On Thursday, a federal judge will hear arguments for taking control of Rikers Island away from Mayor Eric Adams and granting it to an independent authority. The prospect of receivership has loomed large since November. So what makes it more likely now? Consider:
- The independent monitor tasked with Rikers oversight declared Monday that “little progress has been evident” in the administration’s addressing of deadly security and operational failures.
- U.S. Attorney Damien Williams said last month he would pursue contempt proceedings and seek other relief, including the appointment of a receiver.
- The judge who would make the decision wrote a day later that Adams has failed to fix “the dangerous conditions that perpetually plague the jails.”
Adams has been vociferous in his opposition to a federal takeover. Coming to his defense Tuesday were City Council Republicans and Democrats who run on the GOP line. “Common Sense Caucus” members said they visited with younger detainees on Rikers. They reported better programming, freshly painted walls, air conditioning and tempered glass where there was once Plexiglas (nixed because it can be fashioned into weapons). “It’s a great atmosphere in there,” Council Member Robert Holden said, contrasting it with a November 2021 visit he called a nightmare. “So for any federal monitor to say that the conditions haven’t improved, they’re not telling the truth.” Speaking to Playbook Tuesday night at an unrelated event, Correction Commissioner Louis Molina, like City Hall, cited double-digit reductions in slashings and stabbings, assaults on staff, injuries to detainees and other categories. “I think that we’ve shown that the pace of reform — and sustainability of what we’ve been able to do for the city’s jail system — has happened at a much faster pace than any receiver can do it,” Molina said, adding that he can’t control what the judge decides. The city jails population was at 6,202 people as of Tuesday, according to the Department of Correction. Seven people have died in custody or shortly after their release so far this year, at least in part due to “poor conditions and substandard security practices,” the independent monitor, Steve J. Martin, wrote Monday. The monitoring team, attorneys representing detainees, attorneys for the city and Molina are expected to appear Thursday at 2 p.m. before Judge Laura Taylor Swain in the lower Manhattan courtroom. HAPPY WEDNESDAY. You’re halfway there. Thanks for reading New York Playbook. Got news? Send it our way: Jeff Coltin, Emily Ngo and Nick Reisman. WHERE’S KATHY? Delivering announcement nation-leading cybersecurity plan in Brooklyn. WHERE’S ERIC? Making an address on the asylum-seeker crisis from City Hall, then delivering remarks at a celebration for Run-D.M.C. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “We want our pilots and our service members to come forward when they see things that they cannot identify.” — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on recent testimony about alleged secret government programs involving UFOs
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