Judge strips NYC of full authority over Rikers Island, citing 'unprecedented' violence
New York City will no longer fully control its jail system, including the long-troubled Rikers Island complex, after a federal judge found the city had failed to stem spiraling dysfunction and brutality against those in custody.
Instead, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain said she would appoint an outside manager to 'take all necessary steps' toward restoring order inside the jails and bringing the city into compliance with previous court orders.
The official, known as a 'remediation manager,' will report directly to the court. While the city's corrections commissioner will remain responsible for much of the day-to-day operations of the jail system, the remediation manager will have broad powers to address long-standing safety problems, including authority over hiring and promotions, staff deployment and disciplinary action regarding the use of force
The extraordinary intervention, outlined Tuesday by Swain in a 77-page order, comes nearly a decade after the city's jail system was placed under federal oversight as part of a class-action lawsuit brought by detainees.
In the years since, rates of violence have continued to increase, creating a 'grave and immediate threat' that violates the constitutional rights of those in custody, according to Swain.
'Worse still, the unsafe and dangerous conditions in the jails, which are characterized by unprecedented rates of use of force and violence, have become normalized despite the fact that they are clearly abnormal and unacceptable,' Swain wrote Tuesday.
This past November, she found the city in contempt for 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 contempt ruling opened the door to a federal receivership of Rikers Island, a remedy long supported by detainee advocates, strongly opposed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and characterized by the court as an option of last resort.
In her order on Tuesday, Swain said the remedial manager would have 'broad authority' similar to a federal receiver, but would be expected to work closely with the city-appointed commissioner of the Department of Correction to implement a reform plan.
At a press conference Tuesday, Adams said the city would follow the judge's order, while also suggesting the appointment of an outside manager was not necessary.
'Remediation manager? I don't know the definition of that,' he said. 'We have this oversight and that oversight. How much oversight are you going to do before you realize there are systemic problems?'
Benny Boscio, the president of the union that represents correction officers, said the union was willing to work with the outside manager, but it would maintain "our fierce advocacy for the preservation of our members' employment rights and improving their working conditions.'
Advocates for detainees, meanwhile, celebrated the judge's order as a turning point in a decades-long effort at reform.
'This has the potential to finally change the culture of violence and brutality in the city's jails that we've seen for decades,' said Debbie Greenberger, an attorney with the Emery Celli law firm, which represents detainees, along with the Legal Aid Society.
'Nothing is going to change overnight, but I'm more hopeful today that we have a path to transformational change,' she added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
19 minutes ago
- The Independent
AP PHOTOS: Cuba's energy crisis forces families to find ingenious solutions to get by
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.
Times
25 minutes ago
- Times
Poland presidential election: what its kingmaker wants to change
Act now to keep your subscription We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription.
Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Trump cornered as China weaponises its rare-earths dominance
When or if Donald Trump gets on the phone with Xi Jinping, the tone between the two men is likely to be frosty. The US and China have in recent days both accused each other of violating their fragile, three-week-old trade truce. The two presidents are expected to speak this week in an effort to rescue the deal. But Trump has a tough pill to swallow: it is his arch-rival who looks to have the better negotiating hand. China's near-total dominance of the world's supply of rare-earth metals – which are used in the manufacture of everything from cars and computer chips to F-35 fighter jets and nuclear-powered submarines – means Xi can squeeze the US where it hurts. 'Critical minerals are one of the most important bargaining chips for China in its negotiations with Washington. China will really hold on to this, as a significant point of leverage,' says Matilda Buchan, a senior analyst at Asia House, a London think tank. Beijing's willingness to weaponise the rare-earths supply chain is so potent a threat to the US economy and military that it has already pushed the White House into de-escalating its planned trade war with China. After Trump's April 2 'liberation day' announcement raised tariffs on US imports from China to an eventual peak of 145pc, Beijing's retaliation included a ban on exports to the US of magnet alloys containing key rare-earth materials. The impact was quickly felt. On May 9, some of the biggest carmakers in the US – including General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Hyundai – wrote to the White House warning that unless China's export ban was lifted, they would soon have to start cutting back production. That same day, Trump told his Truth Social followers that he was ready to make big concessions to get a deal with China. Negotiations in Geneva took place over the ensuing weekend, and the tariffs came tumbling down. It emerged, more quietly, in subsequent days that China would allow rare-earths exports to the US to resume. 