Last September, a federal judge overseeing the city’s troubled Department of Correction ordered jail officials to confer with lawyers for detainees to develop a plan for an “outside person” to operate the system.
The two sides — defendants and plaintiffs in the notorious “Nunez case” — have not been able to reach an agreement nearly four months later, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks.
“There has been no coming together of the minds,” said a person briefed on the situation.
On Friday, the two parties are expected to each file their own visions of what the so-called receiver would look like, the sources said.
The details of their briefs remain unclear.
City officials representing the mayor’s office and DOC declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation, as did lawyers for the Legal Aid Society, representing detainees.
What happens next?
The filings expected on Friday could be used as a roadmap for how the receiver works even if the two groups could not agree on how that happens, said Hernandez D. Stroud, a senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice who has studied other receiverships throughout the country.
“The North Star remains Constitutional compliance,” he said. “It is possible that the judge could rule on the motion to appoint a receiver based on the parties’ individual contributions as they see the next steps in the case.”
Mayor Eric Adams and his jail officials over the past three years have strenuously opposed the possible appointment of a receiver. They’ve cited a drop in custody deaths, stabbings and slashings, and some other key metrics.
But jail advocates and experts point out the number of fights behind bars is still higher than when the department was first placed under a federal monitor nearly 10 years ago.
They also note that 33 people died behind bars or shortly after release during Adams’ first two years in office, under former DOC Commissioner Louis Molina, who was replaced by Lynelle Maginley-Liddie in December 2023.
Big Job
Last November, Laura Taylor Swain, the chief district judge for Manhattan federal court who is overseeing the Nunez case, said she was “inclined to impose a receivership.”
At the time, she ordered the two sides to submit a joint plan by Jan. 14. That deadline was later extended to Jan. 24.
Swain wanted both parties to agree on how much power the receiver will have, according to the decision.
She also ruled that the two sides must flesh out how long the receiver should remain in power and what the qualifications for that person should be.
Additionally, she found the DOC in contempt of court for failing to implement 18 long discussed reforms to curb violence on Rikers.
The civil contempt finding, which is meant to encourage compliance, could include a possible fine. But Swain has not issued any financial penalty yet.
“It could be she was waiting to see the results of the negotiations for the receiver,” said Stroud.
A receiver could potentially be granted major powers to unilaterally make changes to everything from the hours in each tour correction officers work to how staff are disciplined.
The DOC has unsuccessfully spent years trying to overhaul its disciplinary system to make it easier to punish officers found guilty of using excessive force or other wrongdoing, according to a series of reports by the federal monitor.
Mayor Eric Adams on a visit to Rikers Island on July 7, 2022. Credit: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
Jail officials have struggled to implement a system to quickly review each use-of-force by correction officers against detainees. They’ve also failed to move the cases through the disciplinary process in a timely manner. Currently, all officers are entitled to argue their cases before an administrative law judge.
But jail officials sometimes take months, or even years, before bringing those cases before that independent tribunal.
A potential receiver would also likely have to deal with, or oversee, the city’s ambitious shutdown Rikers plan. The comprehensive plan calls for the closure of all the jails on Rikers for four so-called borough-based jails closer to criminal courts.
Who Could It Be?
After Swain’s November court ruling, the Adams’ administration began to push to move Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie as the possible receiver, the Daily News reported last month.
Meanwhile, some acclaimed reformers have said they are interested in the possible receiver role.
The list includes: Norman Siegel, a distinguished New York City civil rights lawyer; Dean Williams, a nationally recognized jail reformer who headed lockups in Alaska and Colorado; and Mark Cranston, a former acting commissioner of DOC, THE CITY reported in December.
Legal Aid lawyers have spent the past two years urging Swain to appoint an outsider to take over the department.
“We think it is very clear that the next steps that have to happen in this case have to be steps that will change these eight years of failed efforts,” Mary Lynne Werlwas, director of the Prisoners’ Rights Project at Legal Aid, testified in court in June 2023.
Notably, in July 2023 Damian Williams, then the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, joined the growing chorus of jail experts and advocates urging Swain to appoint a receiver.
The three unions representing jail officers and supervisors have long been vehemently opposed to a receiver takeover. They contend that they are able to turn things around without a new leader who has somewhat unlimited power.
Earl Dunlap, who was appointed as receiver of the Cook County, Illinois juvenile detention center in 2007, noted that many talented people have tried to fix Rikers.
“But they always get thwarted because of politics, or unions, or whatever,” he told THE CITY in 2022, adding that organized labor groups “are not out to represent the jail population.”
“They represent the people who work in the jails,” he said. “They really don’t care for the conditions of prisoners. That’s been established over time, and all too often people who live in the facility come out on the short end of the stick.”
As for the overall case, Swain may use the legal dispute to take matters into her own hands, according to Stroud.
“It seems like the only thing left on the table might well be the appointment of a receiver,” he said.
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