The Legal Aid Society is calling for an immediate reduction in the jail population in New York City due to the catastrophic conditions in the jails. With a burgeoning population, and thousands of correction officers calling in sick while their colleagues work triple tours, the City simply cannot safely manage the jails.

According to The New York Times, a report filed by the federal monitor overseeing the jails says violence on Rikers has increased significantly this summer, due in large part to thousands of correction officers simply failing to come to work. While the monitor contends the department has more than enough staff on its payroll, it notes staff members failed to report for 2,300 shifts in the month of July without providing any notice.

Even when employees were on the job, the monitor describes a situation where staff “failed to intervene in violence between incarcerated people,” and were “often slow to act when those in their care threatened to harm themselves.”

“The city has completely lost control and as a result, people are not being protected from violence and are locked in the housing areas for days with no food, showers, access to lawyers or medical visits,” said Mary Lynne Werlwas, Director of the Prisoner’s Rights Project at The Legal Aid Society.

“Every person they send to jail is at great risk of harm and death,” said Dr. Robert Cohen, a member of an independent body that monitors the jail system.