Mamdani appoints Stanley Richards as next correction commissioner
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani named Stanley Richards to serve as the city’s next Department of Correction commissioner on Saturday, Jan. 31. Screenshot via NYC mayor/YOuTube
By Jacob Kaye
Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday appointed Stanley Richards, the former head of The Fortune Society, to serve as the city’s next commissioner of the Department of Correction.
Richards, a longtime criminal justice reformer, has a unique perspective of the city’s DOC and the jails the agency runs. He once served as a top deputy in the DOC under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. He’s also fought for reforms from the outside as an advocate and criminal justice nonprofit leader.
Richards also knows what it's like to be locked up in the city’s jail complex. With his appointment on Saturday, Richards became the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the DOC.
“Today begins a path of hope, transformation, transparency, and inclusion, and will result in a more humane and just system,” Richards said.
Richards is taking over the DOC at a moment when the agency and its jails are at a crossroads.
Just days before his appointment, a federal judge appointed Nicholas Deml, a former CIA agent and corrections official in Vermont, to serve as her remediation manager. In the role, Deml will assume significant control over the day-to-day management of Rikers and the DOC. He’ll have the power to hire or fire anyone working for the agency, except the commissioner.
Both Richards and Mamdani said on Saturday that they were committed to working alongside the remediation manager, whose main mission will be to address the violence that has persisted on Rikers Island for decades.
Richards also assumes control over the agency a little more than a year and a half before the city reaches its legally-mandated deadline to close Rikers Island. The city is years off of its timeline to shutter the jail complex and open the four borough-based jails it’s creating to replace it.
In a wide-ranging 2024 interview with the Eagle, Richards, who served as a member of the commission that last year revised the city’s plan to shut down the jail complex, said that he wanted Rikers Island “closed yesterday.”
The new commissioner stands to be the most reform-minded leader of the DOC since Vincent Schiraldi, Richards’ former boss, served in the role under de Blasio.
As an advocate, he’s fought for major reforms to the city’s jails and its criminal justice system.
On Saturday, he said his plan to run the agency aligns with Mamdani’s campaign promise to reform the agency and the jails.
“His administration made clear that the future of Rikers is not endless confinement, scapegoating or demonizing – it is safety transformation and rehabilitation,” Richards said. “My vision aligns fully with that mission – safer jails today, borough-based facilities that prioritize dignity, opportunity and humanity.”
“We will prioritize the safety of staff and incarcerated people and strengthen connections to community services like housing, mental health care, education and employment, so that every New Yorker leaving our custody has a real chance to succeed and can contribute to building a stronger and safer New York City,” he added.
The new commissioner also spoke to the DOC’s correctional officers, who had a contentious relationship with DOC leadership when Richards served as the agency’s first deputy commissioner of programs and operations. Richards served in the role in 2021, during the height of a staffing crisis that saw thousands of officers go AWOL.
He told the officers that he’ll “spend every day working to ensure the department keeps you safe.”
Benny Boscio, the president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association, didn’t outright celebrate Richards’ appointment in a statement.
“Depsite the many false narratives that have portrayed COBA as an ‘obstacle to reform,’ we have been ready willing and able to meet and work with anyone, as long as they respect the rights of our correction officers and understand that their safety and security matter,” Boscio said. “The jails cannot and will not operate as safely as possible if the concerns of our members are brushed aside.”
“It is our hope that Mr. Richards understands that dynamic as he takes on this new role and demonstrates a commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology,” he added.
Criminal justice advocates hailed Mamdani's pick on Saturday.
“Few people understand New York City’s jail system — and what is needed to reform it — more deeply than Stanley Richards,” the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “Drawing on his lived experience, prior senior leadership within the Department of Correction, and his tenure at The Fortune Society, he brings unmatched insight, credibility, compassion, and a deep commitment to advancing meaningful reform.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
