Two major city public defender organizations slammed the Department of Correction (DOC) Tuesday for what they described as systemic and “unconstitutional” barriers that prevent incarcerated people on Rikers Island from meeting with their lawyers, including locking lawyers in covered-windowed rooms without bathroom access for hours.

During a Board of Correction hearing in Lower Manhattan, Michael Klinger of Brooklyn Defender Services and Christopher Boyle of New York County Defender Services detailed widespread failures that they said violate the basic right to counsel for thousands of New Yorkers awaiting trial behind bars.

“Much of what we observe on a daily basis amounts to deviations from the department’s own policies,” Klinger told the board. “What may seem like inconveniences for

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