The Legal Aid Society is raising the possibility of placing the City’s jails under the control of an independent federal receiver as a means to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis on Rikers Island.

While a recent hearing gave the City an additional three weeks to come up with a plan of action, the Jails have been under federal monitorship since 2015 and have not made significant progress toward improving conditions during that time.

“The ongoing violence and harm that New Yorkers suffer on Rikers Island, and the demonstrated inability of the City to manage its jails safely and competently despite years of technical assistance from an expert monitoring team, cannot be solved through business as usual,” reads a statement from Legal Aid.

In the past, federal receiverships have been used to address issues in the nation’s worst jails including the District of Columbia Jail in the mid-90s, Michigan’s Wayne County Jail in the late 80s and Alabama’s entire prison system in the 1970s.

“We have not seen the City demonstrate the capacity to respond to this humanitarian crisis. Independent leadership with authority and willingness to enact bold, swift change, such as may be obtained through receivership, is necessary to end this quagmire,”
the statement continues.