‘Orange is the New Black’ Riverhead shoot prompts renewed call for Suffolk prison reform

The “disgusting jail” featured in scenes of Orange is the New Black is a real place: the Suffolk County Correctional Facility in Riverhead. And that’s something the N.Y. Civil Liberties Union wants fans of the hit Netflix series to remember.

The local jail was the backdrop for scenes shot on location in January. (See prior story, “Jodie Foster and crew of Orange is the New Black shoot in downtown Riverhead.”)

“What you don’t see on screen are the actual people who are forced to live in the jail’s inhumane and disgusting conditions,” according to the NYCLU, which has a federal class-action lawsuit pending against the county and Sheriff Vincent DeMarco, who is responsible for the medium/maximum security jail.

The lawsuit, filed in 2012 alleging civil rights violations, details conditions inside the jail ranging from overflowing raw sewage inside cells and black mold, to insect and rodent infestations and brown water that “smells like a cesspool.” See opinion column by former inmate Paul Alver, “Fix the real Orange is the New Black jail.”)

More than two years since the suit was filed, “rather than actually fixing the conditions, they are spending their time and taxpayer dollars stalling,” said Amol Sinha, director of the Suffolk County chapter of NYCLU. With the debut of season two of the Netflix series last week, the group has launched a social media campaign it’s calling “Humanity is the New Black” to bring attention to conditions in the jail, Sinha said. The group is asking people to wear orange, carry signs that say “Humanity is the New Black” and Tweet #HumanityIsTheNewBlack.

“It’s important that the broader community understand Orange is the New Black is great TV and it might cover some of the nuances of jail life, but the reality is the conditions there are far worse than what’s in the show,” Sinha said. “We wanted to call attention to the reality of the situation and the terrible conditions people have to suffer through, in the hope that people will demand that County Executive Steve Bellone and Sheriff Vincent DeMarco do something about it.” The orgnization has set up an online message system for sending Bellone an email complaint.

A spokesperson for Bellone declined comment, citing the pending federal lawsuit.

Michael Sharkey, DeMarco’s chief of the staff, said he couldn’t comment directly on the complaints enumerated in the lawsuit. The Suffolk correctional facility, “like every other correctional facility in N.Y. state, is monitored by the N.Y. state commissioners of corrections, who set standards that have to be met,” he said.

“We meet those standards,” Sharkey said.

Suffolk County Legislature Deputy Presiding Officer Jay Schneiderman, whose Second Legislative District includes the Riverhead correctional facility, said he was unaware of the 2012 class-action lawsuit and unaware of the conditions being complained of by the plaintiffs.

“There are people in that jail for all kinds of reasons. It’s important that we treat people with respect,” Schneiderman said. “Incarceration should be a safe enfvironment even though they may have broken the law,” he said, noting that most of the people in the Riverhead jail have not been convicted of a crime.

That’s a point the civil liberties union stresses as well. “Seventy-five percent of the inmates there have not been convicted of any crime,” Sinha said. “Most of those in the jail awaiting trial are there because they couldn’t post bail.”

Schneiderman also pointed out that the county has “a large number of employees working inside the correctional facility.” He said he has not heard complaints about unsanitary conditions from the corrections officers union, which he would expect if the conditions were unhealthy.

A phone call to the Suffolk County Corrections Officers Association seeking comment for this story was not returned by presstime.

First District Legislator Al Krupski, chairman of the legislatures’ public works committee, said the legislature voted last year to spend more than a million dollars to make repairs at the Riverhead jail, which he said he toured last year as a freshman legislator.

“It was what I expected,” Krupski said. 

According to former inmates and the NYCLU, conditions there — as well as at the county’s minimum security facility in Yaphank — include:

“Ping-pong toilets” in cells that bubble up and overflow when toilets in adjoining cells are flushed. Human waste from one toilet gushes out of the toilet in an adjoining cell. Inmates often wake up with sewage overflowing from the toilets onto their cell floors.

Decrepit showers are coated with unavoidable thick, black mold and reek of mildew. The faucets and pipes are rusted over. Corrections officers at Riverhead have reportedly told inmates that they would not even let their dogs use the showers.

Air vents so caked with rust, mold and dirt that ventilation is affected and the air reeks of feces, urine and mold.

Widespread vermin infestations.

Unsanitary kitchens and dining areas that are covered with mold, rust and chipping paint.

The men housed at Yaphank have reported being served food containing rodent droppings.

Inmates are continually subjected to extremely cold temperatures due to high air conditioning in the summer and lack of heating in the winter. Inmates receive only one, very thin blanket.

Brown drinking water that has made many men violently ill.

The Suffolk County Correctional system, with an average daily population of 1,732 inmates housed in Riverhead and Yaphank, is the fourth largest local jail system in the state, according to the county website. The Riverhead facility is 298,592 square feet with a design capacity of 769 cells.