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Mayor Adams’ administration pitches new reformer for Rikers jails: Mayor Adams’ administration
By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Jan 25, 2025
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By
Michelle Bocanegra
Published Jan 25, 2025
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The Adams administration has long fought against an independent monitor to reform Rikers Island, and now it’s proposing a different entity be placed in charge of the troubled jail complex: the Adams administration.
The proposal was made Friday as part of a status report in the ongoing Nunez v. City of New York case, which paved the way for a 2015 agreement to root out violence in city jails. Nearly ten years after the agreement, graphic reports of violence, sexual abuse, corruption and neglect continue apace at the complex. A federal judge in November found the city to be in contempt of the deal, the most concrete sign yet that the jails could be taken over by a court-appointed receiver.
Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is arguing current Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie is best suited for the job.
“The Commissioner’s good faith attempts to meet the Nunez requirements and abilities as an administrator have not been questioned by the Court or the Monitor, and her willingness to pursue transformational change is reflected in her accomplishments in just her first year of service,” city lawyers wrote in papers filed Friday.
Adams chose Maginley-Liddie to replace Louis Molina as head of the Department of Correction in December 2023. Critics said Molina, a long-time Adams ally and former police officer, did very little to improve conditions at Rikers or prepare for its ultimate closure in 2027.
The city went on to argue Friday that a federal court-appointed receiver, “would unnecessarily multiply bureaucracy, burden and expense.”
Under the proposal, the city said Maginley-Liddie “would receive only the salary and benefits of a Commissioner,” and none for her proposed role of compliance director.
The city’s pitch was met with immediate backlash from criminal justice reform advocates including the Legal Aid Society, which is bringing the case against the city, alongside federal prosecutors.
“The City’s proposal is untenable and patently inadequate to address the Court’s finding that Defendants are in contempt of 18 separate Court order provisions that relate directly to safety and the excessive violence in the jails,” plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote in court filings. “The City’s proposal does little more than preserve the status quo when, as this Court has recognized, the Department of Correction is in need of transformational change."
City lawyers said in filings that the mayor would have no power to remove Maginley-Liddie from her compliance director role.
“This fundamental change makes the Compliance Director significantly more independent of the rest of the City government … and directly answerable to the Court, and will accelerate changes needed to remove impediments to compliance,” city lawyers wrote.
In a statement Saturday, Patrick Gallahue, a DOC spokesperson, defended the proposal.
“In her tenure, both the Federal Monitor and the Court have recognized Commissioner Maginley-Liddie’s commitment to reform, collaboration, and transparency,” Gallahue said. “The proposal is focused on maintaining and accelerating the Commissioner’s sustained progress to create safer more secure facilities for staff and those in our care.”
But lawyers who brought the case against the city were not satisfied.
“Our proposal seeks appointment of a truly independent receiver who will answer to the federal court alone – not to the political or bureaucratic interests that have stood in the way of reform for decades – and who is given the duty and authority to take bold action where the City has failed,” Legal Aid said in a statement Friday. “We are disappointed the City did not consent to this opportunity for change.”
In issuing the court’s contempt order last year, Judge Laura Taylor Swain said she was “inclined” to install a receiver and take away city control of Rikers. Adams has bristled at the notion of a federal receiver, saying last summer that federal prisons are “definitely not a model of what prisons should look like.”
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Rikers Island
public safety
Mayor Eric Adams
courts
Politics
Michelle Bocanegra
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