Judge finds New York City in contempt over jail conditions, moves closer to a federal takeover

NEW YORK — A judge on Wednesday found New York City in contempt for failing to staunch violence and brutality at its jails, a scathing ruling that puts the troubled Rikers Island jail complex on the verge of a federal takeover.

In a written decision, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the city had placed incarcerated people in ''unconstitutional danger'' by failing to comply with 18 separate provisions of court orders pertaining to security, staffing, supervision, use of force and the safety of young detainees.

The long-squalid conditions have worsened significantly in the nine years since the city settled abuse and violence claims, she wrote, exacerbated by jail leadership's ''unwillingness or inability'' to implement ordered reforms.

As a result, Swain ordered the city and lawyers suing on behalf of detainees to confer with a court-appointed monitor on a proposed framework for a federal receivership — an extraordinary intervention that would cede city control of one of the nation's largest, most notorious jail systems.

Mayor Eric Adams, who has vehemently opposed a federal takeover, said on Wednesday that the city had made ''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,'' his statement continued.

But in her ruling, Swain found the administration's efforts were ''insufficient to turn the tide within a reasonable period.'' The city appears to have acted in bad faith at times in its failure to comply with court-ordered reforms, repeatedly ''withholding essential information'' from the monitor, she wrote.

''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,'' Swain wrote, ordering the sides to provide her by Jan. 14 a plan for an ''efficient, effective receivership.''

Under a federal receivership, control of some or all city jail functions would shift to a court-appointed receiver, streamlining decision making on things like staffing, contracts and policies while working to improve safety and compliance with ordered reforms. It would not involve a takeover by the Justice Department, nor would the city's jails become part of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Swain's 65-page ruling stemmed from litigation that started more than a decade ago with allegations by a public defender organization, the Legal Aid Society, and others that the city's Department of Correction had engaged in a pattern of excessive and unnecessary force.

The Legal Aid Society and law firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP hailed the ''historic decision'' and said it ''will finally create a pathway for reform that can protect those who have been failed" by jail leadership.

"The court's recognition that the current structure has failed, and that receivership free from political and other external influences is the path forward, can ensure that all New Yorkers, regardless of incarceration status, are treated with the respect and dignity guaranteed to them under the law,'' they said.

In a separate statement, Benny Boscio, the president of the union representing correction officers, claimed the ruling was based on an ''erroneous narrative," adding that jail staff had been ''defunded, short staffed, scapegoated and handcuffed'' by city lawmakers and the federal monitor.

For now, barring further action from Swain, the city remains in control of its jails.

The jail complex, which is housed on a hard-to-reach island in the East River, has long suffered from rampant disorder and neglect. But rates of violence, use of force, self-harm, and deaths in custody in city jails have gotten ''demonstrably worse'' since the city and parties agreed in October 2015 to a settlement, consent decree and the appointment of a federal monitor, Swain said.

''Worse still, the unsafe and dangerous conditions in the jails, which are characterized by unprecedented rates of use of force and violence, have become normalized despite the fact that they are clearly abnormal and unacceptable,'' the judge wrote.

Nineteen people died in custody at Rikers Island in 2022. Nine more died in 2023, and five died in the first eight months of this year. At the same time, rates of stabbings and slashings, fights, assaults on staff ''remain extraordinarily high,'' Swain said.

There has been ''no substantial reduction in the risk of harm currently facing those who live and work in the Rikers Island jails,'' the judge wrote.

Under a plan approved by the city council in 2019, New York City is legally required to shutter Rikers Island and replace it with four smaller and more modern jails by 2027. But as the jail population has grown in recent years, Adams, a Democrat, has voiced resistance to the closure, urging lawmakers to come up with a ''Plan B.'' Earlier this year, the city's budget director acknowledged that officials would likely not meet the mandated deadline.