DOC Tests Digital Logbook After Years of Watchdog Rebuke

January 13, 2026

In October 2025, New York’s Department of Correction piloted a new electronic records system after years of using paper logbooks that vastly underreported violent incidents at Rikers Island.

THE CITY was the first to report that corrections officers were obfuscating data in handwritten logbooks. We obtained reports in 2019 that the Department of Correction had undercounted fights by more than 1,000 in just a three-month period. 

The NYC Department of Investigation pushed for several changes, including the switch to digital record-keeping, but jail officials ignored these recommendations for years. THE CITY continued to report on worsening conditions, falsified logbooks, mounting jail deaths, and increasing violence on Rikers, while federal monitors decried the lack of progress on any reforms.

Nearly six years after our reporting, the Department of Correction is finally testing the digital record changeover at one Rikers housing unit. The new technology enables officers to make real-time entries, quickly retrieve specific entries, and improve supervisor oversight.

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