'Major disruption' Last Friday, though, Trump was back on Truth Social claiming that China had 'TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US'. Jamieson Greer, the president's trade envoy, told CNBC that Beijing was 'slow-rolling' its issuance of licences to export products containing rare earths. 'We haven't seen the flow of some of those critical minerals as they were supposed to be doing,' he said. The question is whether China is actively frustrating the deal, as some White House officials reportedly suspect, or whether the explanation is more mundane: not a grand conspiracy but simply a system coming to grips with new red tape. Back in April, Beijing did not just slap a ban on exports, it built a new bureaucratic structure to underpin future rare-earths trade. China-based companies wanting to export metal alloys containing more than a trace of seven key rare earths – samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, yttrium and scandium – now need to apply for a licence from the commerce ministry. It was not initially clear which shipments would be caught by the new rules, and there was plenty of precautionary laboratory testing, even of exports that were below the rare-earth content threshold. 'What initially looked like an almost total freezing of exports from China was really just a response to this need for testing of all the material, and of any material which contained more than 0.1pc of any of these elements,' says David Merriman, the research director at Project Blue, a critical minerals analysis and advisory firm. Project Blue's analysis suggests the application process is taking about 45 days, which may explain why exports to the US have been slower than expected. By mid-May, six large companies had received export licences, and at least another three were in the process of doing so. 'We are seeing some approvals come through, certainly slower than industry would like,' Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, told Bloomberg this week. 'Some of the delay is related to China working through their new system to approve exports, not that they are not allowing exports.' As part of the Geneva trade deal between the US and China, the commerce ministry has taken 28 US businesses off its export-control blacklist. But exports will still have to be approved on a shipment-by-shipment basis, and none is so far bound for the US. Volkswagen's European operations appear to have been an early beneficiary of an export licence, but not in sufficient quantities to ease supply concerns. 'There are a few approvals coming through, but they are far from being sufficient to prevent imminent production halts,' Jens Eskelund, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, told the New York Times. 'We are still facing a major disruption of supply chains.' Trump cornered The threat of factory production lines grinding to a halt highlights the immense power of China in this crucial market, and the power of its hand in negotiations. China's mines churn out about 61pc of the world's rare earths, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Chinese refiners and manufacturers also hoover up most of the rare earths from elsewhere, processing 92pc of the world's supply. It is refining that is key, as this is the process that turns the material into a usable product. The country has a particular stranglehold on the manufacture of magnet alloys containing rare earths, which have near-ubiquitous application in computing, vehicular and electrical systems. 'Particularly as you move further down the supply chain, from mined products towards downstream highly engineered products, China's market share only grows,' Merriman says. 'Its grip only gets tighter.' Rare earths are used in very small quantities, which means it has long been uneconomic for most countries to mine or refine them – most, that is, except China, where the industry is under state control. The US has been spearheading sporadic efforts to restart rare-earths production and magnet manufacture either at home or in friendlier countries. But these efforts are yet to bear real fruit. The IEA estimates that a decade from now, China will still account for 85pc of refined rare-earths output. This leaves Trump cornered. He has been talking up the prospects of Ukraine and Greenland as alternatives, but his presidency will be long gone before either of those becomes a realistic option. Tariffs are no use here either. His only weapon is semiconductors. Over the past month, the US has been gradually tightening controls over China-bound exports of chips and associated software, particularly those used in artificial intelligence. The chips squeeze is partly motivated by the White House's long-term strategic desire to retain technological supremacy over China. But it also has some immediate tactical trade leverage – as Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, admitted on Sunday. '[We are] taking certain actions to show them [the Chinese] what it feels like on the other side of that [export ban] equation,' he told Fox News. This has riled Beijing. 'The United States has unilaterally provoked new economic and trade frictions,' the Chinese commerce industry said in a statement on Monday. 'These practices seriously violate the consensus.' Despite the war of words, Lutnick claimed he was confident that Trump would 'work it out' with Xi. Perhaps his confidence is well-founded. With the US and Chinese tech and manufacturing industries hanging in the balance, a deal looks essential for both sides.
