An investigation into the deaths of four people held at the Rikers Island jails this spring found a pattern of lax supervision by correction officers, including some who skipped required rounds, left their posts for long stretches or kept inaccurate logbooks.
The report released by the city’s jail oversight board on Friday paints a familiar picture of a department in crisis, where even simple safeguards, like an officer walking the units and checking in on detainees, are ignored. The board has noted similar issues in other deaths in custody reports for years.
Earlier this year, a federal judge overseeing the city’s jails appointed a remediation manager with broad authority to bring the Department of Correction into compliance with long-standing court orders. In his first plan, filed in July, the manager wrote that the department struggles to perform basic correctional functions, like staffing posts and securing housing units…