Federal judge takes control of NYC's Rikers Island prison complex

New York City’s Rikers Island prison complex will no longer be under the control of the city, but rather will be controlled by a court after a judge handed down a ruling on Tuesday.

According to Newsweek, US District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote in her 77-page ruling that a "remediation" manager will be appointed to oversee Rikers and will report directly to the court. 

Swain concluded that the last nine years "leave 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.'

The official appointed to oversee the complex will be "empowered to take all actions necessary" to address concerns there. The ruling continued,
"The Court expects that the Remediation Manager and the Commissioner of the Department of Correction will work as collaboratively as possible to achieve remediation of the Contempt Provisions and compliance with the Consent Judgment, including by building upon the progress that has been achieved since the current Commissioner took office."

Swain wrote that changes will "take some time," but she expects "continual progress toward these goals so that control of use of force and related policies and practices can be returned to the City and the DOC [Department of Correction] as quickly as possible."

The ruling stemmed from a class action lawsuit launched in 2011, which accused the New York City Department of Corrections of frequently using unnecessary and excessive force in its facilities. The case, Nunez v City of New York, was settled in 2015 and allowed for federal oversight of the prison.  

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in a Tuesday news conference, "If the federal judge made the determination that they want to do something else and they don't like what we're doing, it's a federal judge. We're going to follow the rules. What I'm hoping is with this announcement that the federal judge will look at some of these laws. The laws that state we can't handcuff dangerous inmates when we transfer them."

Legislation passed in 2019 by the New York City Council states that Rikers Island must be closed by 2027 and replaced by new jails.