The New York City Comptroller’s Office recently released its monthly update to the Department of Correction (DOC) Dashboard.
First published back in August of last year, the DOC Dashboard was established by the Comptroller as a way of monitoring various issues occurring in the City’s jails, along with providing increased transparency and accountability over the NYC jail system, according to a release.
The NYC Comptroller says that this month’s edition of the report highlighted a number of issues involving DOC operations, including a prison population on the rise.
According to the dashboard, DOC prisons held 6,081 people as of July 1st. This was 77 more imprisoned individuals from the previous month.
The dashboard also reported that 2,006 people were admitted into DOC jails in the month of June, which was an increase of 73 from May’s total.
In addition, the report discovered a rise in individuals with serious mental illness being detained. In the month of May, 1,207 people with mental illnesses were imprisoned on Rikers — an increase of 21 detainees from April — which made up 20% of Rikers’ total detained population.
On a positive note, the dashboard did indicate that fewer violent incidents occurred within NYC prisons throughout June.
According to the dashboard, 47 assaults took place last month, which was down from 54 in May. Additionally, 67 less fights took place in June (412 fights) over the previous month, and there were also 18 fewer slashings and stabbings reported.
As of July 18, the Comptroller’s dashboard has reported six deaths that have occurred in DOC custody in 2023, based on media reports.
According to the NYC Comptroller, the DOC made the decision back in May of this year to stop publicly disclosing information about deaths that occurred in their custody.
“Every life lost because of the conditions on Rikers demonstrates a total disregard to care for the people in custody,” said NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. “The lack of transparency and improvement in City jails proves that DOC cannot continue safe and secure operation of these facilities. The DOC owes the deceased, their families, and New Yorkers a full picture of what happens under their watch.”
Lander is part of a coalition of officials and criminal justice advocates that are in support of incorporating a federal receiver to supervise the City’s jail system.
According to the NYC Comptroller, there will reportedly be a hearing that will take place in early August that will put the notion of employing a federal receiver up for consideration.
To view the DOC Dashboard report in full, head over to the NYC Comptroller website.
