One of the largest jail facilities on Rikers Island is under lockdown as a result of widespread exposure to COVID-19, the latest fallout from an ongoing crisis that has hobbled jail operations and undermined efforts to reduce the incarcerated population.
The mandatory quarantine impacts 900 people jailed at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center, one of two facilities visited by Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday, as well as roughly 300 others spread across other jails on the island. The designation took effect last week, but was not mentioned by the mayor during his press conference on Rikers.
A spokesperson for Correctional Health Services, Jeanette Merrill, said it was the first time that an entire jail facility has been placed under quarantine since the start of the pandemic. She attributed the unprecedented measure to a staff shortage that prevented the Department of Correction from properly monitoring newly-arrived detainees awaiting beds on Rikers Island.
“DOC was not able to maintain the integrity of CHS’ COVID containment strategy — namely, the timely testing and cohorting or housing of patients,” Merrill wrote in an email. “Multiple patients who tested positive at intake potentially infected many other patients who were waiting to be seen and/or housed.”
De Blasio has touted the city's progress in stabilizing the jail, amid a spike in self-harm and violence among detainees, along with rampant absenteeism by correction officers. But several people incarcerated on Rikers Island say that any improvements have been hampered by the swelling COVID-related lockdowns.
As of Wednesday, more than 20% of detainees in the 6,000-person jail complex were under quarantine for “likely exposure” to the virus — meaning they had not tested positive or shown symptoms, but were believed to have come in close contact with a known case. The proportion represents a dramatic increase from late July, when just 1% of detainees were considered exposed.
The quarantine has also prevented a growing number of detainees from attending court dates necessary to get them off the island. Laura Eraso, a public defender with the Legal Aid Society, said that she and other attorneys had a “long list of clients who haven’t been able to get to court, even virtually, for their preliminary hearings.”
In a phone call on Thursday, one detainee, who asked to be identified only as Alfred, said he had been scheduled to accept a plea deal this week that would get him out of Rikers and into a drug treatment program. Instead, he has languished in a unit that he says is lacking any correctional officers and “only getting worse.”
“People are getting stabbed left and right here. I feel like a hostage,” he said. “I’ve never been so enthusiastic about going to court in my life.”
While Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order this week aimed at increasing virtual hearings at the jail, defense attorneys said the policy isn’t having much of an impact. Many detainees still need to be driven across the island by correction staff to access video booths — something that is not happening during the quarantine period.
The Department of Correction has the lowest reported vaccination rate among city agencies, with just 48% of staff having received one dose as of last Friday. The numbers are even smaller for detainees: 41.3% had gotten one shot as of September 17th, the most recent day the data was available.
Still, some detainees see the quarantine not as a safety precaution, but as an attempt to cut them off from the outside world. William Sanford, a 35-year-old detainee, said his 21-person unit had been forced to isolate for more than a month, despite the fact that none of them have been tested or presented symptoms since August.
The designation means that he has been unable to visit with his wife or eight-month-old son, even though the city officially lifted a ban on in-person visits over the summer.
“It’s easy for them to say: ‘Alright you’ve been exposed,’” Sanford said. “Then they can get away with a lot of things. No visits, no court, no nothing. All we can do is suffer and wait.”
Inquiries to the Department of Correction and the Mayor’s Office were not returned.
