Latest news with #CorrectionOfficersBenevolentAssociation
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
NYC Correction Dept. set to order mandatory 12-hour tours for officers again
Still facing a stubborn staffing crunch, the New York City Department of Correction will require officers to work mandatory 12-hour tours in a number of city jails, a move immediately criticized by their union. The department last went to 12-hour tours during the 2021 and 2022 staffing crisis when hundreds of officers went sick following the pandemic. The policy was lifted in the spring of 2022. 'The department is actively exploring different scheduling strategies to address staffing challenges while improving the work-life balance for our dedicated staff,' DOC press secretary Annais Morales said this week. 'These efforts aim to ensure effective operational coverage while alleviating workload pressures, reinforcing the department's commitment to both staff well-being and the individuals in our care.' Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, said the move was hastily assembled without a 'coherent plan that would get officers relieved from their posts.' 'COBA absolutely DOES NOT support this pilot program because it is rushed and lacks the proper preparation to actually get officers relieved on time,' he said, emphasis his. Boscio laid responsibility for the plan at the feet of Senior Deputy Commissioner Fritz Frage, DOC's No. 3 official, hired in November. Frage was previously the director of public safety overseeing the police and fire departments in Newark, N.J. 'While we share the mutual goal of improving the quality of life for all officers, this is not the way to achieve that goal,' Boscio said. Frage presided in Newark during a period its police department was under oversight by a federal monitor, much like the current situation in New York City's jails. The Daily News learned of the move on Wednesday, the day that detainee Ramel Powell, 37, died in the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. But officials said the new initiative was unrelated to Powell's death, the city's first reported jail fatality in 2025. 'Our initiatives to improve scheduling and staffing practices began prior to the tragic passing of Mr. Powell,' Morales said. 'While his loss is deeply felt, the department continues to seek the best methods to care for both persons in custody and our staff.' The staffing shortage has been attributed to waves of retirements and resignations and a struggle to attract new officers amid negative criticism of the agency. From a high of 10,800 officers on average in 2017, the agency's uniformed headcount had dropped as of December 2024 to 6,004. Meanwhile, the jail population has steadily crept upward since plunging below 4,000 for a short period during the early months of the COVID pandemic. In 2023, the jail population was 5,873. As of this Feb 10, the Board of Correction said, the total headcount was 6,784 — a 15.5% increase. Then-Correction Commissioner Louis Molina predicted in February 2023 the population would rise above 7,000 in 2024. He was roundly criticized for the prediction amid calls for the city to do more to lower the jail population. The circumstances around Powell's death remain under investigation by several oversight agencies and DOC. His cause of death still has not been officially determined, though a drug overdose is suspected.
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Correction officers union head Boscio slams city's bid to appoint DOC Commissioner Maginley-Liddie as NYC jails receiver
Correction officers union chief Benny Boscio has slammed the city's attempt to convince a federal judge to appoint DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie as receiver over New York jails. In a statement to members, Boscio called Maginley-Liddie a 'wolf in sheep's clothing' for 'constantly bending to the will of the [federal] monitor time and time again.' Boscio, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, wrote it is 'disingenuous' for Magnley-Liddie to claim to part of the 'Boldest' family while asking the court to give her power to change the union contract. 'The commissioner is pushing policies that will diminish our rights as union members rather than defend them, at a time when our members need the support of their commissioner and their agency the most,' Boscio writes. The Correction Department press office did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The letter was sparked by a flurry of court filings late Friday evening, in which lawyers representing the Justice Department and the interests of people held in the jails laid out their proposal for a receiver — a court-appointed official who would be granted broad powers to run the beleaguered jail system. The city, meanwhile, proposed Maginley-Liddie act as both commissioner and 'compliance director,' or the city's version of a receiver. With those roles, the city proposed, she would serve both the mayor and the court over a five-year tenure, the filing said. The filings came in Nunez v. the City of New York, a class action lawsuit on violence and staff use of excessive force in the jails filed in 2011. Four years later, it led to the appointment of the federal monitor empowered to closely track problems in the jails and offer recommendations to fix them. Nearly a decade later, the plaintiffs argue, the jails remain so dangerous that control needs to be taken from the city's hands. Last fall, Judge Laura Taylor Swain found the city in contempt of a range of court orders and directed the parties to file proposals for an independent receiver. Lawyers for the plaintiffs say the receiver should be an 'outside person' with the power to change DOC policies, run the disciplinary system, renegotiate union contracts, hire and fire staff and redeploy officers as necessary, the filing states. The city's filing calls for similar powers and claims giving Maginley-Liddie the dual post is the 'most narrowly tailored, speedy and effective means' of fixing the jails. The Daily News first reported on Dec. 11 the city was backing Maginley-Liddie for the post. But the plaintiffs immediately dismissed the proposal as 'convoluted and confusing.' 'The current Commissioner is obviously not an 'outside person,'' they wrote. 'She has held top DOC leadership positions during a period when the jails became more violent and unsafe, DOC violated core provisions of the Nuñez orders, and DOC failed to 'demonstrate' diligent attempts to comply with the Contempt Provisions in a reasonable manner.'' Overall, they wrote, the city's proposal 'does little more than preserve the status quo when … the Department of Correction is in need of transformational change.' Meanwhile, last week, the city held a mandated hearing on the contract for the new borough jail for Manhattan to replace The Tombs, which is being demolished as part of the Close Rikers plan. Under the timeline of the contract, the new Manhattan jail would be completed by 2032, the advocacy group Freedom Agenda said based on a review of the contract documents. The completion date is five years after the legally mandated closure of Rikers Island in 2027. 'Mayor Adams says he will always follow the law, but is clearly making no effort to do that,' said Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack. 'With a blueprint already in place for the borough jail designs, there is no conceivable reason that the Manhattan jail should be completed five years after the legal deadline.' A spokesman for the city Department of Design and Construction, which is overseeing the project, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
