Feds: Guards Routinely Violate Constitutional Rts of Teenage Inmates in NYC Youth Jails | Afro

7.8.14

Feds: Guards Routinely Violate Constitutional Rts of Teenage Inmates in NYC Youth Jails | Afro: The report, the result of a 2� -year Justice Department investigation into violence at three Rikers Island juvenile jail facilities, recommended major reforms to almost every aspect of how young offenders are treated.

It identified problems that occurred between 2011 and 2013 on Rikers that also likely hold true for adult inmates, including poor staff training, inadequate investigations, an ineffective management structure and the overuse of solitary confinement, particularly for mentally ill inmates.

“The bottom-line conclusion is this: According to our investigation, for adolescent inmates, Rikers Island is broken,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference.”

In past cases investigated by the Justice Department’s civil rights division, federal authorities work with local officials to reform the jails and reserve the right to sue if they feel reforms are not being done.