Courts to speed up cases in effort to shrink Rikers’ population
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Court officials said this week that they plan to institute a series of reforms to help lower the population on Rikers Island, which currently threatens to thwart the city’s legally-mandated plan to close Rikers by 2027. Eagle file photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
With the city’s legally-mandated deadline to close Rikers Island now less than three years away, top court officials this week said that they plan to make a number of reforms in the city’s criminal courts in an effort to lower the jail’s population, which, as of now, is nearly twice as large as what can be held in Rikers’ replacements.
Top court officials announced on Thursday a set of four changes to the way the city’s criminal courts operate that they say will cut down on case delays, especially for cases in which a defendant is incarcerated.
The reforms, which received support from lawmakers and advocates across the spectrum on Thursday, come as Rikers’ population continues to grow under Mayor Eric Adams. When Adams, who also said that he supports the reforms, first took office, there were approximately 5,300 people incarcerated on Rikers. On any given day in September, there were over 6,500 people being held on Rikers, according to Department of Correction data.
The rising population is perhaps the biggest obstacle the city faces in its efforts to shutter Rikers Island and open four borough-based jails to replace it. All together, the four jails, which include a jail slated for Kew Gardens, will be able to hold 4,160 detainees – the jails originally were designed to hold 3,300 detainees, however, Adams said that he would increase the jails’ capacity by around 800 beds earlier this year.
Though a number of factors have potentially contributed to the jail’s rising population – including an increase in the number of arrests made by the NYPD under Adams – also contributing to that rising population has been an increase in delayed cases in recent years. As of last month, over 500 people had been on Rikers for over two years as they await trial.
On Thursday, Chief Judge Rowan Wilson, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas and other court leaders said that their reforms would address some of the root causes of case delays.
“Efficiently operating criminal courts are an essential component of our justice system, and we must not accept a status quo that routinely tolerates excessive delay,” Zayas said in a statement. “The scheduled closing of the Rikers Island jails provides an added incentive to explore new strategies to ensure that serious criminal cases do not languish, while the accused waits in jail and victims and witnesses wait for resolution and closure.”
The reforms, which will first be rolled out in Brooklyn’s Criminal Court, were developed alongside the Center for Justice Innovation, a partner of the court system’s that conducts independent research and development of programs related to criminal justice reform. According to court officials, the proposed changes were borne out of meetings with stakeholders across the criminal justice system.
Among the reforms is a new policy that will require judges to schedule cases so that the early disclosure of key evidence is prioritized. Judges will also be asked to set firm deadlines for discovery compliance and quickly hold hearings if there are disputes over evidence in a case.
After a case has moved past its preliminary stage, judges will be required to hold pretrial suppression hearings earlier in a case’s proceedings, rather than shortly before a trial. With the hearings held earlier in the process, both the defense and prosecution will have the opportunity to better assess the strengths and vulnerabilities of the evidence and witnesses in a case, officials said.
The court system will also put together a team of court attorneys in each of the city’s criminal courts that will be tasked with conducting late-stage case conferences with prosecutors and defense attorneys to help resolve any issues to ensure cases are ready to go to trial on time.
Court officials said they would also soon be instituting a new case-tracking calendaring system, which they say will provide assistant district attorneys and defense attorneys with clear timelines of hearings and trials.
After being rolled out in Brooklyn this fall, the reforms will be tweaked and instituted in the city’s four other boroughs early next year.
“The adoption of these common-sense case-processing innovations, starting in Brooklyn and soon extending citywide, will minimize unnecessary case delays — ultimately helping to reduce the amount of time defendants spend in Rikers Island awaiting resolution of their cases — as we seek to balance public safety and the rights of individuals awaiting trial,” Zayas said.
Wilson, who was tapped by Governor Kathy Hochul to lead the state’s court system last year and was hailed by progressive lawmakers and advocates for his criminal justice reform work, said that the “backlogs and delays long endemic to the [court] system are inexcusable.”
“We are not here to point fingers, but to join hands with our many partners to identify and implement innovative protocols such as those we are launching in Brooklyn, as well diversionary programs that could replace both pretrial and post-conviction incarceration with therapeutic approaches in appropriate cases,” Wilson said in a statement. “Victims, defendants, and the public deserve a criminal justice system that proceeds swiftly, intelligently and compassionately.”
The court’s commitment to speed up cases was praised by both Adams and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who have clashed over the mayor’s management of the jails over the past two years.
The mayor, who has been blasted by advocates for the role his own administration has played in Rikers’ ballooning population and delays to the jail’s closure, has frequently criticized the courts for the impact delayed cases have on the criminal justice system.
“During the pandemic, cases languished for far too long, causing extreme backlogs gravely impacting our city’s jails, and although our public servants work tirelessly to ensure our justice system moves timely, reforms were greatly needed,” the mayor said in a statement on Thursday. “Chief Administrative Judge Zayas’s decision to enforce innovative policies like issuing scheduling orders for cases is smart and effective and will allow our criminal justice system to clear the backlog of cases and more efficiently serve New Yorkers.”
The council speaker also applauded the reforms.
“Excessive and unnecessary delays in our justice system have exacerbated lengths of stay on Rikers Island, inflating the city’s jail population and undermining safety and justice,” she said. “These are critical efforts to help achieve swifter justice for those awaiting trial and victims of crime alike and move us towards the closure of Rikers.”
The reforms also were celebrated by all five of the city’s district attorneys and several public defender groups, including the Legal Aid Society.
The commitment from the courts comes not long before the Independent Rikers Commission 2.0, which was re-formed by the mayor and speaker last October, is set to release a new set of recommendations the city would need to follow in order to close Rikers by August 2027.
The commission, which is led by former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, first issued a report detailing the path to close Rikers around half a decade ago. However, the city is running several years behind the original timeline for the jails’ closure and is wildly off course of the roadmap to close Rikers created by the commission.
In August, the Eagle spoke with a number of advocates and lawmakers about the city’s chances for getting the plan back on track in order to close the jail complex by the current deadline. While some said they believe the city still had time to course correct, others said the goal was now unrealistic.
“I don't think we are going to close Rikers by 2027,” City Councilmemebr Sandy Nurse, who chairs the council’s Committee on Criminal Justice, told the Eagle in August. “We have a long way to go.”
In a statement on Thursday, however, Nurse praised the court system for their promise to help reduce Rikers’ population with the ultimate goal of helping the city meet its legally-mandated deadline.
“I commend Chief Administrative Judge Zayas for implementing new court systems and efficiency measures to move us closer to upholding fundamental civil rights,” Nurse said. “The backlog of felony cases has created an unsustainable situation where individuals remain incarcerated for prolonged periods awaiting trial.”
“As we approach the mandated closure of Rikers Island, it is essential that we continue these reforms to not only address our operational capacity but also our ethical obligations,” she added.
