Female detainees at Rikers Island raised warning flags over plans to move them to a state prison in Westchester County — and a Legal Aid lawyer says their fears about the move have been realized.
Several of the 85 women now housed at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, 44 miles north of the city, say they’ve been threatened by prison staff — and one says she was grabbed by the neck and punched several times by a correction officer in one incident, said Legal Aid lawyer Jane-Roberte Sampeur.
“Several women have reported being threatened by correction officers who are telling them things like, ‘You are in state custody now. No one is going to hear you,'” Sampeur said. “This only confirms our clients’ worst fears.”
The woman who claims she was assaulted was put in a solitary housing unit where she had no contact with her relatives or lawyer and now fears retaliation, said Sampeur, who is with the society’s Women’s Pre-Trial Release Initiative and testified Monday at a City Council hearing.
In another instance, a correction officer told detainees during an orientation “If [they] think they are in Rikers, they have another thing coming.” He also told transferees they would be picked up, dropped on their heads and beaten without him having to do it by himself, Sampeur told the Daily News on Wednesday.
“He said he would direct inmates with long sentences to do it,” Sampeur said. “The same CO told them they would be beaten, placed in a solitary housing unit, beaten again and left naked until he felt like releasing them.”
Before the move, 125 female detainees at the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers Island signed a petition opposing the move.
Sampeur said the concerns demonstrate that the mass move was a colossal mistake.
“This entire process has been haphazardly and poorly planned,” she said.
Typically, women on Rikers received far fewer visits than men, so the transfers have even further isolated them from loved ones, she said. In addition, the state software set up to allow them to see their relatives has been balky and unreliable, Sampeur said.
The lawyer said the detainees are transferred with little notice and sometimes given only a few minutes to pack their things. Some are missing court appearances, and their right to speak with their lawyers — a challenge even on Rikers — has been upended, Sampeur said.
“Several clients have been transferred in the middle of assessment for (supervised release), delaying their release from jail,” she said. “(We have) diminishing communication with clients.”
City Councilman Keith Powers, chair of the Criminal Justice Committee, said it’s time to reverse the move.
“Ultimately, this is another reason why we should start looking at bringing women back to New York City where they can be closer to their families and legal services while also being in the custody of individuals who are better trained to deal with their needs,” he said.
“The whole purpose of closing Rikers was to keep people closer to family and legal services and here we’re sending them further away.”
Sharon White-Harrigan, executive director of the Women’s Community Justice Association, called the situation unacceptable.
“Gov. Hochul said this move was temporary, and we expect action on getting people back in their communities,” said White-Harrigan, who leads the campaign to permanently close the Singer center.
“Every single person in state and city government should be working right now to close Rose M. Singer and secure a trauma-responsive center in New York City for the small population of incarcerated women and gender-expansive people.”
Patrick Gallahue, a city Department of Correction spokesman, said an earlier set of allegations by the woman who claimed she had been assaulted were found untrue.
“These are a new set of allegations that continue to be investigated and have not yet been substantiated,” he said. “We will continue to support the women transferred to Bedford Hills for as long as they are there and work to address any of their concerns.”
City Correction officials dispute that anyone has not been produced for court hearings. There were some issues with phones at Bedford, but they have been fixed, the officials say.
A spokeswoman for the state prisons said there has been “no notable change” in reported use of force incidents at Bedford Hills.
“The Department has zero tolerance for violence within our facilities and anyone engaged in misconduct will be disciplined. If warranted, an incident will be referred for outside prosecution,” the spokeswoman said.
