evacuation

Prisoners to Remain on Rikers Island As Hurricane Sandy Heads for New York: UPDATED

October 28, 2012 By Jean Casella and James Ridgeway 46 Comments

UPDATE, October 30, 12 noon: Solitary Watch has received the following statement via email from NYC DOC Deputy Commissioner Matthew Nerzig: “No power outages on Rikers last night. No significant flooding or disruption of our operations. The Commissioner [DOC Commissioner Dora Schriro] spent the night there.”

Solitary Watch would also appreciate hearing from families whose loved ones (prisoners or staff) weathered the storm on Rikers and can provide accounts of their experiences: solitarywatchnews@gmail.com.

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At a press conference this afternoon on New York City’s preparations for Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked about the safety of prisoners on Rikers Island, which lies near the mouth of Long Island Sound, between Queens and the Bronx. Bloomberg appeared annoyed by the question, and responded somewhat opaquely: “Rikers Island, the land is up where they are and jails are secured.” Apparently unable to fathom that anyone’s main concern would be for the welfare of the more than 12,000 prisoners on Rikers, Bloomberg then reassured listeners: “Don’t worry about anybody getting out.”

The last time a major hurricane was headed for New York–Irene, in August of 2011–Bloomberg gave a similarly terse response to a question about the island jail. ”We are not evacuating Rikers,” he declared even as other shoreline communities and City Island were cleared of residents. With little information forthcoming from the New York City Department of Corrections and Rikers left blank on the city’s Evacuation Zone maps, prisoners’ loved ones “were in a panic,” says Lisa Ortega, whose 16-year-old son was being held on Rikers at the time. A story originating on Solitary Watch, “Locked Up and Left Behind,” went viral, and thousands of readers expressed concern or outrage.

This time, the Department of Corrections (if not the Mayor) appears better prepared for inquiries about the status of Rikers in a hurricane. By Saturday, it had proactively posted a notice on its website stating:

Given its elevation, Rikers Island can withstand any storm up to and including a Category 4 hurricane. Rikers Island facilities are NOT in low-lying areas, and therefore like nearby small islands Roosevelt Island and City Island, is not seriously threatened by severe flooding.

The personal safety of New York City Department of Correction (NYCDOC) staff and the inmate population is clearly our top priority and in the highly unlikely event that an evacuation would become necessary, it would occur. The NYCDOC response to an unprecedented disaster of this magnitude would be integrated of course, into a city or region-wide strategy. The City has carefully reviewed Rikers Island, as it has done with the entire city, and no section of Rikers Island facilities are located in Hurricane Evacuation Zone A.

Be assured that NYCDOC staff will remain on Rikers Island and the facility is a fully self-sustaining entity, prepared to operate and care for inmates in an emergency if such an emergency develops.

Storm Over Rikers: Evacuating New York’s Island Jail

October 31, 2011 By Jean Casella and James Ridgeway 1 Comment

Two recent stories in the New York City media delve into the controversy surrounding the lack of an emergency evacuation plan for Rikers Island. Solitary Watch’s original story on this subject went viral in the days leading up to Hurricane Irene. In our follow-up we cited the response from the New York City Department of Corrections, which stated that prisoners on Rikers had never been in danger during Irene, but also left the impression that there was no plan in place to evacuate the island in case of a more powerful storm or other emergency.

City Limits published a long piece titled “Hurricane Passes, But Worries About Rikers Evacuation Remain,” which begins with a recap of the controversy:

In August, as the city was scrambling to prepare for what many were predicting to be a potentially devastating hurricane, controversy arose over what was otherwise an innocuous answer at a press conference: There would be no evacuation of Rikers Island, Mayor Bloomberg said.

After a prisoner advocacy blog called Solitary Watch posted something about the mayor’s announcement—drawing comparisons to stranded prisoners left behind in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina—a number of other websites followed suit, along with a few traditional news outlets. Twitter users caught on shortly after; a petition demanding the city take action was circulated. Many were struck by the fact that while the city was shutting down its transportation system and making other unprecedented storm plans, the some 14,000 people housed on Rikers Island would stay put.

Irene came and went, however, and with a wet whimper instead of a bang. The ten jail facilities on Rikers came through unscathed, as the mayor’s office and the Department of Correction repeatedly said they would, and it seems as though the jail was never in any real danger from the storm to begin with. But the incident raised a question that received little public attention before: how the city would deal with the tens of thousands of inmates on Rikers, an island accessible by only one bridge, should an emergency arise.

“Whether they had to evacuate Rikers or not during Irene, they’ll have to evacuate eventually,” says Dr. Irwin Redlener, director at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “The key point is, do they have an effective evacuation plan at the jail? And to my impression they do not.”

