Serious Injuries in Jails Grew at Alarming Rate (Free Article)

Department of Correction staff have failed to report serious injuries to inmates and, along with the city’s correctional health-care system, routinely neglected to follow recording protocols, a report by the city Board of Correction has concluded.

The report, released Jan. 7, said DOC “consistently” underreported serious injuries by as much as 80 percent when compared to data from the city’s correctional health-care system. That “significant disparity” cannot be accounted for even by including stabbings, slashings or use-of-force incidents that do not rise to the level of “serious injury,” the report notes.

‘Undereporting’ Issues

“DOC is underreporting serious injuries, and it lacks a single metric from which to determine the actual number of serious injuries occurring to people in its custody,” the report stated. “For example, in 2017, even after accounting for all DOC reportable incidents potentially involving serious injuries...DOC still reported 55 percent fewer serious injuries than CHS,” it said, referring to NYC Health + Hospitals’ Correctional Health Services.

The board’s report documented results of a detailed audit of a three-month period—last April through June—culled from a 10-year pool of DOC injury and incident data, and city correctional health-care system data from June 2016 to September 2018.

It said that 100 of the 149 serious injuries, or 67 percent, audited by the board were not reported as any type of incident by the DOC. It also noted that it took about two hours for seriously injured inmates to get medical attention after a DOC supervisor was told of the injury.

Most Inmate-on-Inmate

The DOC’s Monthly Security Report classifies injuries according to six different types: use of force, use-of-force allegations, inmate-on-inmate incidents, self-inflicted injuries, accidents and “other.” According to the Board of Correction’s report, “most injuries were related to inmate-on-inmate fights,” with those incidents increasing by 71 percent (from 7,405 to 12,656) from 2008 to 2017.

Injuries tied to staff use of force more than tripled, from 1,981 to 7,139, while injuries designated as “other” grew by a factor of more than six, from 796 to 4,985, the report noted.

Among its other findings was that in the 10-year period ending in 2017, serious and non-serious inmate injuries doubled, from 15,629 in 2008 to 31,368 in 2017, despite a 32-percent reduction in the city jail population.

The report noted that 90 percent of the serious injuries involved cuts requiring stitches or fractures. Facial trauma—cuts, puncture wounds, fractures and burns, and severe injuries to eyes—was the most-common type of injury. Slightly more than half the serious injuries were “at least partially caused” by an inmate-on-inmate fight.

“DOC’s investigation process for injuries is plagued by delays, poor accountability, and incomplete reviews,” according to the report. Additionally, CHS staff frequently neglects to follow paperwork requirements regarding injuries, it said.

The report noted that DOC policy “requires that any incarcerated person who reports an injury or is suspected of being injured be referred to the jail’s clinic for evaluation and treatment by CHS staff (regardless of type or severity of the suspected injury).”

Collaboration ‘Essential’

At the Board of Correction’s Jan. 8 meeting, Dr. Robert Cohen, a board member who formerly worked on Rikers Island as the Director of the Montefiore Rikers Island Health Services and served as the Vice President for Medical Operations of the NYC Health and Hospitals Corp., said the sharing of “common and accurate information” was necessary to stanch what he suggested was the potential for an epidemic of violence.

Noting that the jail population has decreased some 40 percent in the last decade while the number of officers has increased about 10 percent, Dr. Cohen said, “the staffing on Rikers Island should relate to where these injuries are taking place in order to prevent them and in order to assure the safety of the security staff.”

About 80 percent of the injuries happened in housing areas, with “most events” leading to serious injuries not witnessed by staff, the report found.

Officials from both the DOC and CHS have acknowledged that the report raises significant concerns and that discussion on reporting procedures would begin shortly.  

DOC Assistant Chief Becky Scott called collaboration between DOC and CHS “essential” and acknowledged that it needed improving.

“This partnership has to be 100 percent effective,” she said at the board meeting. “We recognize the value of this report, understand the danger of this report. This is not something that the Department is taking lightly in any measure. This is not going to be something that will go away any time soon, and there will be multiple parts that will have to be working together at the same time as we move forward.”

Messages left with the Correction Captains’ Association and the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association seeking comment on the report were not returned.

Alarming Conclusions

“The findings are concerning,” said Nicole Triplett, policy counsel with the New York Civil Liberties Union, which frequently advocates for reforms inside city jails. “The irony is that this is happening despite the significant decline in population.”

The city’s jail population is at its lowest level in decades.

During a phone interview Jan. 11., Ms. Triplett called attention to the ongoing Federal monitoring of city jails, and said the report “largely checks” Federal monitors’ findings regarding patterns of violence. She said little appeared to have changed despite the oversight.

“It’s hard to really wrap your mind around why this is happening without the level of accountability needed to actually end the culture of violence,” she said. “There’s a gap of accountability because you’re not seeing outcomes.”

Shouldn't Be Rising

Stanley Richards, the Board of Correction’s acting vice-chair and executive vice-president at the Fortune Society, a city-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of inmates and the formerly incarcerated, said the report arrived at disturbing conclusions, notably the 80 percent reporting discrepancy.

“Which means DOC is significantly underreporting serious injuries,” he said in a Jan. 10 phone interview. “They are being negligent. “We’re seeing that as the [jail] population comes down, serious injuries are going up.”

City Councilman Keith Powers, who chairs the Council’s Criminal Justice Committee, said the report raised two significant issues: namely that serious injuries were occurring at an increased rate and that a clear picture of the extent of the problem was difficult to ascertain.

“I take the report very seriously, I take the recommendations seriously,” he said in a Jan. 10 phone interview.

He said the Council and his committee would be keeping track of the progress made by the two agencies to close any discrepancies. He said the Council would otherwise take up its oversight and, if need be, and with its legislative responsibilities “bring them into compliance.”

But, he said, “We’re willing to have that conversation with DOC to help them fix the problem. It’s an issue we care a lot about, whether you work there or are in custody there.”

Despite its unnerving conclusions, the report, and the two agencies’ acknowledgement of the imperatives outlined in the report, lay down a roadmap to a desperately needed fix, Mr. Richards said.

In a statement, DOC’s Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, Peter Thorne, called the report’s findings valuable. “We make sure that anyone injured in our custody has access to healthcare, and we are committed to ensuring that they get it in a timely and appropriate manner,” he said. “This report’s findings will help DOC and CHS improve our information sharing so that we may better report, investigate and prevent serious injuries.”

DOC and CHS officials told the board they would hold joint monthly meeting to work toward ensuring better reporting.  “That’s just the beginning,” Mr. Richards said. “We are going to be having follow-up conversations...to have each of them articulate their commitment to move this forward.”

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