New York City Mayor Eric Adams Forms Rikers Island Task Force To Address Humanitarian Crisis

Mayor Eric Adams convened a task team on Thursday to address Rikers Island's existing staffing challenges and unsafe circumstances.

The task team, which will be chaired by Chief Counsel Brendan McGuire and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phillip Banks, will suggest modifications to make the facility safer for correctional staff and inmates.

NY Mayor Eric Adams Starts Rikers Island Task Force

Representatives from the Department of Correction, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, the New York Municipal Law Department, and five other city departments will meet regularly. Banks stated that the organization will assist in the repair of a broken government and agencies functioning in silos, which has resulted in hazardous circumstances within Rikers.

The decision comes less than a month after federal prosecutors in Manhattan threatened to have the problematic jail system taken over by an outside agency unless it addressed staffing concerns and violence inside the city's jails. A staffing shortfall at Rikers Island has created a perilous environment for both cops and prisoners. With 16 individuals dying in detention last year, the municipal jail system had its worst year since 2013. Four convicts have died in detention so far this year.

In March, the first federal monitor report under Adams was released, questioning Commissioner Louis Molina's leadership and slamming the DOC for neglecting document requests. In a joint statement with Mayor Adams, Molina praised the new task committee, New York Post reported.

To avoid a federal takeover in late April, a judge allowed New York City only three weeks to come up with a plan to rebuild Rikers. The city has until May 17 to present a comprehensive plan, which will be discussed in a hearing on May 24. Adams' declaration comes after the fourth death in detention this year. The New York City Board of Correction issued a report regarding past fatalities shortly after Dashawn Carter died on Saturday. They discovered long-standing concerns and challenges.

United States Attorney Damian Williams has argued that Rikers should be turned up to the federal government. In a letter filed in federal court, he noted "unsafe and hazardous situations," as per Pix11.

Rikers Island Inmate Death

On Saturday, a 25-year-old homeless man died in an apparent suicide at Rikers Island, barely two days after being released from a mental facility. DaShawn Carter, the fourth inmate to die at Rikers this year, was discovered dead in his cell in the Anna M. Kross Center shortly after 5 pm In March, two people died in a matter of days.

Carter was arrested on first-degree robbery and third-degree burglary charges, according to the New York City Department of Corrections. The state Attorney General is investigating his death. Carter was cleared to return to the jail by mental health officials on Thursday, as reported by a person familiar with the event, and was being detained in the general population.

A total of 15 convicts died shortly after being released from Rikers Island in 2021. They were all black dudes. Democratic leaders have called for the institution to be decommissioned after a surge of killings and gang violence there.

In September 2021, lawmakers reported overflowing toilets and floors filled with dead insects, feces, and decaying food. New York's newly appointed Department of Correction Commissioner Louis A Molina must produce a plan to solve the prison's problems within the next several days, or the city's largest jail would be turned over to federal authorities.

Molina must file his proposal to rescue Rikers by May 17th, and a hearing will be held on May 24th. According to a study released in October 2021, Rikers Island was under the jurisdiction of its almost 5,000-strong jail population, according to Independent.