In a 65-page decision, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain found the New York City Department of Correction and the city itself in 18 counts of civil contempt for failing to follow court orders for nearly a decade, following a lawsuit by inmates demanding reforms to a lockup known for guards' excessive use of force and deaths in custody.
"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 for the people who live and work in the jails is both alarming and unacceptable," Judge Swain said.
The judge contemplated imposing fines or locking up city officials to coerce the city into reforming its notorious jail complex, but ultimately agreed with inmates — and prosecutors for the Southern District of New York who recently joined in their cause — that a federal takeover is probably the next step.
According to the ruling, the "record is clear," and largely undisputed, "that those who live and work in the jails on Rikers Island are faced with grave and immediate threats of danger, as well as actual harm, on a daily basis as a direct result of defendants' lack of diligence."
Judge Swain said the last nine years had shown her that city officials "answerable principally to political authorities" couldn't get the job done and that the "current management structure and staffing are insufficient."
The city's failure to follow court orders at times suggested "bad faith," the judge noted, with "enormous resources" deployed "to a system that is at the same time overstaffed and underserved."
"For those reasons, the court is inclined to impose a receivership: namely, a remedy that will make the management of the use of force and safety aspects of the Rikers Island jails ultimately answerable directly to the court," Judge Swain ruled.
A court-appointed receiver would have the power to hire and fire employees, create new disciplinary systems, control the budget and potentially change union contracts.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams — currently facing unrelated federal corruption charges to which he has pled not guilty — has vehemently opposed a receiver taking control of Rikers and had argued that his administration was making progress in improving conditions.
A spokesperson for Adams on Wednesday noted that no receivership has been imposed yet and struck a conciliatory tone in an official statement that touted "significant progress towards addressing the decades-long neglect and issues on Rikers Island."
"We are proud of our work, but recognize there is more to be done and look forward to working with the federal monitoring team on our shared goal of continuing to improve the safety of everyone in our jails," the spokesperson said.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs called it "a historic decision."
"The culture of brutality on Rikers Island has resisted judicial and political reform efforts for years," lawyers at Legal Aid and Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP said in a statement. "We laud this ruling, which will finally create a pathway for reform that can protect those who have been failed by DOC's leadership by making leadership accountable to the court and not political authorities."
The government is represented by Jeffrey Powell and Lara Eshkenazi of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
The city of New York is represented by John Schemitsch and Alan H. Scheiner of the City of New York Law Department.
The plaintiff class is represented by Kayla Simpson, Mary Werlwas and Katherine Haas of the Legal Aid Society.
The case is Nunez v. the City of New York et al., case number 1:11-cv-05845, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Alyssa Miller.
Update: This story has been updated with more details and with comments from a spokesperson for the mayor.
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