De Blasio Promises Change at Rikers Island as Guard Is Convicted on Civil Rights Charge

A Rikers Island guard was convicted of a civil rights charge Wednesday, as Mayor de Blasio toured the facility and promised change at the jail, which has been heavily scrutinized over growing levels of violence and struggles to properly treat the mentally ill.

A jury concluded Terrence Pendergrass ignored the pleas of a dying Rikers Island inmate who had swallowed a toxic soap ball in 2012. Pendergrass shook his head repeatedly as the verdict was announced in Manhattan federal court.

He was charged in the death of Jason Echevarria, a 25-year-old with bipolar disorder who was held on a burglary charge. Echevarria was left for hours unattended and was discovered dead the next day.

The 50-year-old guard faces up to 10 years in prison at a sentencing proceeding Judge Ronnie Abrams set for April 17.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the conviction and "systemic, institution-wide reforms" his office is pursuing should prevent similar deaths in the future.

Meanwhile, the mayor toured Rikers, saying new policies would do more to keep inmates and corrections officers safe.

He said the problems at Rikers had been decades in the making, but that he already saw the positive effects of the jail’s new policies, which include added security cameras, more therapy programs, a smaller inmate to officer ratio and reduced use of force.

“It was not only our responsibility as leaders to fix these conditions and move forward,” de Blasio said. “It’s our moral responsibility as humans.”

The mayor said the jail’s policy on teenage inmates is also changing following a scathing Department of Justice report that found teenage inmates were too often placed in 23-hour confinement and beaten by jail guards. Under the new policy, inmates 16 and 17 years of age will no longer be placed in solitary confinement if they act out during their sentence.

Instead of isolation, young inmates who break jailhouse rules will now be sent to two new units where they'll receive a range of services from one-on-one therapy to programming that teaches decision making, de Blasio said.

There were 91 adolescents in solitary on Jan. 1, the day de Blasio took office, and they were all moved out of solitary by Dec. 4, the mayor said.

De Blasio also promised that more would be done to treat inmates with mental illness. The mentally ill now account for about 40 percent of the roughly 11,000 daily New York inmates.

“A lot of the problems here are mental health problems,” he said. “A lot of them reflect a reality in our society that has gone unaddressed or under-addressed."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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