NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Comptroller Brad Lander, the elected official responsible for New York City’s finances, called for a federal judge to appoint a receivership that would take control of Rikers Island away from the New York City Department of Correction in response to a parallel crises plaguing the prison.
listen to 1010 wins
The Legal Aid Society, which represents inmates at Rikers, requested a federal receivership in June in order to force changes to remedy chronic understaffing, violence, abuse and poor conditions at Rikers.
The court accepted the city’s reform plan instead of appointing a receivership and pledged to revisit the issue in November.
Lander is the first citywide elected official to support appointing a receivership. His stance is a break with Mayor Eric Adams who has fought in the courts and the press to maintain local control of the prison.
Sixteen people have died at Rikers so far this year — the same amount as died in custody or shortly after release in all of 2021.
The high death rate comes amid reports of unsanitary conditions, unchecked violence, overcrowding and chronic absenteeism among staff.
“After so many years, and through the pandemic, the dysfunction has grown into an intractable emergency,” said Lander on Thursday at a virtual forum on problems at the prison. “There is little reason to believe that the current system or management can reform itself, and a receiver outside of many of those barriers holds the most chance of enacting the necessary changes for the basic safety of people incarcerated and staff.”
Lander said a receivership should only be used as a temporary measure, and that ultimately the island prison should be closed.
“Receivership should not be confused as a ‘fix’ for what is broken at Rikers,” he said. “While we must address the immediate and inescapably real safety threats both to individuals in custody and to staff, we must not lose focus on the hard but necessary work to close Rikers Island.”
Related
Related
