Mayor Enacts Bill To Increase Data on Jail Violence Against Teens

MARTIN F. HORN: Will supply added data.

Mayor Bloomberg May 11 signed a bill to require the Correction Department to provide more data on juvenile violence at Rikers Island despite the objections of its Commissioner, who complained the extra manpower it would take to produce such reports would divert needed resources from other projects.

Mr. Bloomberg said after enacting the legislation, "In recent years the city's jails have become not only the safest in the history of the department but also the safest large city jails in the nation. The Department of Correction has a record of transparency in reporting extensive data through the Mayor's Management Report and on its Web site. Enactment of this legislation will lead to the submission of even more data to the Council and the public regarding city jails and adolescents in the department's custody, thus maintaining the agency's practice of openness."

'Committed to Transparency'

A spokesman for Correction Commissioner Martin F. Horn, Stephen Morello, said the agency plans to comply with the law despite his objections to its usefulness. "This administration has made a commitment to transparency, and we have as well," he said, adding that additional staffers in that department would be needed to handle the increased work.

Councilwoman Letitia James, who was the author of the bill, said that jail safety and transparency should override everything else. "I am appreciative of Commissioner Horn's efforts to promote transparency within the Department infrastructure. Currently, the DOC reports jail data, which contains various indicators regarding the overall jail population," she said in a statement. "However, there is no separate information being routinely publicly reported or required to be reported by the city or the DOC specifically regarding 'adolescents' who are housed separately from 'adults' on Riker's Island.

"Int. 937 will provide the Council and the rest of the public, information that is vital to proper oversight of the DOC, helping both the Council and the Department closely monitor the most vulnerable individuals of the incarcerated community."

The new law will require the Correction Department to post census and security data on adolescent violence on its own Web site. It comes after the 2008 murder of inmate Christopher Robinson, 18, by other inmates at Rikers Island, which led to the unraveling of a criminal enterprise at the prison where Correction Officers were allegedly complicit with inmates in assaults and extortion there.

Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook supported the legislation.