A federal decide held New York Metropolis in contempt of court docket Wednesday for failing to enhance situations at Rikers and different jails — and her scathing ruling says she’s now “inclined” to position your complete correctional system underneath federal management.
The bombshell ruling from Manhattan Federal Court docket Chief Decide Laura Taylor Swain discovered that town has did not implement 18 sweeping reforms NYC agreed to enact underneath the 2015 Nunez federal consent decree geared toward enhancing security for workers and inmates on Rikers Island and in different metropolis jails operated by the Division of Correction.
Because of this, Swain dominated Mayor Adams’ administration is in contempt of the 2015 decree on all 18 factors, together with key measures reminiscent of deaths in custody and violence behind bars.
“The use of force rate and other rates of violence, self-harm, and deaths in custody are demonstrably worse than when the Consent Judgment went into effect in 2015,” she wrote.
“As the record in this case demonstrates, the current rates of use of force, stabbings and slashings, fights, assaults on staff, and in-custody deaths remain extraordinarily high, and there has been no substantial reduction in the risk of harm currently facing those who live and work in the Rikers Island jails.”
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Todd Maisel/New York Each day Information
An aerial view of Rikers Island in New York Metropolis. (Todd Maisel/New York Each day Information)
For that motive, the decide wrote she’s all however sure to strip management of the jail system from the Division of Correction and as a substitute let the federal authorities take over day-to-day operations underneath a “receivership” construction.
“The Court is inclined to impose a receivership: namely, a remedy that will make the management of the use of force and safety aspects of the Rikers Island jails ultimately answerable directly to the Court,” she wrote in her 65-page ruling.
A spokeswoman for the mayor mentioned she didn’t have any rapid remark.
Decide Laura Taylor Swain (Southern District of New York)
Swain has a number of instances earlier than hinted she believes a receivership is so as, together with soliciting proposals from the Authorized Help Society, which filed the lawsuit that resulted within the 2015 decree, for a way the federal takeover would look. Nonetheless, the decide has by no means earlier than said outright she is prone to place the system underneath such a construction.
With Graham Rayman
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Initially Printed: November 27, 2024 at 11:16 AM EST
