New York City has been ordered to turn over control of Rikers Island—one of the country's most notorious jails—and other city lockups to an outside manager. A federal judge who issued a scathing ruling on violence in the city's jails last year said the official would be "empowered to take all actions necessary" to improve conditions, the New York Times reports. Judge Laura Taylor Swain said the remediation manager would report directly to her. She said the manager would not be a city employee, though Mayor Eric Adams' administration has been fighting to retain control of the city's jail system, reports Bloomberg.
The federal takeover follows a class-action lawsuit a decade ago that led to federal monitoring of the jail system. Lawyers who represent detainees called the judge's order a "critical turning point," the Times reports. "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," said lawyers Mary Lynne Werlwas and Debra Greenberger. There have only been nine other similar federal orders on troubled jail systems since 1974.
The Times notes that problems at Rikers Island have persisted despite the city spending more than $500,000 per inmate per year, more than other big cities. It is also extremely well-staffed, with one uniformed officer per inmate, though unlimited sick leave and other issues mean there is still often a shortage of officers. Lawyers for Harvey Weinstein, one of the most high-profile recent inmates, likened the jail complex to "a gulag where the prisoners are treated like animals" in a court filing last year. In 2017, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged to close Rikers Island, but city officials say a plan to replace the complex with four smaller jails is no longer feasible, Bloomberg reports. (More Rikers Island stories.)
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