City Limits corresponded, as we did, with Deputy Commissioner of Corrections Sharmen Stein, and apparently got the same email. “The vast majority of Rikers Island is located in a No Flood Zone. Only one facility is located in Zone C—the first floor of that one jail may be vulnerable to some flooding, but is not susceptible to loss of life. In that instance, the inmates and staff assigned to the first floor would be relocated to higher floors in the jail, or moved temporarily to other facilities on Rikers Island. It is only a narrow portion of the outer perimeter of the island—where there are no jails—that might be vulnerable to flooding, even in a Category 4 hurricane.” That’s exactly what we were told. But in hindsight Stein went a step further, telling City Limits that an evacuation plan does indeed exist, but has to remain secret:

City Responds on Emergency Plans for Rikers Island

August 31, 2011 By Jean Casella and James Ridgeway 3 Comments

On Monday morning, after our story on Rikers Island and Hurricane Irene, highlighting the lack of any evacuation plan for New York City’s island jail, was widely circulated on websites, Facebook, and Twitter, we were contacted by Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner for Public Information at the New York City Department of Corrections. She wrote: “Every single one of the inmates were totally fine during the storm and there were absolutely no incidents of any kind related to the storm on Rikers, other than a couple of downed trees (which caused no harm) and some minor flooding in trailers on the perimeter of the island (which are used as offices, and do NOT house inmates.) Most importantly, there was a complete plan in place to ensure inmates’ safety.”

After we asked for further details, we were forwarded the following information, which is identical to that received by New York Magazine and several other publications after they picked up our story.

City officials carefully reviewed Rikers Island, as they did the entire city, and they determined that no section of Rikers Island facilities are in Zone A [which was evacuated on Saturday]. Rikers Island facilities are not in low-lying areas, it’s not a costal location and, like nearby small islands Roosevelt Island and City Island, it did not need to be evacuated.

A full Corrections Department staff remained on Rikers Island throughout the storm. The jails and other services (kitchens, energy systems, medical care, emergency services, etc.) make Rikers a fully self-sustaining entity, prepared to operate and care for inmates in extended emergency conditions.

Deputy Commissioner Stein forwarded to us a checklist headed “Department of Corrections Storm Preparations,” which included such items as fueling up vehicles, checking emergency equipment, testing emergency generators, stocking a seven-day supply of food, and securing “all items in the perimeter that have the potential of becoming airborne.”

Knowing that on any given day Rikers Island holds a minimum of 12,000 prisoners, as well as hundreds of corrections officers and other staff, and is connected to the rest of New York City by a single narrow causeway, we were still concerned with what might happen in an emergency more dire than that presented by Hurricane Irene. We submitted further inquiries, as follows: 1) We asked what hurricane evacuation zone, if any, Rikers Island in (since no zone is indicated on the evacuation map), and whether there would be any evacuation in the event of a higher category hurricane. 2) We asked whether any evacuation plan exists for any sort of emergency, be it a hurricane or another kind of natural or manmade disaster. 3) We noted that they mayor, who went into extensive detail about other aspects of storm and evacuation preparations, was not similarly forthcoming in response to questions about Rikers; he simply stated that the jail would not be evacuated, and offered no information or reassurance about plans to keep inmates safe.

We received the following response to our questions from Deputy Commissioner Stein. The statement does at last provide clarification regarding hurricane zones. It also appears to say that no plan for an emergency evacuation of Rikers Island currently exists.

1.) There are four categories of hurricane: Category 1, 2, 3, and 4. There are also four hurricane evacuation zones: A, B, C, and No Zone. The vast majority of Rikers Island is located in a No Flood Zone; only one facility is located in Zone C. The first floor of that one facility may be vulnerable to flooding and in that case, those inmates would be relocated from the first floor to higher floors in the jail or moved temporarily to other facilities on Rikers Island. It is only a portion of the outer perimeter of the island – where there are no jails – that might be vulnerable to flooding, even in a Category 4.

Whenever a DOC practice may result in non-conformance with a city (Board Of Correction) or state (State Commission on Corrections) standard, the DOC must secure that body’s prior approval. In this case, for example, we contacted the NYC Board of Correction (BOC) regarding our proposal to cancel visitation on Saturday and Sunday, consistent with the metropolitan area’s plans to suspend public transportation. On Sunday, we also discussed with the BOC that the Department had found no need to relocate any inmates, as well as the sufficiency of food and medical supplies on hand, the absence of flooding on Rikers Island roads, and the fact that the roads were passable for emergency medical vehicles.

