Rikers Island to be taken out of New York City control, federal judge rules
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A federal judge Tuesday seized control of New York City's notorious jail complex on Rikers Island, which will now be run by an official who reports directly to the court.
In the past 50 years, a federal judge has seized control of an American jail fewer than a dozen times.
Critics have described brutal, violent and inhumane conditions inside the jail for years. There have been suspicious deaths and suicides.
In a 77-page ruling, Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote that she found the conduct of city over the last nine years "leaves no doubt that continued insistence on compliance with the court's orders by persons answerable principally to political authorities would lead only to confrontation and delay."
She also wrote "that the current management structure and staffing are insufficient to turn the tide within a reasonable period; that defendants have consistently fallen short of the requisite compliance with court orders for years, at times under circumstances that suggest bad faith; and that enormous resources -- that the city devotes to a system that is at the same time overstaffed and underserved -- are not being deployed effectively."
The manager, who will report to the judge, will work with the city's jails commissioner and will be "empowered to take all actions necessary" to fix the complex.
Swain proposed a three-year timetable to turn the jail around.
Mayor Eric Adams said the city would obey the court order and cooperate, noting "the problems at Rikers are decades in the making."
The mayor said the law requiring Rikers to close in 2027, which he has since said cannot be met, hamstrung his administration because "it stated you can't make any capital improvements on Rikers Island, we can't spend money on Rikers Island to improve the conditions."
Adams insisted that conditions at Rikers have improved under his administration.
But ultimately if a federal judge wants to appoint an independent remediation manager, "that's outside my span of control," Adams said. "I'm going to follow whatever rule she puts in place, because she has the authority to do so."
Reform advocates have applauded the ruling and say having an independent manager will take politics out of the decision making.
Mayoral candidate Scott Stringer, who previously served as the city's comptroller, praised the judge's ruling as "long-overdue but necessary" in a statement released on Tuesday.
"For decades, Rikers has represented a systemic failure of multiple mayoral administrations -- plagued by violence, neglect, and dangerous and inhumane conditions," he said. "While I applaud this decision, I do not view it as a victory; instead, it is a scathing indictment of our citys failed leadership."
The Legal Aid Society released a statement commending the court:
"We commend the court's historic decision to appoint an independent receiver to end the culture of brutality in the City's jails. For years, the New York City Department of Correction has failed to follow federal court orders to enact meaningful reforms, allowing violence, disorder, and systemic dysfunction to persist in the jails. This appointment marks a critical turning point-an overdue acknowledgment that City leadership has proven unable to protect the safety and constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals."
(ABC News contributed to this report.)
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