By Emily Ngo, Jeff Coltin and Nick Reisman, via POLITICO
A status hearing today on whether control of Rikers Island should be stripped from the Adams administration and given to a federal receiver also serves as a status check of the notoriously dysfunctional jail complex.
“The most basic elements of care and custody, including rudimentary practices necessary to minimize the risk of harm in the system, remain elusive,” federal monitor Steve Martin wrote in his most recent report, released June 27, repeating, “The jails remain dangerous and unsafe.”
None of the parties in court expect Judge Laura Taylor Swain to deliver a decision this afternoon, even as they brace for one.
But those advocating for a federal takeover have seized every opportunity to keep the still-deplorable conditions of city jails in the spotlight, doing so today by rallying community groups and elected officials ahead of the hearing.
“Our members have loved ones that are currently there that talk about how filthy the jail cells are, how unsanitary the conditions are, how they don’t have access to proper medical care,” Melanie Dominguez of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice told Playbook. “People are dying out of sheer negligence.”
Mayor Eric Adams remains steadfastly opposed to an independent receiver, which would be an indictment of his management of a broken system he inherited. It would further stain a record already marred by federal probes into his 2021 campaign as he gears up for reelection next year.
Three people have died in custody so far this year, nine last year and 19 in 2022, according to the Department of Correction data dashboard maintained by City Comptroller Brad Landers’ office.
And the jail population has risen to more than 6,300.
Dominguez and others blame the mayor for not driving down the number of people behind bars in preparation for Rikers’ legally mandated closure, even as it becomes increasingly clear the city will blow the 2027 deadline to shutter the facility.
“Since we’ve come into office, serious violence and injuries to people in custody and staff are down in double digits,” Adams spokesperson Amaris Cockfield said, “and while there is still more work to be done, Commissioner Maginley-Liddie and her team continues to show their commitment to improving our city’s jails for our correction officers and all those in our care.”
Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, the corrections commissioner sworn in last December, sought to offer some hope.
“We’re all human beings, and we deserve respect,” she told the Queens Eagle.
The wait to learn whether the city’s jails will be run by an outside authority has dragged on.
