Criminal Justice

Detainees put makeshift decorations in their Rikers Island jail cell windows.

City Jail Population Sures 7,000, Headed in Wrong Direction for Close-Rikers Plan

March 20, 2025, 5:00 a.m.April 4, 2025, 3:27 p.m.

By law, the city will be legally barred from using Rikers jails after 2027, but the move-out can happen only if there are less than 5,000 people behind bars.

Weihong Hu leaves Brooklyn Federal Court after a hearing in her public corruption case.

Adams World: Investigated

Comptroller Urges Cancellation of $20M Contract Extension for Indicted Eric Adams Campaign Fundraiser

March 19, 2025, 6:00 a.m.March 19, 2025, 9:52 a.m.

Weihong Hu faces federal charges tied to alleged bribery at her Queens hotel housing formerly incarcerated people — and has surrounded herself with close allies of the mayor.

Gov. Kathy Hochul walks out of Marcy Correctional Facility with barbed wire behind her. She walks with a man in a grey suit on the right and a woman in a beige suit on the left.

Criminal Justice

Prison Deaths and Strike Chaos Reveal Backsliding on Basic Reforms

March 17, 2025, 5:00 a.m.May 14, 2025, 4:54 p.m.

A promised prison overhaul is on a collision course with New York’s long history of keeping basic information about abuses and killings hidden from the public

Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley Liddie testifies at a City Council budget hearing.

Jails

Rikers Now Looks to Bring Back Nonprofits After Kicking Them Off Island

March 7, 2025, 5:22 p.m.March 7, 2025, 5:25 p.m.

Two years ago, Department of Correction officials said they could cut costs by in-sourcing social and educational programs for detainees. It did not work out.

Corrections officers hold a picket line outside Green Haven prison.

Labor

Tentative Agreement to End State Prison Strike Rolls Back Solitary Reform

Feb. 28, 2025, 1:50 p.m.Feb. 28, 2025, 2:02 p.m.

Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to temporarily suspend a rule limiting the use of solitary confinement to 15-days and to pay officers extra money to work overtime on weekends.

Governor Hochul wears a dark navy suit and holds a black folder. A man is on her right in a grey suit and her left a woman in a dark green jacket. The red brick prison entrance reads Marcy Correctional Facility behind them.

Incarceration

Upstate Prison Staffers Charged in Beating Death of Robert Brooks

Feb. 20, 2025, 2:17 p.m.Feb. 20, 2025, 6:43 p.m.

Brooks, 43, was repeatedly punched and kicked by guards who held him down on a medical bed inside an upstate prison on Dec. 9.

Labor

Wildcat Strike at 25 State Prisons Leads Hochul to Ready National Guard

Feb. 18, 2025, 5:50 p.m.Feb. 19, 2025, 10:59 a.m.

State correction officers are upset over lack of staff and proposed reforms that would make it harder to discipline detainees.

Then-Conviction Review Unit head Charles Linehan speaks in court as Sheldon Thomas is exonerated.

Courts

Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Chief Heading to Private Practice

Feb. 10, 2025, 5:00 a.m.Feb. 12, 2025, 4:51 p.m.

Charles Linehan is teaming up with Karen Newirth, a onetime defense attorney, to launch a firm focused on wrongful conviction cases.

Criminal Justice

Model Prisoner Seeks Holiday Mercy from Gov. Hochul

Dec. 24, 2024, 12:21 p.m.Dec. 24, 2024, 1:27 p.m.

Tayden Townsley has served nearly three decades for a murder he committed when he was 19. He’s not eligible for parole until 2037.

Phrases documenting prison doctors malpractice investigations were highlighted in an illustration against a barbed-wire fence.

Criminal Justice

Doctors Sanctioned for Glaring Medical Mistakes Find a Place to Practice in NY State Prisons

Dec. 23, 2024, 5:01 a.m.Dec. 23, 2024, 9:39 a.m.

They’ve been judged guilty of medical misconduct, negligence, incompetence and even felonies. An investigation by THE CITY reveals that 10 such doctors found work treating incarcerated patients.

Criminal Justice

City Jail Population Sures 7,000, Headed in Wrong Direction for Close-Rikers Plan

Comptroller Urges Cancellation of $20M Contract Extension for Indicted Eric Adams Campaign Fundraiser

Prison Deaths and Strike Chaos Reveal Backsliding on Basic Reforms

Rikers Now Looks to Bring Back Nonprofits After Kicking Them Off Island

Tentative Agreement to End State Prison Strike Rolls Back Solitary Reform

Upstate Prison Staffers Charged in Beating Death of Robert Brooks

Wildcat Strike at 25 State Prisons Leads Hochul to Ready National Guard

Brooklyn DA’s Conviction Review Chief Heading to Private Practice

Model Prisoner Seeks Holiday Mercy from Gov. Hochul

Doctors Sanctioned for Glaring Medical Mistakes Find a Place to Practice in NY State Prisons

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