A landmark law recently surfaced claims of systemic sexual abuse at the women’s jail on Rikers Island.
The Rose M. Singer Center women’s jail opened on Rikers Island in June 1988 with a sense of optimism. Mayor Ed Koch wore a striped tie and a hint of a smile as he snipped the ribbon on the new, pink-painted facility. Beside him stood Rose Singer, a lifelong advocate for incarcerated women, draped in her signature pearls. A photographer captured the moment, with Singer catching the ribbon in both hands.
Singer said she hoped her namesake jail — now best known as “Rosie’s” — would be a place of “hope and renewal” for women detained in New York City. But last year, hundreds of women came forward alleging they were sexually assaulted by jail staff, with some saying the abuse began soon after the ribbon was cut. Others claim they were groped, harassed and raped by guards at Rosie’s as recently as last year, alleging that a culture of abuse persists at the jail.
I’ve spent the last 10 months investigating these claims with my colleagues at Gothamist, reviewing thousands of pages of lawsuits and handwritten City records, and interviewing dozens of formerly incarcerated women, correction officers and other insiders.
While the City has faced lawsuits before over claims of guards raping detainees at Rosie’s, the issue gained new attention last year due to the Adult Survivors Act, signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022. The law opened a one-year window for adult survivors of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits, regardless of how much time had passed.
By the time the window closed last November, the act had surfaced more than 2,000 claims from formerly incarcerated people who say they were sexually assaulted by staff at New York’s jails and prisons. Our investigation found that more than 700 of the 1,256 lawsuits filed in New York City’s Supreme Courts involved allegations of sexual assault by Rikers staff against women — nearly 60% of the claims.
The accusations are harrowing. They include anal and vaginal rape by guards, abusive strip searches, persistent harassment and forced oral sex. My colleague Samantha Max reported that at least 32 women allege sexual assault by medical professionals, some under the guise of gynecological exams. I followed the story of one officer known as “Champagne,” accused of abusing 24 women at Rosie’s, from the late ’80s to the early 2000s.
The sheer volume of allegations, spanning from the 1970s to 2023, shocked even lawmakers who helped pass the Adult Survivors Act, including New York State Senator Julia Salazar. “It demonstrates why the act was so important,” Salazar said, adding that more must be done to prevent sexual violence in jails in the first place.
A ‘lack of political will’
Despite the flood of allegations and extensive reporting by Gothamist, as of September, no official investigation has been announced into the abuse claims at Rosie’s or how to prevent future assaults. New York’s jails are overseen by a web of agencies, including local district attorneys, U.S. attorneys, the New York attorney general, the Department of Correction’s own internal investigative team and the New York City Department of Investigation. Oversight is also provided by the City’s Board of Correction and the State Commission of Correction.
The Legal Aid Society Prisoners’ Rights Project director Mary Lynne Werlwas said the silence from officials reflects a “lack of political will” to make the jail safe for incarcerated women. “They are principally Black and brown people, and poor,” she said. “And the City’s leadership just has not taken the harm that flows to them seriously.”
The women are collectively seeking $14.7 billion in damages from New York City. The lawsuits argue the City “knew or should have known” about the alleged culture of abuse at Rosie’s. Werlwas helped file a motion last year asking a federal judge to wrest control of Rikers from the City due to increasingly dangerous conditions.
Sexual violence was not part of the class-action lawsuit that resulted in a federal monitor overseeing the jails, meaning it’s not included in the monitor’s reports to the judge making the decision on a takeover. However, the City has long been aware of sexual abuse claims. A 2011-12 U.S. Department of Justice survey found that nearly 6% of women at Rosie’s reported sexual victimization by staff, one of the highest rates in the country. In 2015, two former detainees sued, alleging they were raped by the same officer at the jail. The City settled for $1.2 million and agreed to comply with the sexual abuse prevention regulations of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. But nearly a decade later, the City is still noncompliant with both those federal regulations and its own minimum standards for stamping out abuse. The accused officer retired with his pension.
The accusations are harrowing. They include anal and vaginal rape by guards, abusive strip searches, persistent harassment and forced oral sex.
Patterns of abuse
As I traveled the city this year doing interviews for the Gothamist investigation, I heard similar stories from women in their 50s who say they were assaulted three decades ago as I did from women in their 20s who allege assaults three years ago.
“I thought no one would believe me” was a sentiment I heard often, especially from women who struggled with substance abuse or mental health issues. Prosecutors told me that “credibility” is a key factor when deciding whether to take on a woman’s case against an officer.
In 2015, the City added near-full-camera coverage to Rikers, improving accountability. However, bathrooms, cells and some closets remain camera-free for privacy reasons, and these locations came up frequently in recent sexual assault allegations.
