Attorney general, NYCBA and public defenders call for Rikers receiver
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State Attorney General Letitia James joined a growing chorus of New York City officials in calling for a federal receiver to be put in charge of the management of Rikers Island in an amicus briefing filed in federal court on Friday. AP file photo by Ted Shaffrey
By Jacob Kaye
The New York State attorney general, a top bar association, scores of public defense organizations, several former New York City officials and a criminal justice nonprofit all called on a federal judge to strip control over Rikers Island away from the city and hand it over to a court-appointed receiver.
A number of amicus briefs were filed in federal court over the weekend and into the start of this week encouraging Judge Laura Swain to order the city to hand over key aspects of the management of Rikers Island to a federal receiver.
The briefs were filed in the ongoing civil rights case known as Nunez v. the City of New York, which Swain is presiding over. Last month, the Legal Aid Society, which represents the plaintiffs in the case, formally filed for federal receivership, arguing that the measure of last resort is needed after all other attempts made by the city and the DOC to make Rikers Island safer have failed.
Though a handful of elected officials and criminal justice advocates and their organizations have declared their support for receivership publicly, the filings made in recent days are the first official amicus briefs made in the case in support of receivership.
The briefings were filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James, the New York City Bar Association, Queens Defenders, the Bronx Defenders, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, New York County Defender Services, a former mayoral advisor on Rikers Island, the former head of the Board of Correction, the former lead investigator for the city’s jails and uses of force and the Vera Institute of Justice.
The officials and organizations join a mounting effort to get management of Rikers Island stripped away from the city and given to a court-appointed receiver, a move already supported by the city’s comptroller, its public advocate and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Though some of the more minute aspects of the arguments for receivership varied from brief to brief filed with the court in recent days, they all essentially centered around one idea – nearly a decade after a content judgment was issued in the Nunez case, the city’s has proven itself unable to keep staff and detainees safe.
“As these cases illustrate, the DOC is unable to maintain a safe and secure environment for people in its custody,” the filing from James’ office read.
James’ office said the attorney general’s eyes were opened up to the necessity of receivership through her office’s legally-mandated investigations into detainee deaths – there was a decade-high 19 detainee deaths in DOC custody last year and nine this year.
In case after case, the attorney general’s office said they kept encountering the same systematic failures contributing to detainee deaths.
“Unstaffed posts, failure to conduct rounds, and failure to render prompt first aid were persistent problems identified in our investigations,” the AG’s filing said. “These failures are unacceptable and are a result of the DOC’s inability to provide the most basic requirement for running a jai — direct supervision.”
James’ office said in its filing that “it will take more than a sea change” for the DOC to begin to be able to maintain “care, custody and control.”
“Despite years of oversight by a federal monitor and scrutiny by the press, oversight agencies, and elected officials, New York City jails remain dangerously unsafe,” the attorney general’s office said. “A receiver is needed to effectuate the safety and order required under State and [Board of Correction] minimum standards.”
“The OAG supports receivership as the way forward for the good of all the people who live and work in the NYC jails,” the AG’s office added.
The New York City Bar Association and the Vera Institute, which submitted their brief together, called the ongoing crisis on Rikers Island “one that poses an ongoing threat to the constitutional rights, the human dignity, and, most gravely, the very lives of those confined there.”
The state attorney general, the New York City Bar Association, several public defender organizations and a handful of former New York City officials familiar with the criminal justice system filed amicus briefs in support of a federal receivership on Rikers Island. AP file photo by Seth Wenig
The bar association and nonprofit organization, like the AG, said that they are unsure what other measures are left to be taken to make the jail system safer, arguing that the DOC has been given “countless opportunities to implement reforms.”
“Rates of violence have dramatically increased during the time period when Defendants were purportedly implementing reforms, which is especially troubling considering the substantial decrease in the incarcerated population during those years,” they said in the amicus brief.
“Because the rule of law cannot countenance defendants’ noncompliance with constitutional requirements, their nose-thumbing at the monitor and this court’s orders, and the mounting cost in suffering and lives, the court should appoint a receiver to take charge of this deteriorating situation,” they added.
The city bar association and Vera Institute noted in their briefing that while they are advocating for a receiver, they hope that the creation of one won’t mean the end to the effort to close Rikers Island.
“A court-appointed receiver is not a panacea,” they said. “To maximize the likelihood that this ‘last resort’ remedy will succeed in the long term, the court should ensure that the receiver acts consistently with the legislatively mandated obligation to close Rikers Island.”
Separate from the Nunez case is the city’s effort to shutter Rikers by 2027, the legally-mandated deadline for the jail’s closure. Like the city’s ability to manage the jail, its ability to hit the deadline has also been called into question.
The City Council announced in October that it had reconveined the Lippman Commission, the group that came up with the original plan to close Rikers, to create a new plan to close the jail given several unforeseen obstacles, including the jail’s growing population.
What role a receiver might play in the closure of Rikers Island is unknown, as is the general role the receiver will play in the management of the jail.
The contours of the receiver’s job will be decided by Swain – should she first decide to appoint a receiver.
In their contempt of court motion – which called for a receiver as a remedy – the Legal Aid Society called for a receiver with broad powers, but only those that fall within the application of the consent judgment, a view also supported by the U.S. attorney.
“Plaintiffs do not currently seek an order that contains any substantive requirements beyond what the court has thus far commanded, but rather seek the appointment of a receiver who will work to achieve compliance with the orders this court has already entered,” the Legal Aid Society said in their filing. “All relief the court has ordered is ‘intended to ensure compliance with [the] core constitutional command’ to refrain from the use of excessive or unnecessary force.”
But the scope of a receiver’s powers, should one be implemented, still could be relatively vast.
A receiver would likely have the power to hire and fire DOC personnel related to the implementation of the consent judgment. They would also likely not be required to operate within the bounds of the labor agreement currently in place between the city and the correctional officers’ union and would have the ability to negotiate a new contract.
The DOC commissioner will still have some control over Rikers Island but will have the “powers granted to the receiver is suspended for the duration of the receivership,” according to the proposed court order from the Legal Aid Society. However, the commissioner would be expected to “work closely with the receiver to facilitate the receiver’s ability to perform their duties.”
Though they would be required to work with the receiver should Swain order it, the Adams administration has resisted calls for the judicial order, and claimed that it remains the best authority to right the wrongs of RIkers Island.
“This administration has made progress in many areas to address the deeply rooted problems at Rikers that have existed for generations,” a spokesperson for the city’s Law Department said in a statement. “We are committed to building upon that work and we do not believe a receivership is the solution to fixing the city’s jail system and we are prepared to fight this in court.”
