Federal judge seizes control of NYC’s jail system — including troubled Rikers Island
May 13, 2025
A federal judge seized control of New York City’s troubled jail system Tuesday — ordering that an outside official be brought in to clean up Rikers Island and other lockups.
The 77-page order by Manhattan federal Judge Laura Swain effectively appoints a federal receiver — a move long desired by advocates — to correct dangerous conditions in Rikers that city and Department of Correction officials have tried and failed to do under a decade-old court case known as Nunez.
Swain’s sweeping order gives the receiver — called an independent manager — full control over the city’s jail system in order to turn things around within a three-year period, with safety as the first goal.
The order comes months after Swain found the city to be in contempt of a 2015 court order and settlement agreement to drastically reform the violence-plagued system — something a previously appointed federal monitor tried and failed.
Now the monitor is out — and the city will no longer control the jails until conditions are improved.
“The continued existence of extremely dangerous and unsafe conditions led the Court to hold Defendants in contempt of a staggering eighteen provisions of the Nunez Court Orders and indicates that the Department has not yet taken the bold steps required to move the jails toward safety levels that comply with the Constitution,” the judge wrote.
https://nypost.com/2025/05/13/us-news/federal-judge-seizes-control-of-nycs-jail-system-rikers-island/