Mayor Eric Adams appointed Lynelle Maginley-Liddie as the brand new NYC Division of Corrections (DOC) Commissioner this previous Friday, Dec. 8. She turns into the second Black girl to serve within the function, shifting up from her earlier publish within the division as first deputy commissioner beneath her predecessor, Louis Molina, who now works at Metropolis Corridor. The brand new commissioner additionally headed the division’s range efforts earlier than her promotion.
Maginley-Liddie underscored her Carribean heritage and expertise as a first-generation American all through Friday’s appointment.
“I got here to this nation as an immigrant from Antigua greater than twenty years in the past to pursue my ardour for legislation and public service,” she mentioned. “My mother and father and household have supported me in each step of that journey and I owe them every little thing. My journey is just not distinctive—it’s the embodiment of the American dream.”
The brand new commissioner first entered the DOC as an company legal professional again in 2015. Beforehand, she labored on the legislation workplaces of Chief Berkon Colao & Silverstein LLP, in response to the Mayor’s Workplace.
“Lynelle Maginley-Liddie has spent the higher a part of a decade on the Division of Corrections, and I [am] assured that she is the precise individual to guide the division going ahead,” mentioned the mayor.
However Maginley-Liddie inherits a slew of Rikers Island-related issues, together with mounting detainee deaths, federal receivership hearings, and the legally mandated jails closure by 2027. The brand new commissioner mentioned she would deal with the “restoration and funding in a secure, safe, humane, and atmosphere” for each individual in DOC custody.
Final 12 months, 19 individuals died in or instantly after DOC custody. 9 individuals died this 12 months, bringing the whole of identified deaths for the reason that Adams administration took over to twenty-eight.
When requested about receivership, Maginley-Liddie mentioned it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the federal choose overseeing the Nunez litigation would appoint a third-party receiver to briefly take over Rikers and see by means of the mandatory reforms.
The Authorized Assist Society, which co-represented the Nunez plaintiffs, welcomed Maginley-Liddie’s appointment with an optimistic assertion, pointing to her years within the DOC as offering confidence in her information of “the long-standing points plaguing town’s jail system” and regarded ahead to working along with her. However the group argued that no single individual can repair the “deterioration” of metropolis jails and maintained the necessity for a receiver.
The Correction Officers’ Benevolent Affiliation (COBA), the union representing DOC employees, additionally recommended Maginley-Liddie’s expertise.
“Clearly, we live in one of the crucial difficult occasions within the historical past of our company, and these tough occasions name for sturdy management from somebody who is aware of our jail system very properly,” mentioned COBA President Benny Boscio in a press release. “We have now loved a productive relationship with Lynelle Maginley-Liddie whereas she served as first deputy commissioner and we stay up for working along with her in her new function as the pinnacle of our company.”
Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack, spokesperson for the Marketing campaign to Shut Rikers, maintained the unfixable nature of Rikers Island and the necessity to shut the jails by the scheduled deadline.
“Rikers is irredeemable regardless of who’s operating it,” Mack mentioned in a press release. “Any commissioner who’s dedicated to transparency and safeguarding the rights of individuals in custody will acknowledge that an remoted penal colony constructed on poisonous land may by no means be in step with these targets. We hope Commissioner Maginley-Liddie will deal with getting Rikers closed whereas lowering hurt in each means doable for individuals there now, as an alternative of making an attempt to cover and justify its abuses.”Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public security for the Amsterdam Information. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps maintain him writing tales like this one; please contemplate making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity at present by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
