So, you or a loved one has just been arrested in New York City. What comes next?
The underlying answer: lots, and lots, of waiting around, according to former detainees, correction officers and jail officials who gave THE CITY an insider’s view of the process. The system moves slowly and the food is typically terrible.
But there’s a constant clock on the process: The police and prosecutors have 24 hours to bring people charged with a crime before a judge. Similarly, jail officials have 24 hours to make sure people are put in housing units.
The deadlines, sadly, aren’t always met.
THE CITY has compiled some basic tips and a rundown of being in custody in the five boroughs. However, it isn’t a comprehensive guide to all your legal rights. Lawyers are best for that.
Here’s some helpful information:
Where do you go first? What happens?
People who are arrested are typically brought to a local Police Department precinct where they are held in a holding pen with other detainees. (Find contact information and the location of each city precinct house here.) Cops fingerprint people and take their mugshots. They use that information to check if people in custody have any outstanding arrest warrants.
Police can interrogate people at the precinct, although that typically only happens in serious cases, according to defense lawyers. Police must give them their Miranda warning before those so-called police interviews. That lets them know they can remain silent, ask for a lawyer and not incriminate themselves.
Most of those interviews are now recorded.
“That dramatically cuts down on brutality,” said civil rights lawyer Ron Kuby. “But it doesn’t prevent the police from using a panoply of discredited techniques that are associated with false and coercive confessions.”
People facing lower-level offenses are given summonses or desk appearance tickets — and then are free to go.
During mass arrests during a protest, people are frequently processed at NYPD headquarters at 1 Police Plaza in Lower Manhattan.
When someone is charged with a felony, they are usually brought to a place known as Central Booking. Each borough has its own location.
“I’d call Central Booking the large intestine of the legal system,” Kuby said. “Everything that’s brought into the criminal legal system ends up there and through a slow process it’s eventually transferred into a courtroom.”
If you are arraigned and let go on bail (or without bail), you’ll be uncuffed and made free to go in the courtroom.
How can you look up where someone is in the system?
Want to know where someone in custody is exactly, or whether they’re still locked up? It may take a while.
Nothing will typically show up in the Correction Department’s Inmate Lookup portal or via the city’s 311 system until that person is fully processed and given what’s called a Book and Case number. That can take days.
The NYPD says you can call 311 or 212-NEW-YORK (212-639-9675) for help. Sometimes the Police Department will be able to tell you whether that person is in custody and where he or she will be arraigned before a judge.
When a person is processed in the jails on Rikers Island their name and basic information will come up in the DOC’s online inmate lookup database.
What happens after the arraignment if you can’t make bail or are remanded — locked up without bail — until your next court hearing?
The person is brought to Rikers Island via a bus usually with other detainees.
Men are processed at the Eric M. Taylor Center and women go to the Rose M. Singer Center.
Those are just two of 10 jail facilities in operation on the island, and that’s where the new admission process takes place.
That includes: screening forms, fingerprints, signatures, photos, a strip search, a mandatory clothing change and the issuing of a jail uniform. (More on jailhouse clothing below.) People accused of a felony are subject to a full body strip search. Those facing misdemeanor charges are given a less invasive search, according to DOC regulations.
New detainees are also given a medical screening and tested for some infectious diseases, like tuberculosis.
“It’s not fun,” said Barbara Hamilton, who leads the Legal Aid Society’s Incarcerated Client Services Unit. Multiple people are held in the same cell and it’s hard to access information, phone, or any other services, she said.
They are sometimes given blankets and pillows, but don’t have cots to sleep on. They are usually forced to sleep on the floor.
The process has changed over the years. The central intake area on Rikers has moved from facility to facility and during some stretches, many of the buildings on the island had their own processing centers.
In 2019, when Lloyd Haynes, a former detainee, went through the system he was moved from cell to cell during the screening process.
“It’s very torturous,” he recalled. “It’s like one big U and you continually move down.”
Food is pretty awful, too, he said.
“They come by with stale baloney sandwiches and milk,” he said.
It’s also easy to miss a meal depending on when you arrive, according to former detainees. Jail staff rarely, if ever, brings people food outside of set meal times.
How does someone put money into someone’s jail commissary account?
The way detainees have the option to buy grocery and toiletry items in jail is through a commissary account. Detainees can deposit their money into a J-Pay account when they are at intake. Their families and friends can also deposit money via this link.
The commissary, for now, is run by Keefe, a private firm with problems around the country, including two bribery scandals and multiple legal challenges for gouging the incarcerated, THE CITY has previously reported.
Keefe’s two systems do not rely on physical commissary stores. Items are instead delivered to jail facilities as requested. Detainees call in their orders through telephones placed in their housing units and can order up to $125 in purchases per week, with the correction department collecting the money and paying Keefe based on sales. Detainees order an average of 3,300 packages a week.
When can they first make phone calls? How many?
Detainees are afforded a phone call in Central Booking and during their time in the courts before entering DOC custody. When they are officially transferred to DOC custody, they are allowed a phone call after receiving a PIN number necessary to make a phone call. Each day, detainees 21 minutes to make telephone calls, free of charge. Some borrow time from other detainees to make longer calls.
How much clothing does someone get? What happens to their own clothes?
At intake, each detainee is given three uniforms, two sets of undergarments, and two pairs of socks. Their personal property is vouchered and placed in property storage. Family and friends can send additional clothing items, in line with the Department’s permissible items listed online.
How long does the intake process for Rikers Island typically take?
A while.
On Feb. 21, 2024, 61 people were processed through the new admission process and housed in the intake facility for men on Rikers Island with an average processing time of 16 hours and 25 minutes.
But there are times when it takes a lot longer. Sometimes as long as two or three days, according to Hamilton, who added it can take up to 10 days.
Who interviews new detainees? What do they ask?
Correction Intelligence Bureau, Security staff, and Intake staff may all interview a new detainee.
They ask people questions from standardized intake forms such as if they are part of a gang or have some prior jail history. They also look at your age and criminal charges.
Like in the police precinct, detainees do not need to answer any of the questions and have the right to remain silent.
People will then be given a score and classified.
“The higher the classification, typically, the more restrictive your housing is going to be,” said Hamilton.
People can be put in single cells, open housing dorms, or mental health housing areas.
Legal Aid has an office at the intake area in EMTC. If the process is lagging, they can ask a correction officer to ping someone in that office. They can also file a written grievance but that frequently leads to correction officer retaliation, according to former detainees.
Arriving at a jail housing unit: What to expect.
People should have immediate access to a phone, but that isn’t always the case, experts say. Gangs in the jail sometimes block access and demand favors. For years, many fights in housing units have broken out near the old phone banks, according to former detainees and correction officials.
That has been largely mitigated by the DOC’s distribution of individual tablets which can be used for phone calls, according to jail insiders.
People can also request to go to a Legal Aid office in each facility for help with contacting a lawyer. Legal Aid can also assist with any possible commissary or clothing issues with the commissary or clothing.
“It’s very disorienting for people,” Hamilton said. “Nothing is in your control anymore. Showering. Using the facilities. Eating.”