By Jack Delaney | jdelaney@queensledger.com
In 2019, lawmakers gave one of the largest jails on earth until 2026 to shut down completely. Five years later, officials are still dragging their feet on reforms — so the federal government is poised to wrest control of the facility from New York City officials to ensure the closure actually happens.
On November 27, Manhattan federal judge Laura Swain held the city in contempt on 18 counts for its handling of Rikers Island, ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in Nunez v. the City of New York, a case first brought in 2012 that alleges “a pattern and practice of using unnecessary and excessive force against incarcerated individuals.” The decision paves the way for a federal receivership, which would strip local agencies of jurisdiction over Rikers.
The case was settled in 2015, with the stipulation that the Department of Correction (DOC) take concrete steps to fix what critics have described as a culture of impunity for officers within the jail. As part of the deal, a monitoring team was created to track compliance with the plan.
But in a 65-page decision, Swain observed that the monitors had consistently found DOC unwilling or unable to implement changes. “Progress will likely not be achieved,” they wrote in December 2021, “no matter how many remedial orders or other potential sanctions may be imposed,” because of “foundational” problems within the department.
If anything, Swain noted, progress has trended backward. “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, with cases in which corrections officers used force against inmates climbing from around 4,500 incidents in 2016 (or a rate of 4 per 100 people) to nearly 7,000 (more than 9 per 100 people) in 2023.
These issues have been compounded by DOC’s unreliable record-keeping. Last year, the New York Daily News reported that the monitor had “no confidence” in the department’s in-house data on violence at Rikers and cited six attacks made with blades that had not been classified as slashings or stabbings.
At two recent hearings in September and October, City Council members pressed DOC leadership to explain why reforms recommended by watchdogs had not been fully implemented, and why a track record of abuses appeared to be continuing unabated.
At the October hearing, several formerly incarcerated women testified to what they said was a decades-long system that abetted sexual abuse of inmates by corrections officers at Rikers. Over 700 sexual lawsuits have been filed to date against the DOC through the 2022 Adult Survivors Act (ASA), which amended state law to allow sexual assault victims to file civil cases even if the statute of limitations had lapsed, for a one-year window.
Representatives for the corrections officers union argued that the federal judge’s concerns were mislaid.
“Seventy percent of our inmate population is facing violent felony charges,” said Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. “That same population is driving the hundreds of assaults on our officers, including sexual assaults, as well as inmate on inmate attacks, which requires necessary, not excessive force, to keep everyone in our jails safe. Outsourcing control of Rikers Island to a federal receiver will not be a silver bullet and will not solve any of these problems. Giving correction officers the manpower and resources to enforce law and order in our jails will.”
Historically, the union has wielded significant power over any changes within city jails. As The CITY reports, it has previously stonewalled reforms that would have introduced stab-resistant vests and reduced cases in which solitary confinement can be used to punish inmates.
Even when fixes are implemented, many do not last long. Federal monitors argued for years that body cameras were necessary to keep corrections officers accountable, and it eventually won out: by 2020, nearly every officer in city jails was required to wear one. But in 2024, the 3,500 devices were recalled by DOC Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie after a camera caught fire. According to Vital City, the review was slated to take at most two weeks; months later, the body cameras are still out of circulation.
While the initial target date for closure was delayed by a year until 2027, the city has maintained it is on track to close Rikers. Yet the federal judge’s decision reinforces broader skepticism that the DOC’s plan to redirect the island’s inmates to four borough-based jails will be feasible.
Per Swain’s order, the next step will now be for the Legal Aid Society, which filed the initial case back in 2012, to negotiate the terms of the receivership—including who will helm the effort—with city and federal officials. The relevant parties have until mid-January to do so.
