Newly-appointed NYC Division of Correction (DOC) commissioner Stanley Richards by no means truly utilized for the job. He noticed his work centered as service supplier Fortune Society’s CEO and president, and felt significantly wanting to associate with town below Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
So Richards anticipated to advocate some candidates for the position when the administration reached out over e-mail. As an alternative, he got here really useful by others to guide town’s embattled jail system, which incorporates amenities on Rikers Island the place he was as soon as incarcerated.
“I spoke to my spouse about it as a result of whenever you serve in metropolis authorities, so does your loved ones,” mentioned Richards in an interview with the AmNews. “My spouse and I mentioned it. I had an interview with the mayor, the primary deputy mayor, Dean Fuleihan, and the mayor’s chief of workers, Elle [Bisgaard-Church]. We had a fantastic dialog in regards to the issues we have to do to shut Rikers, preserve officers secure, preserve incarcerated folks secure, construct the borough-based jails, and cut back inhabitants.
“And I left there simply [feeling] honored whether or not I obtained the job or not,” he mentioned, “and I obtained a name the subsequent day asking me, will I function the subsequent New York Metropolis Division of Correction Commissioner…that is an affirming second for New York {that a} man who served time in Rikers is now main it on this administration.”
On Jan. 31, Mamdani introduced the appointment. Richards now breaks his personal formerly-set milestone as the very best rating formerly-incarcerated DOC official. He beforehand served as first deputy commissioner below Invoice DeBlasio’s administration. However Richards additionally makes historical past as town’s first DOC commissioner below a federal takeover.
Detained and delayed
Violence and mismanagement lengthy characterised Rikers Island, which homes nearly each DOC facility and sits remotely between Queens and the Bronx on the East River.
In 2011, Bronx teen Mark Nunez sued New York Metropolis alleging DOC workers repeatedly hit him on the again of his head with a radio. A category-action lawsuit sprung from the case as different folks detained on Rikers got here out with comparable use-of-force tales. Town in the end settled the Nunez litigation, which led to the federal courtroom appointing a monitor and issuing a laundry listing of reforms to enhance jail security in compliance with the Structure.
In 2019, town dedicated to closing Rikers Island and constructing 4 alternative jails. The brand new amenities — one in every borough aside from Staten Island — will likely be situated close to municipal courthouses for sooner trial transport and give attention to offering reentry providers and safer circumstances. The unique plan was to shut Rikers Island and open the borough-based jails by this 12 months earlier than delaying the closure to 2027.
However progress stays gradual on each fronts below the recently-expired Eric Adams administration. Town will nearly definitely miss subsequent summer season’s deadline, as some borough-based jail building will seemingly run into the subsequent decade. The present incarcerated inhabitants, which topped 7,000 final 12 months, additionally supersedes the utmost 4,160 complete beds deliberate among the many 4 new amenities.
In late 2024, the federal decide overseeing the Nunez settlement held town below Adams in contempt for failing to implement the mandatory reforms and opened the door for a receivership. Final 12 months, the events mentioned how a court-appointed takeover over the DOC might seem like and agreed on a “remediation supervisor” to make sure constitutional compliance.
In the meantime, greater than 40 folks detained in New York Metropolis jails died whereas incarcerated or instantly after launch below the Adams administration.
No Man is an Island
Simply days earlier than Mamdani appointed Richards, the courts tapped Vermont’s Nicholas Deml because the remediation supervisor. Debra Greenberger, one of many legal professionals representing the Nunez plaintiffs, says the courtroom envisions the 2 working collectively. However Deml, a former CIA officer and corrections head, will get the ultimate say on issues pertaining to jail security and constitutional compliance.
“The vital piece [from] our perspective is that it is a individual answerable to the courtroom absent the political processes, whose time period is predicated on when issues get executed,” mentioned Greenberger. “Not the 4 12 months turnover of a mayoral administration. And whose aim just isn’t the competing priorities that any politician or political determine has to cope with, however the aim of security [on] Rikers and guaranteeing it’s a constitutionally secure atmosphere.”
Whereas Greenberger didn’t remark straight on Richards’ appointment, she pointed to feedback from her Nunez co-counsel on the Authorized Support Society. The general public protection group’s Tina Luongo was complimentary of the brand new commissioner. “Few folks perceive New York Metropolis’s jail system — and what’s wanted to reform it — extra deeply than Stanley Richards,” they mentioned of their assertion.
Richards says he already spoke with Deml and so they plan on touring Rikers Island collectively this week. He calls the unprecedented association “a partnership that’s pursuing the identical aim” and believes “a rising tide lifts all boats” for reforming jail circumstances.
“We’ve the identical aim, and we’re going to do it in partnership,” mentioned Richards. “Nick can have an workplace on Rikers. My workplace is on Rikers. We’ll keep in day by day frequent contact. We will likely be figuring out methods to be sure that we find yourself with secure jails.”
