Judge finds New York City in contempt over jail conditions, moves closer to a federal takeover

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Wednesday found New York City in contempt for failing to staunch violence and brutality at its jails, a scathing ruling that puts the troubled Rikers Island jail complex on the verge of a federal takeover.

In a written decision, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said the city had placed incarcerated people in “unconstitutional danger” by failing to comply with 18 separate provisions of court orders pertaining to security, staffing, supervision, use of force and the safety of young detainees.

The long-squalid conditions have worsened significantly in the nine years since the city settled abuse and violence claims, she wrote, exacerbated by jail leadership’s “unwillingness or inability” to implement ordered reforms.

As a result, Swain ordered the city and lawyers suing on behalf of detainees to confer with a court-appointed monitor on a proposed framework for a federal receivership — an extraordinary intervention that would cede city control of one of the nation’s largest, most notorious jail systems.

https://apnews.com/article/rikers-island-jail-reform-contempt-reform-nyc-57d73548e61a28675e80ac0a2d927064