NEW YORK — Mayor-elect Eric Adams on Thursday named former NYPD detective Louis Molina as the next commissioner of New York City's Department of Correction.
NY1 was the first to report the news and a formal announcement was made during a morning press conference at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Molina currently serves as the chief of the Las Vegas Department of Public Safety.
The former U.S. Marine previously worked for the city correction department as chief internal monitor in the compliance unit and served nearly three years as deputy commissioner for the Westchester County Department of Correction.
Molina will replace Vincent Schiraldi, who was named commissioner by Mayor Bill de Blasio in May.
He will take over the department amid an ongoing crisis at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex, which has reported 16 inmate deaths this year and has been plagued by staffing shortages and violence.
"Rikers Island has been a national embarrassment and we have ignored it. For far too long, the situation there has been unacceptable," Adams said. "It is a stain on our city."
Molina said the need for reform at the complex was urgent.
"We will not tolerate rampant violence, inhumane conditions and a general culture of disorder at Rikers," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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