Mockingly, the DOC commissioner retaining a managerial position on this partnership might stem from the Adams administration’s resistance to receivership. Oftentimes, federal takeovers can lower out the native authorities nearly totally, says Brennan Heart Senior Fellow Hernandez Stroud.
Pairing the remediation supervisor with the native commissioner accounts for when the courtroom restores metropolis’s full management over DOC. The association additionally keys in some enter from elected officers like Mamdani — traditionally, judges make use of receiverships solely as final ditch efforts since they don’t contain any direct democratic course of.
“The speculation is that this receivership is short-term,” mentioned Stroud. “It’s town authorities’s job to run jails in compliance with the Structure, and so the thought is that having the federal government be part of the judicial reform work will likely be extra more likely to lead to sustainable modifications than simply having a judicially-imposed set of reforms [for the government to maintain after the case terminates].”
A daring imaginative and prescient
Richards hails from a prison justice reform background, the place he stays popular with his friends and attracts a lot of his coverage platform from. He not solely envisions closing Rikers and establishing the borough-based jails, but additionally intends on handing over decommissioned jails on the island to the Division of Citywide Administrative Companies (DCAS). Subsequently, the amenities will likely be repurposed in direction of environmental justice efforts in compliance with the Renewable Rikers laws.
The land transfers, which the Adams administration refused to execute regardless of metropolis regulation mandates, supply a tangible step ahead within the borough-based jail plan. Notably, Rikers’ largest facility, the Anna M. Kross Heart, sits empty however stays below DOC cost. A number of folks died final 12 months whereas held on the George R. Vierno Heart, which the Adams administration reopened after refusing to show the jail over to DCAS.
Moreover, Richards vows to scale back Rikers inhabitants by working with native district attorneys to hurry up instances and state jail officers to expedite transferring folks whose instances are already adjudicated. Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg referred to as him “an impressive decide for Commissioner” and recounted working collectively on his workplace’s court-navigator program.
“I look ahead to continued collaboration as we work to scale back time spent on Rikers Island for these awaiting trial, which is able to make the system extra environment friendly and profit public security long-term,” added Bragg over e-mail.
Richards additionally plans on working with Alternate options to Incarceration (ATI) nonprofit suppliers to securely divert as many individuals from pretrial detention as doable and using “each authority” below Article 6-A — an early/work launch program — to display screen potential candidates who can safely serve their remaining sentence out at house.
Heart for Employment Alternatives Govt Vice President Christopher Watler additionally beforehand collaborated with Richards and The Fortune Society by the ATI/Reentry Coalition, and expressed pleasure for his imaginative and prescient.
“The overwhelming majority of people that wind up within the system don’t take their case totally to a decide or jury determination,” mentioned Watler. “They plea out alongside the way in which, as a result of the method turns into the punishment. Stanley understands this and why that doesn’t work. He has been an advocate for insurance policies that don’t do this [and] both divert folks away from the system and for people who find themselves coming house and ensuring they get providers.”
Forsaking a fortune
With Richards leaving The Fortune Society this Friday, Deputy CEO Rob DeLeon heads up the group as interim CEO and president. He and different reentry service supplier leaders will play key roles within the metropolis fixing and shutting Rikers. Final month, Mamdani backed Fortune Society’s Simply Dwelling, a deliberate supportive housing growth on the Bronx’s Jacobi Hospital designated for returning residents with complicated medical wants.
“I completely need us to proceed to create extra housing for people coming house,” mentioned DeLeon. “We’ve to rise to the event that we wish to convey down the jail inhabitants. We wish to shut Rikers, and we wish a smaller prison justice footprint. So with the intention to do this, it’s not nearly receiving the folks which might be being launched. It’s in regards to the entrance door being shrunken and there being group alternate options that may obtain people and that may assist them to stay full lives with out being concerned within the system.”
Like Richards, DeLeon can also be formerly-incarcerated. Actually, he first reached out to the Fortune Society not for a job interview, however whereas serving a bid in jail. On DeLeon’s wall hangs the unique cheap letter of assurance introduced throughout his parole listening to from the group he now leads.
Richards himself ready for this second, saying he and DeLeon constructed a bench within the occasion both left the Fortune Society. Now, he focuses on abandoning a legacy.
“After I was rising up, it was anticipated that you’d find yourself on the streets and find yourself in jail [or] in jail,” mentioned Richards. “It’s my hope as I chart this new path to shut Rikers, construct [the] borough primarily based jails, and cut back our footprint on mass incarceration in New York Metropolis, when my grandkids develop up, their expectation will likely be that they’ll go to school and so they’ll know that their grandfather was a significant piece in reworking what was once mass incarceration in New York Metropolis to what we’ve got of their era.”
