New York City’s prisons have seen a rise in violence every year of Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, according to a city report released Monday.
The report shows that several measures of prison violence have increased under de Blasio. Inmate-on-inmate violence has more than doubled between 2013 and 2017. Inmate assaults on staff and serious injuries to inmates have nearly doubled as well.
“The latest jail violence statistics reaffirm the warnings we’ve made year after year for the past four years. We said that inmate assaults would go up when punitive segregation was eliminated for inmates 21 and under while failing to impose any restrictions for the same individuals who commit violent crimes behind bars,” Correction Officers Benevolent Association president Elias Husamudeen told the New York Post.
The consistent rise in violence came under former-Jails Chief Joseph Ponte, who resigned in June after receiving criticism for corruption and spending too much time outside of the state.
Ponte, who has yet to be replaced, led the jails system for three years, during which monthly violence in prisons rose 68 percent. Ponte’s department ignored the increasing rate and reported a drop in the number of inmate assaults before the mayor’s office released its study, the Post reported. The drop in total assaults is likely due to the 20 percent decrease in total prison population.
The mayor’s office claimed it was working to address the violence, however.
“In the past year, the Department has also placed a focus on enhancing staff training in topics such as safe crisis management, deescalation, conflict resolution and use of force,” the study read. “By creating targeted non-punitive approaches to better manage behavior, increasing opportunities for inmates, and ensuring that staff have the appropriate tools for managing those in custody, the Department is working towards a shift in culture that prioritizes the reduction of violence as well as the improvement of long-term inmate outcomes.”
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