Fire safety wasn’t the only troubling condition covered by the monitor in the latest report.
OCC also found that Rikers Island struggled with general sanitation, heating, ventilation and lighting from September to December 2025, the time period covered in the report.
Though a judge has mandated that the DOC clean and sanitize showers, janitor’s closets, laundry areas, toilets, washbasins and sinks at least once a day, and cells, dormitories, showers, bathrooms and dayrooms at least once a week, the agency often fails to do so, according to the report.
The monitor found that cleaning supplies were often missing from janitor’s closets, garbage was seen overflowing in common areas, and gnats, roaches and mice feces were spotted in facilities across the island. During one inspection, the monitor’s team saw a live mouse in a housing area.
The report also claimed that mildew and “organic debris” were “frequently found in showers, toilet areas, janitor’s closets, and in some cells.”
Lauren Stephens-Davidowitz, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, which originally brought the Benjamin lawsuit, said the report shows “a continued failure on the Department of Correction’s part to provide clean and safe living conditions for people in its custody.”
The case is believed to be the longest-running open litigation in Manhattan federal court, THE CITY reported in 2024.
Much of what was described in the latest report has been found by the monitor during past reporting periods.
Stephens-Davidowitz said it was “frustrating” that the DOC had yet to take substantial steps to address the dirty and unsafe conditions in the jails, which are slated to close at some point within the next decade.
“The Department could create conditions that meet modern safety and sanitation standards, but I think that these conditions are the result of choices – choices to neglect those responsibilities and people’s basic needs,” she said.
The attorney said that while all the conditions laid out in the report were concerning, the lack of answers surrounding fire safety concerned her the most.
“Of all the issues the monitor covers, it’s the one that keeps me up at night,” Stephens-Davidowitz said. “We need to see action from the city, because they may have a firetrap on their hands.”
But with a reform-minded mayor in City Hall and a new commissioner leading the DOC, Stephens-Davidowitz said she was hopeful the agency would begin to take the requirements laid out in the Benjamin court orders a little more seriously.
“We’re hopeful that the new administration could actually make progress on these issues, because the progress is attainable,” she said. “If the new administration is committed to fixing these conditions, it can be done.”