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2014: Department of Justice Investigates Conditions on Rikers

By This timeline is a collaboration between visual artist Isaac Scott and historian Dr. Shana Russell.
2014: Department of Justice Investigates Conditions on Rikers Attorney General Eric Holder and District Attorney Preet Bharara undertake a multi-year investigation into the excessive use of force and punitive segregation at Rikers. Their findings uncover a culture “where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort.” The Department of Justice insists that detainees are “walled off from the public but not from the constitution.” In order to hold the city’s Department of Correction accountable, the DOJ joins a class action lawsuit filed in 2011 by a group of incarcerated adolescents, accusing the Department of Correction of cruel and unusual punishment. Creator: This timeline is a collaboration between visual artist Isaac Scott and historian Dr. Shana Russell. Date: 2014

Attorney General Eric Holder and District Attorney Preet Bharara undertake a multi-year investigation into the excessive use of force and punitive segregation at Rikers. Their findings uncover a culture “where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort.” The Department of Justice insists that detainees are “walled off from the public but not from the constitution.” In order to hold the city’s Department of Correction accountable, the DOJ joins a class action lawsuit filed in 2011 by a group of incarcerated adolescents, accusing the Department of Correction of cruel and unusual punishment.

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This timeline is a collaboration between visual artist Isaac Scott and historian Dr. Shana Russell., “2014: Department of Justice Investigates Conditions on Rikers,” Rikers Public Memory Project Archive, accessed October 23, 2026, http://archive.rikersmemoryproject.org/items/show/284.