NYC Division of Corrections (DOC) Commissioner Louis Molina is transferring his workplace to Metropolis Corridor. Mayor Eric Adams introduced the previous NYPD officer’s appointment as assistant deputy mayor for public security final Monday, Oct. 31.
“After the super success now we have achieved on the Division of Corrections to cut back violence and enhance security, I’m honored Mayor Adams has chosen me to tackle even larger accountability for public security in our metropolis,” stated Molina. “I returned to town the place I used to be born and raised to serve within the Adams administration as a result of public security has been my life’s mission.”
The well-traveled Molina assumed DOC management final 12 months. Along with his stint within the NYPD, each in uniform and as a detective, he’s additionally a former Marine.
Molina assumes a job beneath Deputy Mayor of Public Phillip Banks and is “tasked with coordinating with all metropolis companies on public security issues to make sure they align with Mayor Adams’s imaginative and prescient to maintain each New Yorker protected.” This switch happens after Molina reportedly denied rumors of resigning earlier in October. Adams fondly referred to Molina as “Lou” in a press release and described the appointment as a promotion.
“During the last 22 months, Lou has demonstrated distinctive management and dedication because the commissioner of the Division of Corrections, serving to to reverse a long time of mismanagement and neglect,” stated Adams.
However advocates aren’t so glowing about Molina’s tenure, pointing to 19 deaths in or instantly after DOC custody final 12 months and continued reporting of poor jail situations by a federal monitor put in earlier than his management. One other 9 folks died in or instantly after taken into division custody thus far this 12 months; virtually all have been held at Rikers Island after they died.
“The message that [Adams] is sending to the group and people which might be instantly impacted by this insidious jail complicated is that he actually doesn’t care,” stated Melanie Dominguez, the Katal Heart’s lead organizer. “He actually doesn’t care. If he actually cared concerning the group and people which were impacted [and] which have handed away in New York Metropolis jails at Rikers Island, he would maintain the commissioner accountable.
“What (Molina has) performed in his tenure was he had 28 folks move away in simply two years, so it’s infuriating that as an alternative of holding him accountable, (the mayor is) simply giving him a soft job at Metropolis Corridor.”
Dominguez, a proponent for federal receivership over metropolis jails, stated accountability for Rikers situations squarely rests with Adams, even earlier than Molina’s transition.
“Regardless of who comes subsequent or who who’s appointed [as] the commissioner of the Division of Corrections, we’re going to proceed to guarantee that we maintain this man accountable in getting us to the place we must be, which is shutting down Rikers, [and making sure change happens], and we urge the choose to nominate an impartial receiver,” she stated.
Freedom Agenda co-founder Darren Mack, a member of the Marketing campaign to Shut Rikers, believes the jail complicated can’t be reformed no matter who takes over.
“I hope that this mayor appoints a brand new commissioner who clearly understands that Rikers can’t be mounted,” he stated. “And never solely meet the quick wants of individuals detained in custody, however [provide] transparency and [decrease] the inhabitants so we will in the end shut Rikers Island.”
Underneath Molina, the jail inhabitants at the moment sits round 6,000. The borough-based jails scheduled to exchange Rikers by 2027 can solely maintain barely greater than half that quantity. In a listening to final winter, Molina projected a gradual rise in metropolis jail populations.
To be clear, metropolis jail developments are tougher to gauge beneath Molina abecauses he assumed management after the COVID-19 pandemic, when detainee populations dropped drastically. There have been marked enhancements with employees attendance, but in addition regular rises in detaining these experiencing critical psychological sickness.
However usually, issues about unsatisfactory jail situations proceed to be reported by the federal monitor. The latest report, which paperwork this previous summer time from Could to August, discovered unsanitary situations, fireplace questions of safety, and airflow deficiencies.
Re/Creation founding facilitator John Proctor, one other member of the Marketing campaign to Shut Rikers, recalled assembly Molina when he served as deputy commissioner for the Westchester County Division of Correction. Again then, Molina was seen as a mannequin reformer and Proctor initially held excessive hopes when Adams appointed him. These expectations are lengthy gone.
“Molina has offered a helpful public face as a confirmed liberal, even progressive administrator, to then do intolerant, unprogressive issues as administrator at Rikers,” he stated.
The DOC didn’t touch upon the information and referred the request to the Mayor’s Workplace.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 take into account making a tax-deductible reward of any quantity at this time by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
