A fire that took place on Rikers Island on April 6 started in a so-called restrictive housing unit, where detainees are kept in isolation.
That day, Marvens Thomas lit a fire using batteries, headphone wires and a remote control, according to a report released Friday by the Board of Correction, the jail system’s oversight body.
What You Need To Know
- A report Friday from the Board of Correction found major lapses in connection with fire that happened in April on Rikers Island
- Detainee Marvens Thomas used batteries, headphone wires and a remote control to start the fire, which sent 13 people to the hospital
- Jail staff had disabled the unit’s sprinkler system, failed to conduct mandated fire audits and waited 27 minutes to evacuate detainees
- Separately, a court-appointed monitor overseeing Rikers Island offered praise for new correction commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie
The report found the unit’s sprinkler system was inoperable at the time and that jail staff had failed to conduct mandated fire safety audits.
Correction officers also waited 27 minutes to evacuate detainees even as fire and smoke spread across the unit. Four detainees and nine staff members were hospitalized, officials said.
“I just felt like I was re-traumatized,” Anisah Sabur, lead organizer with the #HALTsolitary campaign, said while reading the report.
Sabur says she too survived a fire while in solitary confinement at Rikers.
“That’s one of the reasons why I still say they do not, and they should not use solitary as a method to do anything,” Sabur said. “All it does it harm people. It causes people to harm themselves and others.”
This week, the City Council passed a bill banning solitary confinement. Mayor Eric Adams is opposed to the bill.
When asked whether he’d veto it in a NY1 interview on Wednesday, Adams said: “It was just passed, and we’re looking at all of our options and the legal team is going to make the final determination.”
Separately, the court-appointed monitor overseeing Rikers issued his latest report Friday, finding continued failures on the part of the department of correction. But the monitor did praise newly installed commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, suggesting her appointment could reflect a new approach by the city.
“The Monitoring Team has found the Commissioner to be transparent and forthright,” the report says. “She also oversaw one of the most candid, insightful, and transparent assessments of the Department’s sick leave practices during her tenure as the First Deputy Commissioner.”
Regardless, a federal judge could soon put Rikers in federal receivership after years of failed reforms.
As for the solitary confinement ban, the City Council appears to have enough votes to override any mayoral veto.