NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION

The average daily inmate population of New York City Department of Correction (DOC) fluctuates between 13,000 and 18,000. This is more than the prison population of many state correctional systems. On a typical weekday, the Department logs more than 3,000 miles transporting inmates to courts in the five boroughs and to medical and other jail or prison facilities throughout the city and state.

Through sanitary landfill, the once 90-acre Rikers Island was enlarged to more than 400 acres. Its 10 major jails have a combined capacity of nearly 17,000 inmates. Among the Rikers facilities are a jail for sentenced males, another for sentenced and detainee females, and a detention center for adolescent males (ages 16 to 18). The seven other jails on the Island house adult male detainees. Other Island features include a bakery, central laundry, tailor shop, print shop, maintenance and transportation divisions, K-9 unit and a power plant. The Department also operates four borough facilities, 16 court detention facilities and three hospital prison wards.

The borough jails in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx - have a combined capacity of approximately 3,000 detainees facing or on trial. The court pens are located in the Criminal, Supreme and Family Court buildings in each borough. In Manhattan, an additional court pen is operated in the special Narcotics Court. These courthouse facilities hold inmates scheduled for the day’s proceedings. A portion of the West Facility on Rikers Island contains specialized housing units for inmates with tuberculosis and other communicable diseases.

Seriously ill inmates and those requiring intensive psychiatric observation are held in prison wards that the Department operates in Elmhurst General Hospital and Bellevue Hospital. The North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island houses detainees with less serious medical problems and persons with AIDS not requiring hospitalization, as well as high security inmates.