Rikers Island, a 413 acre plot of land in the East River, houses New York City’s largest jail.
Rikers Island, a 413 acre plot of land in the East River, houses New York City’s largest jail. The city’s Department of Correction has been flooded with a shocking number of lawsuits centering around the facility.
719 sexual assault cases involving female inmates accuse the Department of Correction of perpetrating and maintaining a pattern of abuse over the course of decades.
Jeny, one of over 700 women who have filed lawsuits against the department, was arrested for driving under the influence. She spent just 33 days at Rikers Island, and stated that she was sexually abused countless times by corrections officers. In an effort to protect herself and her son from the retaliation promised by multiple officers, Jeny’s full name has not been released.
"They asked me to do, most of the time, oral sex or masturbation," Jeny said. "It was the scariest experience I've ever had in my life.” To her, the abuse of officers’ power and authority was clear: “I just cooperated with what I needed to do. When something is happening and you don't have any control of the situation, the more you fight back, the worse it can become for you.”
Anna Kull, Jeny’s lawyer, says that the survivor also witnessed the torture of her fellow inmates. During those 33 days, Jeny “was abused… by several officers who would pull her out of a dorm room at night with several other women, take them to secluded areas within the jail, and force the women to perform oral sex and other sexual favors."
The lawsuits were filed under the Adult Survivors Act: a measure granted to survivors of past abuse. The act provides a one-year period for those who wish to come forward and press charges. Although the statute’s window closed in November, Jeny was able to file her suit 8 years after she was released from Rikers.
Konstantin Yelisavetskiy, the managing lawyer of Slater Slater Schulman LLP, represents 475 survivors. The women imprisoned in the Rose M. Singer Correctional Facility on Rikers experienced “plenty of instances where officers would not wear condoms," he said. "Truly horrific things. Women became impregnated, and either suffered medical complications, ectopic pregnancies, or had to undergo abortions."
The lawsuits seek over $14 billion and request that the city terminates the remaining correction officers employed at Rikers.
In addition to these claims, more than 2,000 women incarcerated at other New York City jails seek financial compensation for abuse.
"You need help,” Jeny said about her abusers. “You come from a mother, and you know no woman deserves to be treated this way.”
Authors: Andy Goldwasser and Alexis Kabat
