Judge leaning towards federal takeover of New York City’s Rikers jail

A US judge on Wednesday said she was leaning towards ordering a federal takeover of New York City's Rikers Island jail complex after finding the city had failed to improve violent conditions that put inmates and staff at risk.

In a 65-page opinion, chief US district judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the city and its department of correction were in contempt of 18 provisions of court orders designed to remedy the use of excessive force and improve staff supervision.

“Those who live and work in the jails on Rikers Island are faced with grave and immediate threats of danger, as well as actual harm, on a daily basis,” Swain wrote.

The case stems in part from a class-action lawsuit in 2012 brought on behalf of Rikers inmates alleging conditions at the jail violated their constitutional rights. After the Manhattan US attorney's office intervened in the case, the city in 2015 agreed to have a federal monitor keep tabs on the jail.

Swain said she was inclined to impose a receivership, a structure in which an individual answerable to her would be responsible for safety at Rikers. The judge gave the city, the plaintiffs and the US attorney's office until January 14 to propose what such an arrangement could look like.

In a statement the city said it had made progress and would continue to work with the federal monitor to improve safety.

The Legal Aid Society, a nonprofit, and law firm Emery Celli, which brought the class action, said the ruling “will finally create a pathway for reform”.

In her opinion, Swain said the rates of use of force, self-harm, deaths and other types of violence were worse today than they were in 2015.

There were 6,784 incidents of use of force at the jail in 2023, up from 4,652 in 2016, according to figures the judge cited. According to the report, 33 people have died in custody since 2022.

More than 6,000 people were in custody on Rikers Island in mid-2023, according to the New York City comptroller's office.

Separately, New York City in 2019 passed a law to close all jail facilities on Rikers Island and move detained individuals to new jails to be built elsewhere in the city.

Reuters