Add Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams to the list of those who demand that the federal courts appoint a receiver to run Rikers Island. That was his conclusion on Monday, as the problems at the city jail keep piling up.
How bad is it at the Department of Correction? Consider that on back-to-back days reporters flagged the failures of two different advisory bodies for DOC. Stories published by our own Graham Rayman Sunday and The City’s Reuven Blau yesterday point out the lack of movement on the parts of the Local Conditional Release Commission and Mayor Adams’ Rikers Island task force, respectively.
The commission was reestablished in 2020 with the goal of recommending early release for people serving short sentences in city jails, while the task force was formed by Adams more than a year ago to issue concrete recommendations about how the city can best comply with the federal court settlement and orders to make Rikers safer for both people in custody and staff.
