A federal judge has ordered the government to take over management of New York City’s Rikers Island jail, along with the city’s other incarceration facilities, following years of constitutional and other violations.
On Tuesday, Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York Laura Taylor Swain, a Clinton appointee, in a 77-page ruling, ordered that the notorious jail, along with the city’s entire jail system, be managed by an independent officer reporting directly to the court.
She determined that conditions at the jail remained unconstitutionally dangerous, citing ongoing failures by the NYC Department of Correction (DOC) leadership to enforce court-mandated reforms, Fox News reported.
“The unsafe and dangerous conditions in the jails… have become normalized despite the fact that they are clearly abnormal and unacceptable,” Swain wrote.
The order arises from the 2011 case Nunez v. City of New York, in which a group of incarcerated individuals filed a federal lawsuit accusing New York City jail staff of a pattern of excessive and unnecessary force. In 2015, the city reached a settlement known as the Nunez Consent Judgment, which outlined hundreds of required reforms aimed at reducing violence and improving oversight, Fox noted.
“Nine years have passed since the parties first agreed that the perilous conditions in the Rikers Island jails were unconstitutional; that the level of unconstitutional danger has not improved… is both alarming and unacceptable,” Swain also wrote.
In November, she found the Department of Correction (DOC) and the city in civil contempt for violating 18 provisions of court orders designed to reduce violence, abuse, and dysfunction in the jail system.
Swain ordered that the jail system be overseen by an independent official, a Nunez Remediation Manager, who will report solely to the court. This official’s powers will be similar to those of a receiver, but with a specific focus on addressing the city’s contempt violations.
The appointed official will have full authority to implement changes to DOC policies related to the use of force, staffing, discipline, and security, and will report directly to the court.
Adams previously vigorously opposed a federal takeover of Rikers but said on Tuesday he had no intention of fighting the judge’s order.
“If the federal judge made a determination that they want to do something else and they don’t like what we’re doing, it’s a federal judgment,” Adams said at a press briefing Tuesday on a different issue. “We’re going to follow the rules.”
In February, meanwhile, Border czar Tom Homan announced during a Fox News appearance that a deal had been reached with New York City Mayor Eric Adams to allow federal immigration officers back into the city’s infamous and troubled Rikers Island jail.
Homan’s announcement comes as a federal judge has ordered the government to take over management of the facility and all of New York’s jails and appoint an independent officer who reports only to the court.
“Getting ICE officers back in Rikers is meaningful,” Homan told host Laura Ingraham. “I made it clear I want everybody. If you’re an illegal alien [and] you get booked into Rikers Island, I don’t care if it’s for shoplifting, I want ’em.”
Homan said that he and the mayor “agreed to some other things” that he can’t discuss in public out of fear that the New York City Council will move to interfere with the overall arrangement.
“I’m not running a popularity contest. I came to New York to get meaningful action,” he said, pledging to return to the city “every week” until all his conditions are met.