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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Christopher Boyle, Director of Data Research and Policy at New York County Defender Services, on State Sentenced Prisoners on Rikers Island
3:48:44
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145 sec
Christopher Boyle from New York County Defender Services discusses the critical issues surrounding state-sentenced prisoners on Rikers Island, focusing on the lack of a proper process for transferring inmates to upstate prisons and the resulting extended jail times. He highlights the staffing crisis both on Rikers Island and in upstate prisons as a major contributing factor to these problems.
- There is no clear process or point of contact for transferring state-sentenced prisoners from Rikers Island to upstate facilities.
- Some inmates are serving more jail time than their actual sentences due to delays in transfers and processing.
- The situation is exacerbated by staffing shortages both on Rikers Island and in upstate prisons, with no immediate solution in sight.
Christopher Boyle
3:48:44
Good afternoon all.
3:48:46
Thank you for having this hearing today.
3:48:48
My name is Christopher Boyle.
3:48:49
I'm the director of data research and policy at New York County Defender Services, and I'm really here to talk about what's been happening with the state sentenced prisoners on Rikers Island right now.
3:49:02
A few months ago, the Department of Corrections came into a board of dock hearing, and this was all prior to anything happening upstate, and asked for a variance so they can house more clients, inmates, prisoners in the dormitories that would go above and beyond what they were able to sustain.
3:49:25
And this was all because, obviously, there's a staffing crisis on Rikers Island that's never really been dealt with.
3:49:32
And now what we have now is a staffing crisis in upstate prisons, 2,000 less or so officers that are up there, and we don't have a queue.
3:49:41
There the idea that we have somebody to call at Rikers and say, you know, we have John Doe.
3:49:48
We need him moved immediately.
3:49:50
That that's not happening.
3:49:51
There isn't a process to move anybody from Rikers Island that's been a state sentence prisoner to begin to serve his prison sentence upstate.
3:50:01
But more importantly, you have people that are serving more jail time than their sentences.
3:50:07
So you have to understand that there are certain time periods that click in prior to a person being able to even be seen by a parole board.
3:50:16
It might be ninety days.
3:50:17
It might be four months.
3:50:18
So the idea that I can call mock j and say, you know, we have a client here who's just about to hit his minimum.
3:50:25
I'm already four months past that time date.
3:50:27
There isn't a process for this, and this is just gonna balloon the population that's already there, and there isn't anybody that's handling this.
3:50:35
There's no point person.
3:50:36
There's nobody to call.
3:50:38
There's no phone number.
3:50:39
And this is just a major problem for all of us, all of the institutional providers, in terms of getting clients who are getting very, very close to their release dates and getting them out.
3:50:49
And there's no ability to do that because they do not process state prisoners while they're in state custody.
3:50:55
There isn't an office that we can call for that.
3:50:58
And I just ask all of you to kinda have these discussions and ask mock j, ask the state department of corrections, ask the city department of corrections, what are they gonna do about this?
3:51:08
Thank you.