PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Rajesh Mehra, Senior Most Licensed Creative Arts Therapist at Rikers Island Correctional Facility
3:16:03
·
3 min
Rajesh Mehra, the senior most creative arts therapist at Rikers Island, spoke in his personal capacity about his decade-long experience working with incarcerated patients. He highlighted concerns about staff retention, the risk of misattributed liability for clinicians, and the need for proactive measures to reduce violence and improve rehabilitation efforts.
- Emphasized the importance of retaining dedicated staff and the negative impact of losing good care providers due to various reasons, including burnout and the risk of losing their licenses.
- Expressed frustration at not being able to secure meetings to discuss his ideas for reducing violence and improving rehabilitation with minimal investment.
- Supported the proposed bill for staff wellness but stressed the need for both reactive and proactive measures to address issues at Rikers Island.
Rajesh Mehra
3:16:03
My name is Rajesh Mero, and while I do work for Personal Health Services, I'm here speaking in my personal capacity.
3:16:11
Actually, I had a great opposition in coming and speaking here today.
3:16:15
So let's make it count.
3:16:18
So I'm here speaking in my personal capacity, and I've been a I'm the senior most creative artist at Rykers.
3:16:26
I've worked there and serve those patients for over a decade now.
3:16:29
So I'd like to bring some insight from the ground floor.
3:16:32
If you've heard a lot of people in leadership speak, people who don't necessarily actually see what's going on with their own eyes, we're actually you know?
3:16:39
So I wanna speak from that perspective a public servant.
3:16:44
So one of the things I'd like to bring attention to is something that doctor Sibeti brought attention to, and that's regarding the risk of misattributed liability for my clinician colleagues, and that's something very serious.
3:16:57
And I've seen, look, if you care about the people incarcerated in Rikers Island, we need good dedicated staff, dedicated public servants.
3:17:06
And even though I'm like an anomaly there, someone who's been there, over a decade.
3:17:11
I see people, really good people, really accident care excellent care providers leaving left and right for different reasons, including burnout, compassion, fatigue, vicarious traumatization, their own having suffered of salts, and then to add the risk of losing their license and their reputation on top of it, there should be accountability with when it's called for.
3:17:33
But the risk of misconstrued liabilities is something nobody should have to face.
3:17:38
I don't wanna see more good colleagues go.
3:17:40
That affects my my patients too.
3:17:43
So I also want to bring attention to let's regarding the the violence and the the support and the wellness of staff build that was that was brought forth today.
3:17:59
And in that regards, I also wanna state that It's this is a these are great steps.
3:18:05
I I think we also need to look at such as the the other council member wrestler was stating.
3:18:13
We have to be preventative.
3:18:15
We have to be proactive, not just reactive.
3:18:17
We do need the reactive.
3:18:18
We do we do need the support, but there are many ways to be proactive.
3:18:22
And it it feels like I can't get a meeting with anybody because I have some real answers for how to reduce the the the risk of violence against staff, the risk of violence on persons in custody, the risk of the reduction of self harm, and also how to take real meaningful steps to rehabilitation.
3:18:42
It's all feasible with what the DOC has at their fingertips right now.
3:18:46
With meeting with minimal investment.
3:18:48
I have a real plan for that, and I can't get a meeting with anybody.
3:18:50
You know?
3:18:51
So I just wanna put that out there if anybody wants to talk to me.
3:18:56
I also wanna mention that expanding on what miss Stevens is bringing here today, for support and wellness and and all that for may I please have some time?
Sandy Nurse
3:19:07
As we established, we're gonna hold it short.
3:19:09
Alright.
Rajesh Mehra
3:19:09
I will try to submit written testimony.
3:19:12
Or if anybody has time to speak afterwards, I would appreciate it.
Sandy Nurse
3:19:14
You wanna leave contact information, I personally will be happy to follow-up.
