In the context of the sentencing, Clark said, “Medical staff on Rikers Island offer essential services to defendants awaiting trial. We must do all we can to make sure they are working in a safe environment, while caring for the incarcerated.” She added, “The defendant attacked, kept hostage, and threatened workers whose job was to take care of him, and he will spend nearly a decade behind bars for his brutal actions.”

 

Clark said Rodriguez was sentenced on May 4, 2022 by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio to nine years in prison and two-and-a-half years of post-release supervision. He pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping on April 11, 2022.

 

 

As reported, on March 4, Clark announced that another Rikers Island inmate had been charged with second-degree assault and additional charges for throwing scalding water at a DOC officer in the jail, causing first-degree burns. She had previously announced on Jan. 24 that another Rikers Island inmate had been charged with attempted rape in the first degree with additional charges for sexually abusing a nurse, and for forcibly touching a female Department of Correction officer in the jail.

 

On Nov. 4 2021, we reported that a Rikers Island inmate had also been charged for assaulting a corrections officer. In September 2021, as reported, former Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the “Rikers Relief Plan,” a five-point plan to address staffing and security “challenges” at the jail, while Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the release of 191 inmates and the transfer of 200 inmates to State facilities in order to reduce the burden on existing DOC staff caused by a wave of employees who were allegedly on sick leave. When incarcerated people are moved upstate, it is sometimes more difficult for the families based in the City to visit them.

 

At the time, their absences came amid the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine requirement for City employees, and the announced measures by the former mayor and governor followed a visit to the jail by various elected officials who had highlighted what were described as “the extreme and dangerous conditions” under which inmates were being held.

 

Norwood News had also previously reported on the various sides of the discussions around the topic of solitary confinement.

 

In December 2021, State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) recently called for clemency for a homeless man held at Rikers for stealing NyQuil from a Duane Reade store. Meanwhile, Edwin Santana, community organizer at Freedom Agenda, a member-led project, dedicated to organizing people and communities directly impacted by incarceration, to achieve decarceration and system transformation, recently wrote an op-ed for Norwood News, about why the Vernon C. Bain Center “VCBC” aka “The Boat” needed to be closed as part of the plan to close Rikers Island. A selection of our readers had previously weighed in on the topic.

 

In 2020, 26 alleged Trinitario gang members were charged with various slashings which took place inside the jail.