Rikers monitor slams DOC as commissioner heads out the door
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Soon-to-be-former Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina is leaving the agency at an uncertain time. The move will likely only bring more uncertainty to the “chaos” at Rikers, federal monitor Steve J. Martin said in a report on Wednesday. File photo by John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
By Jacob Kaye
The “promotion” of Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina has done little to convince the federal monitor tasked with keeping tabs on conditions at Rikers Island that the jail complex will get any safer as a result – in fact, it appears to have done just the opposite.
In yet another scathing report issued Wednesday, federal monitor Steve J. Martin bashed the DOC for its turnover in leadership as violent conditions within the jail complex remain pervasive.
Molina’s departure to a position within City Hall appears to have only pushed Martin closer to outright calling for a federal judge to take control of Rikers away from the city, an extreme legal action both Molina and Mayor Eric Adams have claimed is unnecessary.
But according to the monitor, the uncertainty surrounding the future of the “dysfunctional” agency, coupled with the DOC’s inability or unwillingness to make reforms, appears to leave few other options for improving Rikers Island available.
“After eight years and four (soon to be five) commissioners, the city and the department have failed to gain traction in the effort to build the necessary foundation for reform and must, at this juncture, accelerate the pace and substantially elevate their efforts,” the report read. “Unfortunately, thus far, neither the city nor the department has demonstrated a willingness or an ability to materially alter the current trajectory.”
Martin’s relationship with Molina has greatly deteriorated over the past several months. The monitor has accused the soon-to-be former commissioner of attempting to interfere in his reporting and has claimed that the DOC has been purposefully unhelpful in providing the monitoring team with data and information.
However, in his report issued on Wednesday, Martin said that he believes that Molina’s alleged aloofness is reflective of a broader culture at the DOC, one that Molina has been unable or unwilling to change.
“Sustained and chronic institutional resistance and recalcitrance toward court ordered reform is an insurmountable impediment to any monitorship,” Martin said in the report. “The department desperately needs committed leadership with expertise and experience in sound correctional practice, practical and achievable strategies to advance the reforms, openness to working constructively with the court and the monitor, and a clear vision for how to implement and sustain needed initiatives.”
The monitor’s report filed with federal Judge Laura Swain on Wednesday was the first since Adams announced that Molina would be named assistant deputy mayor of public safety last week, a move that will officially take place at some point later this month.
Adams’ office referred to the move as a promotion, despite the fact that the city has only inched closer and closer to a federal takeover of Rikers during Molina’s year and 11 months in office.
“Over the last 22 months, [Molina] has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication as the commissioner of the Department of Correction, helping to reverse decades of mismanagement and neglect,” Adams said in an Oct. 31 release. “[Molina] has brought this organization back from the brink of collapse, which is why I am thrilled to promote him to assistant deputy mayor of public safety.”
Though Molina and Martin’s relationship got off to a good start in 2022 – a year in which a decade-high 19 detainees would go on to die under the DOC’s watch – it began to deteriorate in 2023, along with Molina’s relationship with other oversight bodies, including the City Council and Board of Correction.
The commissioner has been accused of being outright contemptuous of attempts at oversight, failing to turnover data and information and missing hearings he’s been asked to attend.
Those allegations continued on Wednesday, when Martin said that he had little confidence in the accuracy of data provided by the DOC in relation to violent incidents.
“Practices for reporting stabbings/slashings are so unregulated that the monitor no longer has confidence in the accuracy of the department’s data in this area,” the report read.
Nonetheless, Martin said that violent conditions – including use of force incidents and slashings and stabbings – continued to remain high over the past several months, leaving detainees and staff at “grave risk of harm on a daily basis.”
The rising level of violence prompted Swain to order the DOC and the monitor to together craft and implement an “action plan” last summer. As the monitor has said in other reports in recent months, the plan has not yielded its intended results.
“Instead of a reform trajectory characterized by incremental progress, the department’s path has recently been dominated by deteriorating practices, failures to utilize policies and procedures that had previously been in place, and the inability to effectively implement the few new strategies that have been developed,” the report read.
“The pace of reform has not accelerated and appears to have stagnated despite direct [court orders],” the report continued. “Instead, the city and department continue to spend significant time engaged in a concerted effort to create a narrative that is misleading and wholly inconsistent with the reality of the conditions at DOC. The consequence of this approach is that the city and department have normalized the dangerous and chaotic conditions that permeate the jails.”
A spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement in response to the monitor’s report defended the Adams administration’s management of the jails.
“As we have said repeatedly, we take the safety of people in our custody very seriously and remain committed to continued reforms and working with the monitor,” the spokesperson said. “We will review the report.”
Though an incoming commissioner has yet to be named by the Adams administration, Martin suggested that he had little faith that whoever it is will make the changes necessary to truly reform the troubled jail complex.
“It remains troubling that defendants are unwilling or unable to embrace the realities of the situation and take definitive action to address the problems directly and effectively,” the monitor said. “On this present trajectory, the current state of affairs will continue, and likely worsen.”
