High-profile inmates are generally held in protective custody on Rikers Island, a network of nine jails with a total of 7,500 inmates, including pretrial detainees and convicts serving sentences of a year or less. Rikers Island has been plagued by violence and mismanagement over the years prompting efforts to close the jail complex. That is where most high-profile detainees are held, including police officers, those accused of killing police officers, politicians and celebrities. A lawyer for Mr. Manafort, Kevin Downing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the city’s correction department, which runs the jails on Rikers Island, also declined to comment, saying only that Mr. Manafort was not currently in the agency’s custody.

Source: New York Times June 04, 2019 13:34 UTC