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A federal judge has agreed to initiate proceedings that could wrest control of New York City’s troubled prison system from Mayor Eric Adams. The prison complex has been plagued by reports of violence and dysfunction. Mayor Eric Adams has fiercely resisted the notion of outside intervention and promoted his administration’s efforts to reduce logging and staff absenteeism.
NEW YORK — A federal judge agreed Thursday to begin proceedings that could wrest control of New York City’s troubled prison system from Mayor Eric Adams and place a court-appointed outside authority in charge of Rikers Island.
The decision follows a series of reports from a court-appointed federal monitor that described a “disturbing level of regression” within the prison system, with nearly all categories of violence now higher than when the monitor was appointed to oversee the efforts. of reform eight years ago.
At a hearing in Manhattan federal court, US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain said the latest reports of violence and dysfunction inside Rikers Island had raised “deep questions” about the city’s ability to run the jail complex, which suggests that the incarcerated population is “at great risk of immediate harm.”
She ordered federal prosecutors and lawyers representing the detainees to begin preparing arguments in support of a court-ordered receivership, a critical step that could culminate in the appointment of an outside authority to govern the notorious prison complex early on. of the next year.
Recent visits to Rikers Island have only intensified those concerns, the monitor, Steve Martin, told the judge on Thursday. He accused the Adams administration of promoting minor policy changes that amounted to “nothing more than window dressing” while seeking to withhold key information from the public about the appalling conditions inside the jail.
On Tuesday, the same day that a group of conservative-leaning city officials toured Rikers Island and praised the Democratic mayor’s oversight of the jail, there were more than two dozen incidents of use of force, seven fires and two complaints of assaults on staff. according to monitor.
Adams, a former New York City police captain, has fiercely resisted the notion of outside intervention, pointing to a drop in certain types of violence since the nadir of the pandemic, when widespread staff casualties plunged to Rikers Island in chaos.
“My team, with the help of Eric Adams, has brought this system back from the precipice of collapse,” Department of Corrections Commissioner Louis Molina said Thursday. “No trustee will come to the Department of Correction and induce further reform at a faster pace than we have achieved.”
The Adams administration finds itself increasingly alone in that view. Last month, Manhattan US Attorney Damien Williams said his office would seek to strip the city of control of Rikers Island, joining a growing chorus that includes the jail’s independent oversight board, detainee advocates and dozens of local elected officials.
During the hearing, Jeffrey Powell, the US assistant district attorney, said federal prosecutors had met with jail officials in recent weeks to discuss plans to reduce violence inside jails. His response, he said, was “disappointing, to say the least.”
The federal takeover process is expected to last for months, with each side scheduled to present their arguments between November of this year and February 2024.
Outside the federal courthouse, advocates and people formerly incarcerated on Rikers Island called on the government to initiate an immediate federal takeover of the system.
Henry Robinson, a 38-year-old man who spent time on Rikers Island in 2017, said he long believed public officials were willfully ignoring the crisis in the city’s jails. The imminent threat of an acquisition had given him a rare glimmer of hope, he said.
“They’ve been out for lunch for a long time,” Robinson said. “It’s time for a new administration.”
2023-08-11 02:20:07
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