A federal judge overseeing New York City’s jails took Rikers Island out of the city’s control on Tuesday, ordering that an outside official be appointed to make major decisions regarding the troubled and violent jail complex.
The judge, Laura Taylor Swain, said in a 77-page ruling that the official would report directly to her and would not be a city employee, turning aside Mayor Eric Adams’s efforts to maintain control of the lockups. The official, called a remediation manager, will work with the New York City correction commissioner, but be “empowered to take all actions necessary” to turn around the city’s jails, she wrote.
“While the necessary changes will take some time, the court expects to see continual progress toward these goals,” Judge Swain wrote.
The order comes nearly a decade after the city’s jails, which include the Rikers Island complex, fell under federal oversight in the settlement of a class-action lawsuit. The agreement focused on curbing the use of force and violence toward both inmates and correction officers. A court-appointed monitor issued regular reports on the persistent mayhem.
New York City has held onto its control of Rikers with white knuckles — struggling to show progress and reaching the brink of losing oversight of the jails as critics of the system called for an outside authority. Conditions have not improved, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs and the federal monitor.
New York City has spent more than $500,000 per inmate annually in recent years, according to city data, well beyond what other large cities have spent, and yet detainees still sometimes go without food or proper medical care. A New York Times investigation in 2021 found that guards are often stationed in inefficient ways that fail to protect inmates. And although the jail system has consistently been the most well-staffed in the United States — there is roughly one uniformed officer for each inmate at Rikers, according to city data — an unlimited sick leave policy and other uses of leave have meant that staffing can drop to dangerous levels.