2.) Given its elevation, Rikers Island can withstand any storm up to and including a Category 4 hurricane. The DOC maintains plans and periodically updates its plans to respond to a variety of disasters. For example, as recently as last month when there was a fire in a housing unit late at night, the DOC evacuated 407 inmates from six housing units in the immediate area without incident, and then reassigned 234 of them (the rest were able to return to their original housing units).

Any emergency impacting the whole of Rikers Island would also be affecting the region. It is the position of this administration that the personal safety of its staff and the inmate population be preserved and as such, evacuation to the extent it may be warranted would occur. The DOC response to a disaster of this magnitude would be integrated of course, into a city or region-wide strategy.

3.) You rightly point out that the Mayor discussed in detail elements of storm preparation and evacuation. Once again, the reason he did not discuss Rikers is because Rikers – like other areas of the City not discussed — was not in an evacuation zone. The City was focused on communicating important information about where the dangers lie. Rikers Island was never in danger from this storm.

Filed Under: corrections industry, media, New York Tagged With: emergency planning, evacuation, Hurricane Irene, Mayor Bloomberg, New York City, Rikers Island

Locked Up and Left Behind: Hurricane Irene and the Prisoners on New York’s Rikers Island

August 26, 2011 By Jean Casella and James Ridgeway 341 Comments

“We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, including a shutdown of the public transit system and the unprecedented mandatory evacuation of some 250,000 people from low-lying areas. But in response to a reporter’s question, the mayor stated in no uncertain terms (and with more than a hint of annoyance) that one group of New Yorkers on vulnerable ground will be staying put.

New York City is surrounded by small islands and barrier beaches, and a glance at the city’s evacuation map reveals all of them to be in Zone A (already under a mandatory evacuation order) or Zone B–all, that is, save one. Rikers Island, which lies in the waters between Queens and the Bronx, is not highlighted at all, meaning it is not to be evacuated under any circumstances.

According to the New York City Department of Corrections’ own website, more than three-quarters of Rikers Island’s 400 acres are built on landfill–which is generally thought to be more vulnerable to natural disasters. Its ten jails have a capacity of close to 17,000 inmates, and normally house at least 12,000, including juveniles and large numbers of prisoners with mental illness–not to mention pre-trial detainees who have yet to be convicted of any crime. There are also hundreds of corrections officers at work on the island.

We were not able to reach anyone at the NYC DOC for comment–but the New York Times‘s City Room blog reported: “According to the city’s Department of Correction, no hypothetical evacuation plan for the roughly 12,000 inmates that the facility may house on a given day even exists. Contingencies do exist for smaller-scale relocations from one facility to another.”

For a warning of what can happen to prisoners in a hurricane we need only look back at Katrina, and the horrific conditions endured by inmates at Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans. According to a report produced by the ACLU:

[A] culture of neglect was evident in the days before Katrina, when the sheriff declared that the prisoners would remain “where they belong,” despite the mayor’s decision to declare the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation. OPP even accepted prisoners, including juveniles as young as 10, from other facilities to ride out the storm.

As floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, power was lost, and entire buildings were plunged into darkness. Deputies left their posts wholesale, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests …

Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan. Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.

UPDATE (Saturday midnight): In his final news conference of the day, Mayor Bloomberg defended his decision not to evacuate Rikers Island, stating: “It is higher than the Zone A areas and it’s perfectly safe.” Representatives of the mayor have made further statements to New York Magazine (see update at end) and the Wall Street Journal, also specifying that no part of Rikers Island is in Zone A. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson went on Twitter to say the same thing. To our knowledge, the mayor’s office still has not clarified what zone, if any, Rikers Island is in, and has not responded to questions regarding the lack of any evacuation plan for the jail.

UPDATE (Sunday 4 p.m.): The evacuation order for Zone A has ended, with the storm having considerably less impact on New York City than anticipated. The mayor’s office has issued further statements about Rikers, confirming that it is not in evacuation Zone A and comparing it to Roosevelt Island and City Island, which also were not evacuated. Critics have noted, however, that these other islands are in Zones B and C, while Rikers Island, according to the evacuation map, is not in any evacuation zone at all. Advocates also remain concerned about the admitted lack of any evacuation plan for the city’s island jail. The Center for Constitutional Rights issued a statement on the matter, and CCR spokesperson Jen Nessel said: “The maps I’ve seen all leave Rikers off the Zone scale, but even if it isn’t in Zone A where the mandatory evacuations are taking place, the fact that the Department of Corrections admitted there wasn’t even a hypothetical plan for 12,000 people who can’t exactly evacuate themselves if the situation worsens is disturbing.”