Rikers watchdog praises DOC commissioner even as judge gets set to appoint receiver

Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, who was praised for her recent efforts to reform Rikers Island by the federal monitor appointed to keep track of conditions in the jails. File photo via DOC/X

By Jacob Kaye

As a federal judge moves forward with her plan to strip the city of its control of Rikers Island, her longtime federal monitor said last week in a new report that while the city’s management of the troubled jails has seen some significant improvements in recent months, the violence and dysfunction that has long plagued Rikers remains.

Steve J. Martin, who tracks conditions in the jails on behalf of federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain in the ongoing civil rights case known as Nunez v. the City of New York, said in his first update on the jails in around six months that while “key metrics continue to reflect high rates of violence and other serious incidents, progress in certain areas has been occurring and must be acknowledged.”

But despite pointing out the improvements seen in Rikers throughout the first full year of current Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie’s tenure, Martin said the violence at the heart of the Nunez class action lawsuit has not only gone unabated but, in some instances, increased.

“[M]uch more work remains to address the high risk of harm that is pervasive throughout the system and the entrenched culture and dysfunctional practices that perpetuate it,” Martin wrote in the latest monitor’s report. “The risk of harm in the jails remains high both for those incarcerated and staff who work in the jails.”

The report, which marks the second tally of conditions in the jail since Maginley-Liddie was appointed to the post by Mayor Eric Adams, came only a few days after Swain issued a major decision in the case that has been in the courts for over a decade, ruling that a “remedial manager” or receiver would be given tremendous power over the management of Rikers.

The receiver, who will only answer to the judge, will be given sweeping powers related to the 2015 court orders in the Nunez case and will likely, in some instances, supplant the power of the DOC commissioner and the mayor.

However, like Swain, Martin described Maginley-Liddie as a tool for reform in his report last week, praising her efforts to turn around a number of issues that have long troubled Rikers and the DOC.

In the wake of the receivership ruling and the commissioner’s work, Martin appeared generally optimistic about the future of the jails where over 100 people have died in the past decade.

“The road to sustainable reform remains very long, but with the progress made the monitoring team is hopeful that the momentum toward reform has begun to shift in the right direction,” Martin wrote in the report, which details conditions in the jails from July through December 2024.

According to Martin, since Maginley-Liddie took office, the DOC has become partially compliant with 10 of the 39 provisions of the consent decree in the case – Swain found the city in contempt of 18 of those provisions in November, leading her to order the appointment of a receiver last week.

The monitor said the commissioner has “returned to transparent collaboration with the monitoring team” after her predecessor, current Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Louis Molina was alleged to have hidden a number of violent incidents from the monitor. Martin also said Maginley-Liddie had made a number of good hires for leadership roles and “advanced progress on addressing the department’s problematic use of force practices.”

Martin also noted that reductions in the rates of use of force incidents, stabbings and slashings and fires had all been seen during the last six months of 2024 when compared to 2021, the year a number of crises on Rikers came to an apex.

But despite the progress, the level of violence seen in the jails last year remains higher than it did in 2015, when the city first came under federal monitorship.

“This illustrates the need for drastic changes to the jails’ operations targeting the underlying causes of violence and interpersonal conflict,” Martin wrote.

That’s where a receiver will come in, Swain appears to hope.

“[The city has] demonstrated — in virtually every core area the court and the monitor have identified as related to the persistence of excessive and unnecessary force — that neither court orders nor the monitor’s interventions are sufficient to push the DOC toward compliance,” Swain wrote in her May 13 order. “The myriad examples of non-compliance described in the contempt order illustrate the fundamental inability of court orders in this matter, standing alone, to compel reform.”

Last week, Swain rejected the city’s request that Maginley-Liddie serve as a dual receiver and commissioner, answerable to the judge for Nunez-related matters and the mayor for everything else.

“Given [the city’s] long history of noncompliance and contemptuous conduct, the court concludes that the appointment of a fully independent individual — free from agency capture of any kind — is required,” Swain wrote.

But like Martin, Swain appeared to still have faith in the current commissioner, who has been with the DOC since the start of the consent judgment in 2015. While judges imposing receiverships in the past have called for the firing of the officials who led the jails in question at the time of the contempt ruling, Swain explicitly called on Maginley-Liddie to stay on in her role.

“In light of the trust and confidence Commissioner Maginley-Liddie has thus far garnered…the court will not impose a remedy that displaces the current commissioner,” Swain wrote. “The

Nunez remediation manager’s role has been carefully designed to build on the laudable progress that Commissioner Maginley-Liddie has made so far and to support close collaboration between two effective leaders.”

Even with the praise, Maginley-Lidde is set to see some of her power diminish in the coming year.

Swain’s receiver will have sweeping powers over the management of Rikers Island.

They will be able to make changes to DOC policies, procedures, protocols and systems related to the Nunez court orders; review, investigate and discipline officers who violate use of force rules; hire, promote and deploy staff throughout the jails; renegotiate contracts the city has with the correctional officers’ union, which has long opposed receivership; and ask Swain to “waive any legal or contractual requirements that impede [the receiver] from carrying out their duties.”

The remedial manager, whose powers will remain until the judge finds the city is in compliance with the court orders, will also be allowed to direct the DOC commissioner and any other DOC executive in regards to the Nunez orders.

Swain has yet to name a receiver and ordered the city and the attorneys representing the city’s detainees to meet and name four people who could potentially serve as the remedial manager by Aug. 29.

Swain said the candidates should have “substantial management and correctional expertise developed outside of the [city’s] DOC.” She also said a receiver should have the ability to collaborate, build trust with staff and have excellent oral and written communication skills.

The judge also put out a bid for applications, calling on all interested candidates to send a cover letter, references and resumes to the court.

Once a receiver is selected, they will be charged with building an action plan, which will “identify the specific and concrete steps that are necessary to achieve substantial compliance with [the Nunez court orders]” within three years of the receiver’s start date.

The action plan will include a number of metrics that will be used by the receiver and their team to assess whether or not the city is compliant with the court’s orders.

Each time the city comes into compliance with any of the items listed in the yet-to-be written action plan, they will create a transition plan alongside the remedial manager that will end with the city regaining some aspect of control over the jails.

There was no specific timeframe put on the life of the remedial manager, nor a price.

Swain said the receiver will set the rate for them and their staff and bill the city monthly.

The judge also said the receiver will continue to retain their powers over the jails until the city comes into “substantial compliance" with the Nunez court orders and is able to sustain its progress for a one-year span.