How Brutal Beatings in N.Y.C. Jails Were Hidden From Public View
The New York Times
One man being held on Rikers Island was paralyzed from the neck down. Another landed in a coma. Neither injury was documented properly in a jail system awash in disorder.
When a man was beaten on Rikers Island in December, guards at the New York City jail complex downplayed his injuries, delaying filing a report and then including only minimal information: Fractured eye socket. Swelling of the head. No hospitalization required.
The reality looked much different. Hours after another detainee slammed the man, Jose Matias, 25, to the floor and kicked him in the head, Mr. Matias began having seizures. He was taken to a hospital, where doctors removed a chunk of his skull to ease swelling in his brain. He spent six weeks in a coma and, when he emerged, had to relearn how to walk and talk.
It was at least the second time in four months that the Department of Correction had failed to document a serious injury to a person in custody, records and interviews show. In the other case, in August, a man being held in an intake cell was beaten so badly by another detainee that he was paralyzed from the neck down. No reports were ever filed, and, as far as the jail system’s records were concerned, the assault never happened.
