NYC jail officials now tracking how long mentally ill Rikers Island detainees are locked in: sources

New York City jail officials are now tracking the number of days that individual mentally ill detainees are locked in their cells and providing daily internal updates in each of the seven lockups on Rikers Island, sources told the Daily News.
The moves come after The News reported Oct. 8 that correction staff has been improperly locking seriously mentally ill men 23 hours a day for weeks and even months without making an official record of the lock-ins, based on the account of a former jail social worker.
Justyna Rzewinski, who worked in two mental health units in the George R. Vierno Center from December 2023 though September, told The News and the city Board of Correction that the men were being deprived of medication, which in combination with the isolation was causing them to decompensate. She also said the practice was not being documented.
The Correction Department is also now required to inform Correctional Health Services, the city agency that oversees jail medical care, when a person who has been locked in has been let out, the sources said.
And the cells of detainees who are being locked in have to be cleaned every three days, the sources said.
The Correction Department already tracks lock-ins involving entire jails or housing units as a matter of course.
Previously, a source familiar with CHS operations said the agency would keep track internally of some individual lock-ins lasting more than three days but only on a weekly basis and the information was not shared with DOC. The source said the accuracy of the information varied from unit to unit.
“Deadlocking is illegal. The notion that DOC now has a policy to ensure that they are not breaking the law — and that they will monitor themselves – is inadequate,” said Stan German, executive director of New York County Defender Services.
“The Board of Correction needs to set up a regular monitoring system to view video feeds of [mental health units] on a regular basis and conduct unannounced physical visits to safeguard people with serious mental health concerns from this unconscionable and illegal practice.”
The Board of Correction did not respond to a request for comment. DOC spokeswoman Annais Morales said “The matter is still under investigation,” without specifying what matter she was referring to.
CHS did not reply to emails.
During the Oct. 8 Board of Correction hearing, CHS officials acknowledged the practice is taking place. A DOC lawyer, meanwhile, said an investigation was under way, but the agency has said little since about what the investigation entails or what it is finding.