Last month, the city started rolling out a policy making all inmates wear uniforms on Rikers Island, and already, the Board of Correction says it's seeing problems. NY1's Courtney Gross filed the following report.
Clean clothes may be hard to come by on Rikers Island.
"Laundry was not available," said Dr. Robert Cohen of the Board of Correction. "Prisoners were getting infractions for cleaning their own clothes, then putting their names on it so they know whose clothes were being cleaned."
It's the result of a new policy on Rikers Island that every inmate must wear a uniform.
But just a month into the new practice, a major board overseeing the sprawling jail complex is raising red flags, saying the new policy may be creating unsanitary conditions.
"We are greatly concerned about the department's ability to deliver on what its intentions are," said Stanley Brezenoff, chair of the Board of Correction.
"I can only say we want this to succeed. We want this to work for everybody. And we are vehemently working on that," said Timothy Farrell of the Department of Correction.
Currently, the majority of inmates on Rikers wear their own clothes. They are people waiting to make bail or for a trial, often seen in jeans and t-shirts. But as of last month, that changed. The department began distributing tan uniforms for those awaiting trial. Those sentenced to time on Rikers wear green uniforms.
In a letter to correction officials last week, the Board of Correction said there were not enough uniforms to go around so far, and there was not enough warm clothes, either. Laundry facilities, they said, were broken.
"My client washes her uniform in the sink and lays it out by her bed to dry," said Kelsey Deavila of Brooklyn Defender Services. "It's now getting cold inside the jail, but she continues to wait in her underwear in the dorm until the uniform is dry enough to wear."
Others said inmates could not get clothes to attend court appearances, which the officials on Rikers had promised to do. They have also promised to provide three uniforms per inmate and laundry services twice a week.
The Department of Correction is waiting on another shipment of uniforms. That buys them little bit more time to work out some of these potential problems. They hope every inmate on Rikers will be in a uniform early next year.