NEW YORK — Inmates at Rikers Island in New York City were locked in their cells for nearly half an hour as a fire spread through one of the country's largest and most notorious prison complexes last April, injuring about 20 people, according to a report that was released Friday by an independent regulatory body.
The municipal corrections board also found that the water supply to the sprinkler system serving the affected jail had been turned off for at least a year and that jail staff had failed to perform required weekly and monthly fire safety audits for at least that long. .
In addition, at the direction of their supervisor, approximately two hours before the fire started, the corrections officer assigned to the area stopped patrolling a unit that houses people with acute medical conditions who require sick care or adequate housing to the Americans with Disabilities Act. , the board thought.
Spokespeople for Mayor Eric Adams did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday, but his administration's Department of Correction, which operates city jails, said it will review the report and its recommendations.
The Legal Aid Society, an advocacy group critical of operations at Rikers, said the report highlights “serious mismanagement” and questions the correctional department's ability to effectively run the prison complex, which faces a potential federal acquisition and a long time. -developing city plan to permanently close the complex.
“The report details layers of avoidable failures,” the organization wrote in an emailed statement. “It is difficult to imagine an institution in our city where such a complex and colossal failure to prevent and control a catastrophic fire would not result in immediate accountability from management.”
The April 6 fire injured 15 prison staffers and five inmates and took about an hour to put down on a day when local Democratic lawmakers also toured the facility.
According to the board report, the afternoon fire was caused by a 30-year-old inmate with a history of starting prison fires. The man used batteries, headphone wires and a remote control to fuel the fire in his cell, before adding tissues and clothing to fuel the flames.
The board recommended in its Friday report that corrections officials immediately open cell doors and move inmates to safety if they are locked in a cell when a fire breaks out. It also recommended that the department conduct regular checks of the sprinkler system and end the practice of turning off a cell's sprinkler water supply because an inmate has flooded his or her cell.
Earlier this week, the New York City Council passed legislation aimed at banning solitary confinement at Rikers and other city jails, despite the mayor's objections.