Federal Judge on Dora Schriro’s Rikers Island: “Culture of Violence and Poor Treatment of Inmates”

Connecticut public officials continue to ignore the chilling records of public safety commissioner Dora Schriro. They ought to pay attention to Judge Loretta A. Preska’s description of New York’s Rikers Island under Schriro. Preska sentenced a brutally violent Rikers correction officer to 30 years in prison for killing an inmate and recognized the “culture of violence and poor treatment of inmates by correction officers at Rikers.”

The New York Times, which has performed a profound public service in its coverage of the scandal, has the latest chapter in the chilling saga. 

The fatal beating of inmate Ronald Spears occurred in December 2012, as Schriro was completing her disgraceful tenure at the notorious New York prison.