NYC Council grills DOC on rising unresolved inmate complaints

Fewer than one in five inmate complaints on Rikers Island over the last four years ever saw any resolution, including shocking claims of sexual assault, according to a review of jail data.The revelation emerged Wednesday during the City Council’s Committee on Criminal Justice hearing where Department of Correction officials were grilled over the agency’s poor track record with inmate complaints.“There is an issue here on the island with sexual assault and abuse,” Committee Chair Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn) said in Council Chambers.“It is systemic.”The analysis, conducted by the committee, found fewer than 15% of grievances filed by inmates or third parties through the DOC find a formal resolution, Nurse said.It also found since 2020 the number of complaints filed per 100 persons in DOC custody has nearly doubled.

“Our analysis shows that grievances have been rising over the last four years, especially complaints coming from the population housed in mental health observation units,” Nurse said.“It is loudly speaking to all of us through the data and the numbers that the grievance process … is not a process to solve things on a systemic level.”Nurse said the complaints span issues from food to commissary to lack of access to medical care and sexual abuse.The committee oversight hearing comes on the heels of a disturbing report from Gothamist that alleged a system of sexual abuse against mostly female inmates by health care workers and other employees on Rikers Island.The outlet’s analysis published in March found 719 lawsuits filed under the Adult Survivors Act against the city DOC or the city of New York alleging sexual abuse at Rikers Island.In total, the mostly female plaintiffs are seeking more than $14.7 billion in damages.

In one alleged instance, a woman said she and other female inmates were removed from their jail cells at night and taken to a dark room where they were forced to perform oral sex on prison guards.The outlet also found t...