New York City’s courthouses are ill-equipped to stop the spread of coronavirus and pose a severe health hazard to the public and court workers, says a safety consultants’ report obtained by the Daily News.
Just walking into a courthouse “poses an unacceptably high-risk” of acquiring the coronavirus “due to the number of people who congregate in close proximity,” says the report by CrowdRx, which assesses safety in facilities that draw big groups of people.
A CrowdRx expert in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems did not find a single arraignment court in the city that was safe to be in, the report states.
CrowdRx found significant problems throughout the city’s courthouses:
— Masks and other personal protective gear isn’t properly used — especially in courthouse holding cells, which pose an “incredibly high” risk of contracting COVID-19.
— Toilets often lack lids that can prevent the spread of germs while they’re flushed.
— People sometimes are dangerously jammed together in poorly-ventilated areas, and elevators sometimes are too small to allow social distancing.
— Plexiglass shields meant to keep people from each other are so poorly installed they provide too little protection.
The CrowdRx team — which did not have complete access to the courts’ non-public areas — was hired by 10 of the city’s legal defender services, whose employees are courthouse regulars.
Some of the problems cited in the CrowdRx report were not problems before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
For example, in Brooklyn Family Court, the report said, ceilings are low in the area where visitors line up to be cleared by courthouse security.
That wasn’t a problem pre-pandemic — but in the COVID-19 era, “risk of [virus] transmission is too great to permit lines to form inside in this area,” the report says.
Visitors to Staten Island Family Court don’t have enough space to safely congregate while waiting for cases to be called, the report said.
And elevators in Staten Island Supreme Court were in “clear violation of the mandatory 6 feet physical distancing requirement,” the report found.
Adding to the danger is that courthouses in recent weeks have had more public use.
New Yorkers with desk appearance tickets for low-level offenses like public urination and turnstile jumping now appear in court in person.
And in August, grand juries began meeting again — putting groups of two dozen citizens in courtrooms with prosecutors and criminal defendants.
“You are subpoenaing them to do their civic duty, and you are not being honest with them,” said Lori Zeno, executive director Queens Defender Services.
“They have no idea that they are walking into a courthouse that has been declared unsafe by several experts now,” Zeno said.
In several courthouses, “there were no articulated plans to keep the public safe,” the study says.
Some of the safety problem stem from poor practices by courthouse staff, CrowdRx found.
“We witnessed court staff taking masks off when speaking among court staff or covering only their mouths. These actions undermine the critical function of wearing a mask – to block the transmission of and exposure to viral particles,” the report states.
“We witnessed no, or improper, usage of masks by persons held in custody by the NYPD.”
Prisoner holding areas seemed particularly dangerous, said the report.
“Mask policies were not enforced in that area. Cells were not adequately ventilated. The risk of transmission from one person to another is incredibly high in this setting. In turn, the risk for jailed people, officers or defender staff to transmit to each other is also incredibly high,” the report states.
“In none of the courthouses did we observe safe places to interview clients in police custody that feature a ventilated room with an adequate transparent shield between the client and the interviewer.”
Plexiglass shields were poorly built, CrowdRx said.
“In many instances what was observed on the tours was ineffective and insufficient,” the report states. “The plexiglass needs to be lowered to the granite or countertop.
“In addition, there were no dividers separating many of the parties – DAs, defenders and accused persons – or behind the bench between the judge and court staff.”
Cleaners used to disinfect surfaces in the courthouses are not EPA approved, CrowdRx said.
In bathrooms, CrowdRx said every toilet should have a lid — and signage that advises users to close them when they flush.
Office of Court Administration spokesman Lucian Chalfen declined to address the CrowdRx report’s specific findings, but said “most” of the issues raised have been corrected since August 11, when CrowdRx’s on-site tours concluded.
“While this report may appear comprehensive, it is backward-looking and most of its findings are both inaccurate and ancient history,” Chalfen said.
“The period covered in the report goes back months, a time period in which we have addressed concerns with the installation of Plexiglas barriers, updated HVAC filtering systems and revised courthouse entrance requirements including temperature checks for all entering the buildings,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which maintains the buildings, said the agency had not seen the report until The News asked about it.
Coronavirus has taken a deadly toll on the state’s court system. Early in the pandemic, it killed three judges — Brooklyn Supreme Court judges Johnny Lee Baynes and Noach Dear, and Orange County Judge Steven Milligram.
It’s unclear if the disease is still spreading — though Zeno said three Queens Criminal Court employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the Kew Gardens courthouse opened in July.
