REMARKS
Council Member Lincoln Restler advocates for Intro 412 to improve communication about incarcerated individuals
0:53:36
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3 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler expresses strong support for Intro 412, which would require Correctional Health Services to notify families within one hour about serious medical injuries, hospitalizations, or suicide attempts of incarcerated individuals at Rikers Island. He emphasizes the importance of this legislation due to the high rates of violence and lack of trust in the Department of Corrections' communication.
- Restler highlights the increase in violence at Rikers Island, including a 526% increase in use of force resulting in serious injury and a 396% increase in stabbings and slashings.
- He stresses the need for families to receive timely information about their incarcerated loved ones' wellbeing.
- Restler also calls for the closure of Rikers Island, describing it as a "humanitarian disaster" and "moral stain."
Lincoln Restler
0:53:36
Thank you so much, chair nurse.
0:53:38
Greatly appreciate you holding this hearing today.
0:53:42
And I really wanna just begin by echoing the sentiments of our distinguished public advocate, at least for now.
0:53:52
You know, just expressing my love and condolences to our deputy speaker and support, and just really appreciated her comments and the comments of the previous panel We have a really terrific set of bills today.
0:54:05
Some introduced by previous chairs of this committee that I know have been pushing these bills up the hill for some time, so appreciate our chair helping to get them over the finish line.
0:54:14
I'm proud to be the lead sponsor on intro 412 and wanna thank 19 of my colleagues who have co sponsored this legislation.
0:54:21
You know, as we heard from this, the the previous panel, families are, you know, the The only thing that that matches the terror of being sent to Rutgers Island is having a family member, a loved one, sent to Rutgers Island, and not knowing how they're doing, and having no information, no insight, We know that violence has skyrocketed.
0:54:45
It's been a decade since a federal monitor was imposed on Rutgers Island.
0:54:50
And in that time, we've seen use of force resulting in serious injury is up 526% stabbing and slashing were up 396 percent.
0:55:00
Self harmings had interrupted.
0:55:05
We know that violence is endemic to the place.
0:55:09
We know that people there are suffering.
0:55:12
And yet there's no mechanism to force the Department of Corrections and other agencies to actually tell family members what the heck is going on.
0:55:20
And so intro-four twelve would require that CHS, not DOC, CHS, correctional health services, the healthcare workers on the island would be required to notify family members about serious medical injuries, hospitalizations, or suicide attempts within 1 hour.
0:55:37
We know DOC hides the ball.
0:55:38
We don't trust their data.
0:55:39
We don't trust them to be reliable partners or communicators, and that is why this legislation rightly mandates CHS to do the job.
0:55:48
I really hope, you know, based on our rough estimates, We believe there are about 1500 serious injuries to people in custody in 2023.
0:56:00
Every one of those families deserves to know what is happening with their loved ones, and this legislation would do just that.
0:56:09
We obviously need to stop the violence.
0:56:11
We need to close Rutgers Island.
0:56:13
People who are incarcerated deserve dignity, and they deserve far better than the dumpster fire, the humanitarian disaster, the moral stain that is Rikers Island, but in the interim, and forever, we need to ensure that there's good communication between people who are on the inside and people are on the outside about the status and health and conditions of the people who are there.
0:56:36
So I I really appreciate the opportunity to hearing today and and wanna just thank chair nurse again for for hearing this bill.