Many describe being assaulted in the jail’s “slop sinks” — camera-free closets used to empty mop water — or while alone on work assignments with officers. Some women cried as they recounted how the alleged abuse affected their self-esteem and caused generational harm, impacting their ability to mother their children and causing a fear of men and authority.
The Department of Correction suspended the use of staff body-worn cameras in May after one caught fire, and jail monitors say they were not consistently used anyway.
Women are more vulnerable
Bringing contraband into the jail for detainees is mostly illegal, but Legal Aid Society attorney Barbara Hamilton said that when she started working at Rikers in 2008, she was surprised to see women with makeup or trinkets from officers, and found it odd to see a detainee walking arm-in-arm with a male guard. As women opened up to her over the years, she said they told her that sexual assault at Rosie’s at the hands of guards was “commonplace,” but women rarely reported it.
“People in jail are vulnerable,” Hamilton said. “But in my view, the women were particularly vulnerable. They tended to complain less, assert their rights less.”
Two women told me they didn’t speak up about their alleged assaults because they didn’t want to jeopardize getting back to their children safely. Dozens of women allege they were threatened with violence against them or their families if they reported the abuse. One former detainee sued the City last year, alleging Rosie’s guards shackled her hands and feet and videotaped her on a handheld camera — sometimes while naked — as retaliation for reporting claims that correction officers had raped her and coerced her to have sex.
Hamilton said ending the “ingrained culture” of sexual assault at Rosie’s requires both political pressure and proactive measures like improved hiring practices, better training and swift accountability for offenders.
Mayor Adams has declined to order an independent investigation into the 700 claims, downplaying them as incidents from “decades ago.” However, Gothamist’s investigation found 40 lawsuits alleging abuse within the last six years, with at least five accused officers still employed by the City.
Seeking accountability
Only a handful of officers have been criminally prosecuted for sexual assault of detainees under Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, whose office has jurisdiction over Rikers Island. Clark’s office is reviewing claims under the Adult Survivors Act but has not confirmed any investigations yet. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office can only investigate if directed to by the governor or referred by Clark’s office. Hochul, who in 2022 described the Adult Survivors Act as part of our “collective responsibility to protect one another,” has not commented.
City Council member Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Criminal Justice Committee, called on Mayor Adams to request state and federal funds to fix the “culture of sexual violence and corruption” at Rosie’s and accelerate the closure of Rikers. The facility is mandated to close by 2027, but delays have pushed back the timeline.
Hannah Meyers, director of policing and public safety at The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, agreed there should be “appropriate investigations and serious consequences” for officers found guilty of abuses. But she said the City needs to focus on investing in improvements to Rikers’ physical structure, officer training and recruitment, rather than diverting funds to closing Rikers and building smaller jails.
Mayor Adams has declined to order an independent investigation into the 700 claims, downplaying them as incidents from “decades ago.” However, Gothamist’s investigation found 40 lawsuits alleging abuse within the last six years, with at least five accused officers still employed by the City.
Without systemic change, the City could face another wave of similar lawsuits in the coming years. Any settlements will come from the City’s general fund, which has paid out about $38 million annually over the past five years for claims against the Department of Correction. Comptroller Brad Lander has argued that these payouts should come from the DOC’s budget to incentivize the agency to make reforms.
Experts say inadequate investment in oversight agencies has also hindered reform. The City’s Board of Correction has not held a hearing on federal Prison Rape Elimination Act compliance since 2019, citing a lack of resources. The Department of Investigation could launch a probe into the 700 complaints of sexual assault, but has not announced one. The State Commission of Correction has the authority to issue directives and even close jails, but has been inactive on the issue of Rikers Island since labeling it one of the worst correctional facilities in the state in 2018, specifically calling out its disproportionate rate of sexual abuse.
At the federal level, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has in the past two years prioritized eliminating sexual assault by correctional staff. In 2023, under her guidance, U.S. attorneys doubled the number of cases involving sexual assault by prison officers. In April, the Bureau of Prisons closed California prison FCI Dublin after an Associated Press investigation uncovered allegations of a culture of rampant sexual abuse of imprisoned women at the facility.
Associate Deputy Attorney General Marshall Miller told me fixing the culture at FCI Dublin would have required “strong leadership,” commitment to PREA compliance and zero tolerance for retaliation against women who report abuse.
That’s also what it would take to stamp out sexual assault at Rosie’s, City jails experts said. Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle-Maginley Liddie touted a vision for safe and humane jails when she was appointed last year. But she has yet to publicly address the issue, more than nine months after the lawsuits were filed.
For now, the women sent to Rosie’s remain vulnerable. The last time I visited the jail, a dusty portrait of Rose M. Singer still hung in its narrow foyer, beyond the faded-pink facade — a reminder of hope yet to be realized.
“We need leaders to show just how important the safety and lives of these people are,” Werlwas said. “That’s the start.”