A federal prosecutor said Monday his office is trying to wrest control of the trouble-plagued Rikers Island jail in New York City from Mayor Eric Adam’s administration, calling conditions there a “collective failure with roots deep”.
US Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York said Rikers “has been in crisis for years” over the administrations of various mayors and prison system leaders and favors a court-appointed outside authority to take over the complex. .
“But after eight years of testing every tool in the toolkit, we cannot wait any longer for substantial progress to materialize,” he said in a statement, adding that his office would seek to have a court-appointed receivership established. .
Adams has resisted the idea of a federal takeover of the system and has said his administration has been taking steps to stabilize Rikers, which was hit hard by the pandemic.
In an emailed response, a City Council spokesperson said the administration’s efforts had had a positive impact in some areas that a federal monitor had noted and questioned what had changed.
Williams said his office would initiate contempt proceedings against the city after a court-appointed monitor last week submitted a report saying the city had failed to comply with its obligations under a series of court orders related to conditions inside Rikers.
In that report, the monitor said that the “pace of reform has stalled” and that jail officials had not reported incidents of violence.
Another report earlier this month condemned the conditions at the jail facility, citing mold and vermin infested areas, among other issues.
At a hearing in June, US District Judge Laura Taylor Swain told city lawyers and Rikers’ detainees that formally discuss a potential structure for a federal receivership, and said he would consider it in August.
Advocates for detainees at Rikers have called loudly for a receivership, citing grim realities such as the deaths of 19 people last year, following 16 deaths the year before. Six people have died so far this year.
The Legal Aid Society praised Williams’ decision to push federal oversight, saying in a statement: “Too many lives have been lost and damaged due to the city’s inability to run jails humanely. We look forward to working together to seek the relief needed to end this culture of brutality.”
