NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 Inmates at New York City鈥檚 Rikers Island were kept locked in their cells for nearly half an hour while a fire spread through one of the nation鈥檚 largest and most notorious jail complexes this past April, injuring some 20 people, according to a report released Friday by an independent oversight agency.
The city Board of Correction also found that the water supply for the sprinkler system serving the affected jail unit had been shut off for at least a year and that jail staff had failed to conduct the required weekly and monthly fire safety audits for at least as long.
In addition, the correction officer assigned to the area, at the direction of their supervisor, stopped conducting patrols some two hours before the fire was ignited in a unit that houses people with acute medical conditions requiring infirmary care or Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant housing, the board found.
Spokespersons for Mayor Eric Adams didn鈥檛 reply to an email seeking comment Friday, but his administration鈥檚 Department of Correction, which operates city jails, said it will review the report and its recommendations.
The Legal Aid Society, an advocacy group that鈥檚 been critical of operations at Rikers, said the report highlighted 鈥渆gregious mismanagement鈥 and called into question the correction department鈥檚 ability to effectively run the jail complex, which faces a as well as a long-gestating city plan to .
鈥淭he Report describes layers upon layers of avoidable failures,鈥 the organization wrote in an emailed statement. 鈥淚t is hard to imagine any institution in our city where such compounding and colossal failures to prevent and contain a catastrophic fire would not result in immediate accountability by leadership.鈥
The injured 15 jail staffers and five inmates and took about an hour to knock down on a day when local Democratic lawmakers were also touring the facility.
The afternoon blaze was set by a 30-year-old inmate with a history for starting jailhouse fires, according to the board鈥檚 report. The man used batteries, headphone wires and a remote control to start the conflagration in his cell, before adding tissues and clothing to fuel the flames.
The board, in its Friday report, recommended corrections officers immediately open cell doors and escort inmates to safety if they鈥檙e locked in a cell when a fire starts. It also recommended the department conduct regular sprinkler system checks and stop the practice of shutting off a cell's sprinkler water supply because an inmate has flooded their cell.
Earlier this week, the New York City Council approved legislation meant to at Rikers and other city jails, over the mayor's objections.
