--- title: Federal Investigation Reveals Violence Towards Teenage Inmates description: A federal investigation reveals that correctional officers at New York City Department of Correction used brute force on teenage inmates canonical: https://time.com/3081897/report-teenage-inmates-at-rikers-island-face-institutionalized-brutality/ author: Melissa Hellmann article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-05T09:55:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:30:04.875Z article:section: U.S. og:title: Federal Investigation Reveals Violence Towards Teenage Inmates og:description: A federal investigation reveals that correctional officers at New York City Department of Correction used brute force on teenage inmates og:url: https://time.com/3081897/report-teenage-inmates-at-rikers-island-face-institutionalized-brutality/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd82213c595077752/69869e6513c79f7cc519356b/rikers-island-prison.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Barbed wire fences surround a building on Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York on Dec. 24, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Federal Investigation Reveals Violence Towards Teenage Inmates twitter:description: A federal investigation reveals that correctional officers at New York City Department of Correction used brute force on teenage inmates twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd82213c595077752/69869e6513c79f7cc519356b/rikers-island-prison.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Report: Teenage Inmates at Rikers Island Face Institutionalized Brutality by [Melissa Hellmann](/author/melissa-hellmann/) ## Melissa Hellmann Aug 5, 2014 9:55 AM CUT  Barbed wire fences surround a building on Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York on Dec. 24, 2013. Barbed wire fences surround a building on Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York on Dec. 24, 2013.Lucas Jackson—Reuters by [Melissa Hellmann](/author/melissa-hellmann/) ## Melissa Hellmann Aug 5, 2014 9:55 AM CUT A report [released](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/nyregion/us-attorneys-office-reveals-civil-rights-investigation-at-rikers-island.html?%5Fr=1 "undefined") by the federal government on Monday accused the New York City Department of Correction of [failing](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/05/nyregion/05rikers-report.html "undefined") to protect adolescents, citing a two-and-a-half-year Justice Department investigation that revealed correctional officers at three Rikers Island juvenile jails inflicted brutal force on male inmates between 16-18 years old. The 79-page-report by the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, found that between 2011-2013 officers used excessive violence to punish inmates. In October 2012, 44% of the male teenage population had been subjected to brute force at least once. The report also found that correctional officers lacked accountability for their extreme use of force. When investigations were conducted, they were customarily untimely and incomplete. A “powerful code of silence” between staff allowed egregious offenses to go by unpunished, the Justice Department found. One inmate said that he was heavily beaten by four officers in the hallway for cursing in the middle of a class, according to the report. A teacher told investigators that he could hear the inmate “crying and screaming for his mother” during the altercation, but failed to report the incident to avoid conflict with fellow staff members. The findings also revealed that the most inexperienced officers were assigned to deal with inmates who had behavioral disorders and mental illnesses. Last year, over half of the 489 teenage inmates reportedly had mental illnesses. Many were sent to solitary confinement as a punitive measure, with inmates being kept by themselves from 23 hours to several months, the New York _Times_ reports. The report presented to Mayor Bill de Blasio and two other officials concluded, “a culture of excessive force persists, where correction officers physically abuse adolescent inmates with the expectation that they will face little or no consequences for their unlawful conduct.” Federal attorneys offered a list of corrections to be made at Rikers, including compulsory reporting of use of force and more thorough training for all staff. Joseph Ponte, New York City’s new correction commissioner, [said](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/04/rikers-island-abuse-teenagers-brutality-report-%5Fn%5F5648317.html "undefined") in a statement that he would work to improve safety for the teenage inmates, adding that he was committed to redrafting the use of force policy to “bring it into the 21st century,” Huffington Post reported. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3081897/report-teenage-inmates-at-rikers-island-face-institutionalized-brutality/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3081897/report-teenage-inmates-at-rikers-island-face-institutionalized-brutality/"},"headline":"Report: Teenage Inmates at Rikers Island Face Institutionalized Brutality","datePublished":"2014-08-05T09:55:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:30:04.875Z","description":"Correctional officers at New York City's Department of Correction use excessive brute force on teenage inmates, many of whom have mental illnesses, according to report","url":"https://time.com/3081897/report-teenage-inmates-at-rikers-island-face-institutionalized-brutality/","keywords":["Civil Rights","New York","violence","Investigation","Justice Department","Report"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd82213c595077752/69869e6513c79f7cc519356b/rikers-island-prison.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Hellmann","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-hellmann/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd82213c595077752/69869e6513c79f7cc519356b/rikers-island-prison.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barbed wire fences surround a building on Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York on Dec. 24, 2013.","caption":"Barbed wire fences surround a building on Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York on Dec. 24, 2013.","creditText":"Lucas Jackson—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/civil-rights/","name":"Civil Rights"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3081897/report-teenage-inmates-at-rikers-island-face-institutionalized-brutality/","name":"Report: Teenage Inmates at Rikers Island Face Institutionalized Brutality"}}]}] ```