THE CITY This story was initially revealed by THE CITY.
Stanley Richards, who did a number of stints on Rikers Island as a youth earlier than happening to steer the town’s largest nonprofit aiding individuals who have been locked up, was introduced on Saturday by Mayor Zohran Mamdani as the town’s Correction Division commissioner.
Richards takes over the division at a pivotal second. Final week, a federal choose appointed a court-ordered remediation supervisor with sweeping powers to reform circumstances at Rikers, which has been lengthy affected by questions of safety and which the town is below stress to shutter. He’s anticipated to work carefully with that remediation supervisor, Nicholas Deml, a former prime detention official from Vermont, who could have last say over many key points there.
“Right this moment, we flip the web page and we begin a brand new period,” Richard instructed reporters Saturday night time. “Underneath Mayor Mamdani’s management, we’ll chart a path of hope, therapeutic, and transformation.”
Mamdani stated he had not but spoken to Deml, however his administration has been in contact.
“We stay up for working with the remediation supervisor on bettering circumstances in our metropolis’s jails, each for these in custody and for correction officers,” the mayor instructed reporters. Richards echoed that sentiment, saying Deml will work in “partnership” with him and his crew.
Richards’s appointment marks a significant change in route from the administration of former Mayor Eric Adams, who vowed to deliver again using solitary confinement and appointed a former police detective to steer Correction whereas the union representing its officers cheered on.
In contrast, Richards served as a deputy commissioner of the Correction Division over the past six months of the de Blasio administration, in-between many years of labor on the Fortune Society. Throughout his earlier stint at DOC, the Correction Officers Benevolent Affiliation (COBA) repeatedly attacked him and his boss, Vincent Schiraldi, arguing that they put the pursuits of individuals behind bars over officers and different jail workers.
“We’ll prioritize the security of workers and incarcerated individuals,” Richards stated Saturday, including that he deliberate to “strengthen connections to neighborhood companies” for housing, healthcare and employment.
In an announcement issued Saturday night time, COBA President Benny Boscio stated the union had lengthy been keen to work with jail leaders, regardless of what he known as “false narratives” portraying the union as an impediment to reform.
Boscio stated COBA expects Richards to respect the rights of correction officers and acknowledge that officer security is central to the functioning of the town’s jails. “The jails can’t and won’t function as safely as potential if the issues of our members are brushed apart,” Boscio stated.
He added that the union hopes Richards will show a dedication to placing security and safety forward of “any political ideology.”
Richards’s appointment was welcomed by leaders within the authorized protection neighborhood.
Tina Luongo, chief lawyer of the Felony Protection Follow on the Authorized Help Society, stated few individuals perceive the town’s jail system “and what’s wanted to reform it” extra deeply than Richards, pointing to his lived expertise, earlier senior management function within the Division of Correction and his tenure on the Fortune Society.
Luongo added that Mamdani’s choice to help the appointment of a remediation supervisor presents “a brand new alternative to show the web page on Rikers Island and at last finish its dysfunction, dysfunction, and depravity.”
Richards frolicked in Rikers throughout the late Eighties as he struggled with substance habit. He has described himself as a “predator” throughout that point who would promote smuggled contraband cigarettes and medicines to fellow detainees. He turned his life round and most not too long ago served as president and CEO of the Fortune Society, the place he helped individuals efficiently re-enter society after jail and advocated for options to incarceration. Richards first joined the nonprofit in 1991 as a re-entry counselor and rose by means of its ranks over three many years.
He later served as first deputy commissioner of the Division of Correction, turning into the primary previously incarcerated individual to carry a senior management place on the company. COBA was enraged by his appointment and opposed a number of proposals he made throughout his quick tenure. Greater than 1,000 officers known as out sick for lengthy stretches, creating a large workers scarcity. The staffing disaster largely abated shortly after an Adams appointee, Louis Molina, took over the division in January 2022.
Richards additionally made historical past as the primary previously incarcerated individual appointed to the town’s Board of Correction, the place he led the working group that pushed to finish punitive segregation.
In recognition of his work, Richards was named a Champion for Change by the Obama administration. He holds an affiliate diploma from Medaille College and earned each a bachelor’s diploma and grasp of public well being from Hunter Faculty.
The primary problem Richards and Deml will face collectively shall be to give you a plan to strictly scale back using solitary confinement. Mamdani has ordered the division to difficulty a roadmap to lastly make that reform potential after a Metropolis Council legislation ordering that change has been placed on maintain for shut to 5 years.
“I pledge to work with the Metropolis Council, our unions, advocates, and communities to ship outcomes,” Richards stated. “We’ll innovate boldly and measure success by the lives which are reworked, not by lockups.”
