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A Manhattan federal judge just moved one step closer to handing control of city jails over to a receiver. It’s undoubtedly the right move — if done right.
Southern District Judge Laura Swain, who’s presiding over a Legal Aid Society lawsuit against the Department of Corrections, on Wednesday held the city in contempt for the “grave” conditions at Rikers, slamming the “glacial pace of reform” by the DOC and warning she’s “inclined” to bring in a receiver.
But she wants the parties to draft up what a takeover would look like, including who the receiver would be and how much power he or she would have.
Rikers Island is a violent, chaotic, drug-ridden nightmare: At least 32 inmates have died in custody these last three years, jail staff keep getting attacked, and gangs often do what they please.
A drastic intervention is long overdue.
A federal monitor has been in place since a 2015 settlement — with not much to show for it after nine years and $10 million in taxpayer money.
Leadership turnover at DOC, union resistance to work-rule changes and other power squabbles frustrate any lasting improvement.
It’s time to bring in the big guns; a fed who will actually have total decision-making power.
Yet Swain is right to be cautious: The wrong receivership could make things worse, whether by letting impractical advocates have too much sway or by exacerbating the jail’s labor issues.
And a federal receiver must be able to overrule City Council interference as well as dictate work-rule changes outside the union-contracting process.
Whoever lands the job will need to have the authority — and the spine — to resist pressure from both the unions, which have railed against the idea of handing control over to the feds, and the “criminal-justice reform” activists.
And the city needs Rikers to work, because the so-called plan to replace it is years behind schedule and fundamentally foolish: Spending billions to build jails in four boroughs (which can hold only a fraction of inmates now on the island) is not only a waste of money; it would make New York City more dangerous.
For a fraction of the price, we could modernize Rikers and clean up the problems.
Kudos to Swain for seeking a plan that can bring the kind of reform city jails need.