Rikers Staffing Crisis Limits Access to Medical Care
With thousands of officers not coming into work, incarcerated people aren’t getting escorted to their medical appointments, a New York Focus investigation finds.

This story is the product of a collaboration between New York Focus and THE CITY.


A seemingly minor change in access to city jails has made it much harder for a lauded debate course to recruit volunteers.
The Adams administration said the city would replace discontinued Rikers courses. “I can say for certain that that’s not true,” one worker told New York Focus.
Men locked up in the Broome County jail describe an opioid treatment program so shoddy, they risk withdrawal, relapse, and overdose.
The addiction epidemic is getting worse in the Capital Region. Through local zoning laws, residents fight to keep the state’s solutions out of their backyards.
Mixed evidence was piling up about a signature New York drug policy experiment. Then the state stopped releasing the data.
The health department has blown past deadlines to implement legislation encouraging lifesaving transplants — along with at least five other laws.
The assemblymember wants to unseat Nico Minerva, right hand to party boss Keith Wright. The Manhattan Democrats vote on Thursday.
The mayor is putting New York City’s landmark climate and jobs law in jeopardy, our columnist argues.
As a humanitarian crisis deepens, the state’s $25 million solution is off to a slow start. An in-depth look at the opaque program reveals a raft of logistical hurdles and strict eligibility requirements.
Under Roberta Reardon, the agency has recovered less and less of workers’ stolen wages. Meanwhile, staff resign, and replacements lag.
Some counties pay social services workers so little, the people who administer benefits end up applying themselves.
In December, the governor vetoed legislation requiring freight trains to be staffed with at least two crew members. Rail workers say it’s a bare minimum for safety.