Over two dozen apply to be Rikers receiver

Over two dozen people applied to become the remedial manager charged with taking over large aspects of the management of Rikers Island. AP file photo by Julia Nikhinson

By Jacob Kaye

Rikers Island has seen a century of decay, chaos and death.

Both those who work there and are held there are subject daily to violence and danger, according to the federal monitor who has been tracking conditions in the jail for the better part of a decade. The dysfunction within the jails and the agency that runs them is so knotty that addressing one issue often means first fixing a number of others.

Despite a steady stream of new mayors and new commissioners, no one has been able to meaningfully make Rikers Island safe.

Nonetheless, nearly 30 people recently told a federal judge that they want to be put in charge of the troubled jail complex and be appointed “remediation manager,” according to a recent report from the judge’s federal monitor, Steve J. Martin.

Judge Laura Swain, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District, is currently interviewing candidates to effectively take over management of the jail complex where over 100 people have died in the past 10 years.

The remediation manager, or receiver, is expected to assume broad powers over the day-to-day operation of the jails and supplant decisions typically left to the mayor or Department of Correction commissioner.

Over two dozen people sent in applications to the judge, according to a report filed last week by Martin. After parsing through the candidates, Martin sent Swain a shortlist of names for the judge to review at the end of August. The list of applicants has not been made public.

Whoever is given the role will likely have “proven and relevant expertise in sound correctional management and operations and the core competence to catalyze the culture change necessary to achieve the court’s mandate.”

In November, Swain found the city in contempt of 18 provisions listed in the longstanding consent decree issued in the detainee rights case known as Nunez v. the City of New York. In the order, Swain hinted that she was leaning toward appointing a receiver to lead the effort to get the city to comply with the orders, which touch on officers' abuse of detainees to the DOC’s management of its staff.

She followed through in May, when she issued the creation of the remedial manager, laying out their basic roles and responsibilities.

The city largely objected to Swain’s order and insisted in later court filings that implementing a receiver would be a violation of federal law.

Martin’s report included a detailed list of changes both the city and the Legal Aid Society, which represents detainees in the class action lawsuit, wanted to make to Swain’s original receivership order.

Though Martin said negotiations over the order had been productive, they took longer than expected. The monitor’s report, which was released late Thursday afternoon, was originally due on Aug. 25. The monitor asked for several extensions from late August through the first two weeks of September.

Swain has not said when she expects to name a receiver but indicated in past rulings that she aims to act quickly.

Around a half dozen people have died in DOC custody or just after being released from it since the judge issued her order in May.