News about Bobby Cohen

Despite a New York probation commissioner's promise to ban them last year, prisoners on Rikers Island are now being shackled and handcuffed to metal restraint desks when they are in classrooms. At a meeting last week, Correction Commissioner Louis Molina told the city Board of Corrections that the desks are a "important device in coping with a diverse population vulnerable to serious violence." His remarks were different from last July: 'We're removing the restraint desks that were part of our restrictive housing policy,' he told WNYC in July.' According to correction reports, the specially built desks, which have been used at Rikers for six years, are now being used by 74 prisoners at three Rikers housing units.