appointments. violence is rampant. what would you say is the percentage with weapons. several units unstaffed completely. i can t remember looking under a sheet or mattress and not seeing a shank under one of them. anybody would want one to keep themselves protected. there was no correction officer. obtaining more than 100 hours of video from inside rikers. scenes like this. an attempted knifing and inmate organized so-called fight night where some detainees were forced to participate. who was running the place? the inmates run the place. a lawsuit brought on behalf of a client awaiting trial who argued he should be released because of the unsafe conditions inside. in a groundbreaking condition
island no recreation, health care was not available to people because we couldn t get them to their doctor s appointments. reporter: violence, he says, was rampant nbc news obtained more than 100 hours of surveillance video from inside rikers city officials don t contest the contents of the video scenes like this, an attempted knifing averted by an officer. and an inmate organized so-called fight night, where some detainees were forced to participate. who was running the place? the inmates run the facilities. i wrote to all the judges and district attorneys and said i can t guarantee the safety of people sent here reporter: schiraldi says one of the most pressing problems is a union contract that gives officers unlimited sick time. he points out that, of the nearly 8,000 officers at rikers, up to a third don t show up on any given day. for six years, serena townsend was
vincent was in charge of rikers island. no recreation, health care was not available, because we couldn t get them to their doctor s appointments, people weren t making it on time. reporter: violence, he says, was rampant. what would you say, was a percentage of prisoners that would have weapons? there were several units that were unstaffed completely. there was no corrections officers physically in the unit. and i can t remember looking under a sheet or a mattress and not seeing a shank under one of them. because, frankly, anybody would want one to keep themselves protected, because there was no correctional officer to keep themselves protected. reporter: nbc news recently obtained more than 100 hours of surveillance video from inside rikers. scenes like this, an attempted knifing averted by an officer and an inmate-organized so-called fight night, where some detainees were forced to participate. who was running the fights? the inmates run the