Judge Finds City in Contempt and Is ‘Inclined’ to Take Control of Rikers
The New York Times
The finding was a landmark in a court case that has stretched out over more than a decade. Plans for a receivership of New York City’s jails will be heard on Jan. 14.
A federal judge overseeing New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex on Wednesday found the city in contempt for failing to stem violence and excessive force at the facility, and said she was learning toward taking control of the city’s jails.
The judge, Laura Taylor Swain, said in a 65-page opinion that the city and its Department of Correction had violated the constitutional rights of prisoners and staff members alike by exposing them to danger, and had intentionally ignored her orders.
The judge wrote that she was “inclined” to impose an outside authority, known as a receiver, which she said would be 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.” She ordered the city and lawyers representing prisoners to devise a plan for a receivership by Jan. 14.
Judge Swain’s ruling came nearly a decade after the city’s jails, which include the Rikers Island complex, fell under federal oversight in a settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by prisoners and the Legal Aid Society. Since then, a court-appointed monitor has issued regular reports on the violence that has continued to plague the facilities. In the past two years, at least 33 people have died in the jails or shortly after being released.
The federal monitor, Steve J. Martin, filed a report last year saying that violence was unabated in the jails and that officials were hiding information about it. Mr. Martin’s team recommended that the judge consider holding the Department of Correction in contempt.
On Wednesday, Judge Swain found the city in contempt of 18 provisions reached in the settlement. She wrote that the nine years since the deal was reached had shown that depending on jail officials who answer to politicians would merely mean more confrontation and delay.
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