyers on Riskers Island also increasingly face accusations for covering up instances of violence within the jails. Additionally, violence cases have been on the rise on Riskers Island within the past few years, with the year 2015 recording 9,424 assault cases in five years, the highest in the facility's history (Stringer, 2016).
Conclusion
In overall, although Riskers Island contributes significantly to housing and correcting the behaviors of the largest number of inmates in New York City, several adjustments are still necessary to help prevent the rampant cases of assaults on staff by the prisoners, as well as eliminate instances of inmates' neglect and abuse. Additionally, more special programs need to be introduced to continue improving the prisoners' behaviors, as well as empowering them through educational and vocational training.
Reference
Gilligan, J., & Lee, B. (2013). Report to the New York City Board of Correction, 3-15. Retrieved from http://solitarywatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Gilligan-Report.-Final.pdf
Stringer, S. (2016). Rising Claims and Settlements at Rikers Island, 1-6. Retrieved from http://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/Rikers_ClaimStat.pdf
Tillman-Davis, M. (2007). My Time on Rikers Island. Law Library Journal, 99(1), 151-158. Retrieved from http://www.citethisforme.com/cite/journal
