Adams Visits Rikers For First Time As Mayor To Show Appreciation For' Correction Officers Amid Deepening NYC Jail Crisis - New York Daily News

5/6/22, 10:47 PM Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to ‘show appreciation for’ correction officers amid
rs amid deepening NYC jail crisis – New York…
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NEW YORK POLITICS
Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to ‘show

appreciation for’ correction officers amid deepening
NYC jail crisis
By Chris Sommerfeldt and Graham Rayman
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS and New York Daily News • May 06, 2022 at 9:44 pm
Listen to this article
Mayor Adams visited Rikers Island Friday for the first time since taking office
against the backdrop of an enduring crisis at the jail that has prompted federal
authorities to threaten to take control of the troubled facility.
Adams, who is just over four months into his mayoralty, did not allow reporters
to join him for the Rikers visit, but City Hall spokeswoman Kate Smart said the
sojourn was all about lauding the correction officers guarding the embattled
lockup.
“He was there to thank and show appreciation for correction officers,” Smart
said, noting that it’s National Correction Officers and Employees Week.
Privacy - Terms
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/new-york-elections-government/ny-nyc-mayor-adams-visits-rikers-island-correction-officers-20220506-iva2… 1/7
5/6/22, 10:47 PM Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to ‘show appreciation for’ correction officers amid deepening NYC jail crisis – New York…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (center) delivers remarks to the Department of Corrections employees at
Rikers Island in honor of National Correction Officers & Employees Week in Queens, New York on Friday, May
6, 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)
A staffing crisis on Rikers — driven by a high rate of sickouts — has exacerbated

chaos in the jail, with stabbings and other acts of violence skyrocketing. Sixteen
incarcerated people died on Rikers last year, the highest recorded number since
2013, and criminal justice activists have urged Adams to expand inmate services
and crack down on sick-leave abuse in the Department of Correction ranks.
Adams has opted for a different approach.
Within weeks of taking office on Jan. 1, Louis Molina, Adams’ correction

commissioner, rescinded newly implemented guardrails on the DOC’s sick leavePrivacy - Terms
policy that were meant to rein in abuse and also fired the department’s top
policy that were meant to rein in abuse, and also fired the department s top
internal investigator.
During his Friday trip, Adams did not meet with inmates or tour any facilities on
the island, his spokeswoman said. The visit lasted less than an hour.
Joseph Russo, president of the Assistant Deputy Wardens and Deputy Wardens
Association, one of the DOC unions, said Adams promised he’ll be back on Rikers
soon.
“He said he will be touring Rikers more, we will be seeing him. It was very well
received. We’re his supporters and we’re on his side,” Russo said. “The vibe is
largely, ‘We’re counting on him to bring Rikers back.’ The correction staff are
fans of his and that came through today.”
The focus of Adams’ visit unnerved inmate advocates. Privacy - Terms
“I think that sets the wrong tone,” Brooklyn Councilwoman Jennifer Guiterrez, a
progressive Democrat, told the Daily News of Adams’ decision to only meet with
officers. “What we’re talking about is the kind of resources that the most
vulnerable need and that is the inmates.”
Rikers Island Prison signage (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Guiterrez was speaking during a rally in City Hall Park on Friday morning held
by former inmates and their advocates to renew calls for shutting down Rikers
for good. They were particularly focused on demanding the closure of the Rose
M. Singer Center, which houses female inmates in what critics say are harrowing
conditions.
“Nothing has changed,” said Kelly Breim, a former Rikers inmate incarcerated on
the island in the 1990s.
The mayhem on Rikers triggered federal prosecutors last month to file court
papers threatening to wrest control of the jail from the city, citing an alleged lack
Privacy - Terms
of urgency from Molina’s department to fix a slew of issues in the jail.

5/6/22, 10:47 PM
g yAdams visits Rikers for first timepas mayor to ‘show appreciation for’ correction officers amid deepening
j NYC jail crisis – New York…
[ After four years, NYC Mayor de Blasio finally visits Rikers amid
‘humanitarian crisis’ ]
Adams’ first Rikers visit comes far earlier in his term than former Mayor Bill de
Blasio’s, which did not come until nearly a year into his tenure.
The former mayor received some accolades from advocates for rolling out a plan
to shut down Rikers permanently by 2027.
Adams has committed to carrying out that plan, but has also voiced reservations
about the placements of some of the borough-based satellite jails that would
replace Rikers under the blueprint.
Privacy - Terms
During last year’s mayoral campaign, Adams said he would not back the plan’s
proposal to put one of the new jails in Manhattan’s Chinatown. “I believe we’ve
dumped on the Chinatown community long enough,” he said at a mayoral
candidate forum in April 2021.
On the day-to-day operations of Rikers, Adams’ latest budget plan released last
month proposes hiring more than 500 new correction officers.
[ NYC Mayor Eric Adams moving to terminate Rikers’ correction officers

abusing sick leave policies ]
He says the staffing boost is necessary to ensure the safety of inmates, but many
Council members have begged to differ.
“There have also been recommendations to work with the staff you have,”
Councilwoman Carlina Rivera (D-Manhattan), who chairs the Council’s Criminal
Justice Committee, told Molina pointedly during a recent hearing.
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Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to

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5/6/22, 10:47 PM Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to ‘show appreciation for’ correction officers amid

rs amid deepening NYC jail crisis – New York…

NEW YORK POLITICS

Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to ‘show

Listen to this article

A staffing crisis on Rikers — driven by a high rate of sickouts — has exacerbated

Adams has opted for a different approach.

Within weeks of taking office on Jan. 1, Louis Molina, Adams’ correction

The focus of Adams’ visit unnerved inmate advocates. Privacy - Terms

of urgency from Molina’s department to fix a slew of issues in the jail.

[ NYC Mayor Eric Adams moving to terminate Rikers’ correction officers

NEW YORK POLITICS

Adams visits Rikers for first time as mayor to

Copyright © 2021, New York Daily News

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