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…
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