New York City

What receivership means for the future of Rikers Island

Part two of the Eagle’s dive into Rikers’ violent past and its potential future

January 16, 2025 Jacob Kaye
In this photo provided by the Office of the Mayor of New York, Mayor Eric Adams, center right, participates in a baptism ceremony while visiting the Rikers Island jail complex in New York, Friday, March 29, 2024. Photo courtesy of Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office via AP
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As a federal judge considers taking Rikers Island out of the city’s control and handing it to a court-appointed receiver, the Brooklyn Eagle is looking back at the history of the city’s troubled jail complex — which we have covered extensively since our founding in 2018 — in an effort to understand how the city arrived at this critical moment. On Thursday, Jan. 15, the Eagle looked at the lead up to the call for receivership. Today, we dive deeper into the fight to put Rikers into a receivership and what that may mean for the future of the city’s notorious jail complex. 

Mayor Eric Adams, who has slowly worked his way up to full opposition of Rikers’ closure over the years, has turned to Judge Laura Swain in the past to circumvent city laws regarding criminal justice reforms related to Rikers. Earlier this year, Adams asked Swain to weigh in on a City Council law banning solitary confinement in the city’s jails. The mayor, who cited the Nunez case in an executive order suspending the law, claimed that putting the ban in place would violate numerous aspects of the consent judgment.  

The law remains suspended and the monitor, who has been studying the law since the start of 2024, is expected to issue a report on his findings by the end of January. The city, the Legal Aid Society, federal prosecutors and the monitor are set to appear before Swain on Jan. 24 to discuss what powers and responsibilities a potential receiver may have. 

It’s unclear whether or not Swain will issue her ruling on the Legal Aid Society’s request to implement a receiver then, but if she does it will likely be months or more before a receiver is installed and asked to fix the violent mess on Rikers that so many have attempted — and failed — to fix before. 

Read part two of the Eagle's deep dive into Rikers Island.

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