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Mamdani names re-entry specialist as chair of Rikers oversight board
By
Ryan Kost
Published Oct 6, 2026
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By
Ryan Kost
Published Oct 6, 2026
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Christopher Watler, a nonprofit executive who has spent decades building re-entry and diversion programs, will chair the city’s jail oversight board, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday.
The appointment comes less than a week after a federal monitor reported that the Department of Correction “remains in a state of crisis.”
The Board of Correction sets and enforces minimum standards for conditions in the city’s jails, including health and mental health care, though it has been criticized for failing to rein in the long-troubled correction department.
Federal oversight complicates the board's role. Because of dangerous and unconstitutional conditions in the jails, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain has a monitor tracking reforms and, as of this year, a remediation manager with broad authority to carry them out.
Watler is executive vice president of the Center for Employment Opportunities, or CEO, a nonprofit that connects formerly incarcerated people with “employment, skills training and ongoing career support” across 12 states, according to the organization's website.
Before that, Watler worked at the Center for Justice Innovation, where he also focused on re-entry and diversion programs, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
Watler replaces interim chair Felipe Franco, who will remain on the board.
“This great city is my home and the people incarcerated in our jails are our neighbors, sons and daughters,” Watler said in a statement. “Like every New Yorker, they deserve the same access to justice, healthcare, jobs and housing that we all want.”
The mayor praised Watler’s career in a statement.
“He understands that community safety and justice go hand in hand, and that means improving conditions for people in custody, supporting the staff who care for them and finally closing Rikers Island,” Mamdani said.
Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards called Watler “exceptionally well-suited for this role” in the same statement from City Hall.
“We have set this agency on a course to improve conditions for all who live and work in our jails and the Board of Correction is a vital partner in fulfilling that mission,” Richards said.
The monitoring team wrote in a report to Swain last month that constitutional violations at Rikers have persisted despite reform-minded leadership in the Department of Correction and the mayor’s office, and that department leaders remain “weighed down by the sheer magnitude of all they must do,” with limited operational and correction management experience.
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new york city
public safety
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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