Even though the inmate population at Rikers Island has fallen to its lowest level in decades, the amount of money spent to run New York City jails soared to a record $1.1 billion in 2014, according to a new report by the city comptroller. And yet there appears to have been little improvement, with assaults by guards and inmate violence drastically worsening.
The report, which is to be released on Friday, found that the amount spent by the Correction Department per inmate in New York was nearly $100,000 in the city’s 2014 fiscal year, which ended in June. That is 42 percent higher than seven years ago and more than twice the amount spent per inmate by correction departments in other large cities like Chicago and Los Angeles.
During the same period, there was a 124 percent increase in assaults on the staff by inmates at city jails, and triple the number of allegations of use of physical force by guards. The number of city jail guards dropped to 8,922 in 2014, from 9,203 in 2007.
[For more of this story, written by Michael Schwirtz and Micael Winerip, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/17/nyregion/rikers-jail-costs-soared-despite-fewer-inmates-comptroller-finds.html?mabReward=RI%3A8&src=recg&mabReward=RI%3A8&module=Ribbon&version=origin®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Recommended&pgtype=Blogs]
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