Judge begins considering candidates to takeover Rikers
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A federal judge will begin considering candidates to take over Rikers Island as an independent receiver. AP file photo by Ted Ted Shaffrey
By Jacob Kaye
The search for the person who will assume significant control of the city’s notoriously violent jails, taking power away from the mayor and Department of Correction commissioner, began in earnest on Friday.
Attorneys on both sides of the detainee rights case known as Nunez v. the City of New York gave a federal judge on Friday their respective lists of candidates they hope she chooses from to name the city’s “remedial manager,” a new position created by the judge after the city failed for a decade to tamp down dangerous conditions on Rikers Island.
The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Laura Swain, ordered the creation of a remedial manager in May, marking the most extreme action taken to address the violence, chaos and death that has defined the city’s jails for years. In the time that she made her ruling a little more than three months ago, five people have died in Department of Correction custody.
The remedial manager, otherwise known as a receiver, will answer only to the judge and, in a number of instances, supplant the power of the Department of Correction’s commissioner and the mayor of New York City. But the true scope of their power may not yet be entirely known.
The receiver’s main job will be to tackle the nearly two dozen court orders Swain found the city in contempt of in November 2024.
And while their powers will be confined only to actions related to the court orders, their influence could potentially be felt in all corners of the DOC.
The receiver will be able to make changes to DOC policies, procedures, protocols and systems related to the Nunez court orders; review, investigate and discipline officers who violate use of force rules; hire, promote and deploy staff throughout the jails; renegotiate contracts the city has with the correctional officers’ union, which has long opposed receivership; and ask Swain to “waive any legal or contractual requirements that impede [the receiver] from carrying out their duties.”
The remedial manager, whose powers will remain until the judge finds the city is in compliance with the court orders, will also be allowed to direct the DOC commissioner and any other DOC executive in regards to the Nunez orders.
The outline of the receiver’s powers essentially mirrors the structure originally proposed by the Legal Aid Society, which represents detainees in the ongoing civil rights case. The city, which remains opposed to the takeover of its jails, proposed giving DOC boss Lynelle Manginley-Liddie the dual role of commissioner and “compliance director,” charged with making sure the agency was following the court orders.
Though their proposal was largely rejected, the city has since asked Swain to reconsider her receivership order, and could continue to challenge the ruling in court.
Once a receiver is selected, they will be charged with building an action plan, which will “identify the specific and concrete steps that are necessary to achieve substantial compliance with [the Nunez court orders]” within three years of the receiver’s start date.
The action plan will include a number of metrics that will be used by the receiver and their team to assess whether or not the city is compliant with the court’s orders.
Each time the city comes into compliance with any of the items listed in the yet-to-be written action plan, they will create a transition plan alongside the remedial manager that will end with the city regaining some aspect of control over the jails.
There was no specific timeframe put on the life of the remedial manager, nor a price.
Swain said the receiver will set the rate for them and their staff and bill the city monthly.
The judge also said the receiver will continue to retain their powers over the jails until the city comes into “substantial compliance" with the Nunez court orders and is able to sustain its progress for a one-year span.
The chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will begin interviewing candidates to serve as Rikers’ remedial manager. Eagle file photo by Max Parrott
Even after the receivership is dissolved, the city will continue to have to operate under the court orders for another two years.
Who is Swain looking for?
In addition to the candidates submitted by the city and the Legal Aid Society on Friday, Swain solicited applicants herself, issuing what resembled a job posting on the court’s docket.
Swain said the candidates should have “substantial management and correctional expertise developed outside of the [city’s] DOC.”
She also said a receiver should have the ability to collaborate, build trust with staff and have excellent oral and written communication skills.
After receiving all the candidates, Swain said she would interview the applicants and “any other it deems appropriate to review.
The judge said she would name the remedial manager as soon as possible and that the decision will ultimately be her own.
“It is necessary for the court to have ultimate control over the selection of the Nunez remediation manager in order to correct the violation of federal rights…because, ultimately, the receiver will be an agent of and answer only to the court,” she said.
