Correction officers on Rikers Island are increasingly using pepper spray to subdue detainees who fight guards or try to kill themselves, according to an oversight report released on Wednesday.
The city Board of Correction found chemical agents were used 2,972 times during the first 10 months of 2023, a 50% increase from the same period of 2018, despite the jail population shrinking by about 2,000 people over the last five years.
The board, which is independent from the city Department of Correction that runs Rikers, found that officers deployed pepper spray most of the time they used force of any kind in 2023. And in many cases the use of the spray, which contains the caustic chemical oleoresin capsicum, appeared to be unjustified, the report said.
The report found that officers pepper-sprayed a detainee "who was engaged in self-harm with a ligature around their neck" on eight occasions in October alone, instead of following protocol and cutting down the item used in the hanging attempt.
The board cited an instance in which an incarcerated man shackled to a wheelchair was sprayed from a distance of 3 feet after disobeying orders to return to his cell and resisting attempts to handcuff him. According to the report, the man said he was resisting because he wanted to see a medical clinician about his high blood pressure and hadn't received medication for two weeks.
“Within seconds of the deployment of the chemical agent, the person in custody and all present DOC staff members were coughing, gagging and choking,” the report said of the incident. “After telling a correction officer he needed his albuterol inhaler, the person in custody collapsed from his wheelchair onto the floor.”
The report states that chemical spray can cause “uncontrollable coughing,” gagging, and “the sensation of intense burning of the skin and mucous membranes inside the nose and mouth.”
Correction officials filed a reply in the report, saying the department “recognizes that spraying an individual who is already struggling to breathe is exceedingly problematic.” They added that the DOC may implement new rules to reduce the use of pepper spray in city jails.
“There are instances, however — one occurred recently — where an individual appears to feign hanging as a ploy to lure an officer into a cell so that the officer can be attacked,” the department wrote. “An officer must be alert to the possibility, even if it is not likely.”
Correction officials also acknowledged that in many of the analyzed cases “the use of chemical agent was unnecessary and that other steps should have been taken to de-escalate the situation,” and wrote that some instances did not pose safety threats to officers or detainees.
The board found that correction officers failed to issue verbal warnings that they were about to deploy chemical spray in nearly half of the incidents in October when it was used. And in about a third of instances when chemical spray was used, the report states that officers sprayed it from extremely close distances that are prohibited.
The chemicals were also used disproportionately against those with a history of being housed in mental health units, and those ages 18 to 21, according to the findings.
“This report covers only one month of unnecessary, inappropriate and dangerous overuse of chemical agents in the jails,” Board of Correction member Dr. Robert Cohen said in a statement. “The department's failure to prevent this dangerous practice contributes substantially to the violence in the jails. It must end.”
DOC spokesperson Annais Morales said the department has reviewed the board’s report and “committed to additional training for staff regarding the use of [pepper] spray and to surveying other New York counties and comparable jail systems regarding their use.”
Morales said the spray is a “critical, non-lethal tool for correction officers to ensure the safety of fellow uniformed and civilian staff, as well as other persons in custody.”
The board issued several recommendations for the DOC, including improvements in training. The report noted that many officers did not receive training on how to use the spray.
It comes as a federal judge considers whether the city’s failure to stem violence and improve conditions at local jails warrants the appointment of a federal receiver to run the department.
The board first raised concerns about the use of chemical agents in the jails in 1975, after John Wesley Thompson, a detainee with mental illness, died after being sprayed with a chemical agent in his cell at the Queens House of Detention.
