Crime, Prisons

'Jail To Jobs' And The End Of Rikers

Any city that wants to decrease the costs of incarceration has to pay more than lip service to jobs and rehabilitation.

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Prison sadJust as national policy under the Trump administration turns harsher toward crime and people serving jail sentences, local policy is becoming more enlightened.

Take New York. Two new initiatives, announced by Mayor Bill De Blasio last week, take steps toward reducing the number of inmates incarcerated at one of the toughest prison systems in the country — Rikers Island.

One plan will provide inmates leaving Rikers with work for at least eight weeks.  The other is a long-term project to shutter Rikers Island entirely, dispersing the city’s prison population to smaller facilities dotted among the five boroughs.

Rikers Island is not one prison but a conglomeration of 10 different jails, all grouped on a large spit of land surrounded by water, brushed by sweeps of fresh air, and circled by sea gulls and jets leaving LaGuardia.

I often wondered how torturous it must be for inmates, teased by the scent of salt water, to be stuck behind bars and barbed wire, their outlet to the world no wider than the portal of their cell window.

Everything on Rikers Island is grey and harsh, both for the prisoners and their visitors.

Just getting there is a challenge.  There’s no direct public transportation.  Everyone must check in at a post across the bridge from the main facilities, then wait for yet another bus to take them to the front gate.  It often takes a full day to visit just one inmate.

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Once inside, a series of Department of Correction buses take visitors among the buildings, weaving in and out of the high-gated, barb-wired facilities, where then another interminable wait takes place while your request to visit your client is processed.  That wait can take hours, whether because one of the obnoxious alarms has gone off, or because the inmate “count” is in progress. None of it makes the experience conducive to counsel or family visits.

Few people realize that Rikers is NOT a state prison.  Of the 8,500 people there, most have yet to be convicted of the crime for which they’ve been incarcerated.  Rikers is a holding place for people who can’t make bail to await trial.  The maximum sentence anyone who’s been convicted on a misdemeanor or low-level felony can serve there is a “city year” (8 out of 12 months), but many inmates are there longer than a year waiting for their trial to happen. (People ultimately sentenced to longer terms of prison are sent to up-state prisons.)

So why raze it completely instead of just improve it?  For one, new facilities, planned to be built closer to the criminal courts they service, might help shorten the time it takes to get inmates to their court appearances.  Often, half a working day is wasted just waiting for defendants to be brought to court.  Next, bringing smaller facilities into individual boroughs would make it easier for inmates’ counsel and their families to visit them.  Finally, Rikers reputation is so damaged, there may be no steps capable of fixing it.  As Justice Jonathan Lippman said at a news conference yesterday, “Rikers is a place that is an affront to humanity and decency and is a stain on our city’s reputation.” (Another gain for the City is the development of that valuable chunk of land where Rikers sits for the expansion of LaGuardia or other property development.)

The plan to relocate the jails, however, will face opposition. Nobody wants a prison in his back yard.  That’s why the mayor’s second initiative is just as important — implementing initiatives to decrease recidivism.

One of the main reasons people re-offend is because they can’t find work.  Many have no high school diplomas, no job skills, no track records.  The ”jail-to-job” plan (already instituted successfully in other areas around the U.S.) would help all inmates, no matter how unskilled, to find work (albeit low-level work) for at least eight weeks post-jail release.  The jobs might be as construction site flaggers, cooks, dining room attendants, etc.  People leaving Rikers will be paired with mentors as well.  However, unless inmates get more than the bus ticket back home (if they even get that), when they’re set free at the gates of Rikers, many won’t be able to sustain any work.  What they will also need is transitional housing services, drug rehab, mental-health programs, education, and then, yes, a job.

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I applaud the mayor’s efforts.  Any city that wants to decrease the costs of incarceration (both monetary and emotional) has to pay more than lip service to jobs and rehabilitation.  This has been a long time coming and even though the federal government may be moving in the opposite direction, cities must be forward enough in their thinking to buck the federal trend and set their own agendas.

Toni Messina has been practicing criminal defense law since 1990, although during law school she spent one summer as an intern in a large Boston law firm and realized quickly it wasn’t for her. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a journalist from Rome, Italy, reporting stories of international interest for CBS News and NPR. She keeps sane by balancing her law practice with a family of three children, playing in a BossaNova band, and dancing flamenco. She can be reached by email at tonimessinalw@gmail.com or tonimessinalaw.com, and you can also follow her on Twitter: @tonitamess.

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