Mayor Zohran Mamdani stands smiling at a press occasion.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an government order extending the long-running state of emergency on Rikers Island that permits the Division of Correction to disregard guidelines dictating security circumstances and solitary confinement limitations.
However in contrast to previous extensions, Mamdani is pushing officers to develop a plan to come back into compliance with these rules inside 45 days.
Former Mayor Invoice de Blasio declared a state of emergency in 2021 for the sprawling jail advanced on Rikers, which former Mayor Eric Adams prolonged each 5 days all through his time period.
Whereas there’s a state of emergency on Rikers, town Division of Correction is given permission to not comply with sure guidelines, referred to as Minimal Requirements, meant regulate jail circumstances and the rights of incarcerated folks, in addition to Native Legislation 42 of 2024, which primarily bans solitary confinement.
“What we are directing our administration to do is to develop a plan to actually be in compliance with the law,” Mamdani instructed reporters at a press convention Tuesday. “We are looking to bring an end to the era where city government would simply extend something every five days without any plan of what compliance can look like.”
Mamdani set a Feb. 19 deadline for correction officers to come back ahead with a compliance plan.
In a press release on the manager order, Mamdani blamed the Adams administration for creating circumstances that every one however compelled him to take care of the state of emergency on the island.
“I was elected because of my values, and my promise to always be honest with New Yorkers — and now is a moment for blunt truths,” Mamdani mentioned. “The previous administration’s refusal to meet their legal obligations on Rikers has left us with troubling conditions that will take time to resolve.”
When requested if he was planning to maintain Adams’ Division of Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie on, he instructed reporters he hadn’t made any extra personnel bulletins on the time.
Mamdani’s government order additionally directs his Legislation Division to work, in courtroom, with Rikers’ federal monitor Steve Martin, and the events within the landmark case Nuñez v. Metropolis of New York — by which a federal choose has ordered Rikers to be positioned beneath ‘federal receivership’ after years of inmates alleging bodily abuse — to type a plan to “end solitary confinement as soon as possible.”
“In order to stop conditions on Rikers from deteriorating any further, the Mayor is signing a new emergency executive order that instructs the Department of Correction and the Law Department to develop a plan within 45 days to come into compliance with the Board of Corrections’ Standards,” mentioned Steve Banks, Mamdani’s nominee for town’s subsequent Company Counsel.
The Metropolis Council sued the Adams administration in December 2024 over its government orders undermining Native Legislation 42, arguing that the mayor was incorrectly utilizing his government energy to bypass the legislation. New York Supreme Courtroom Decide Jeffrey Pearlman agreed, however U.S. District Decide Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York, who presides over the Nunez case, dominated days later that town didn’t need to adjust to the legislation banning solitary confinement.
Mamdani mentioned ending the state of emergency on Rikers, guaranteeing Native Legislation 42 and the Board of Correction’s Minimal Requirements are adopted required town to develop a plan with native and federal companions “to ensure that we can live up to the law that was passed here in this city, and finally, start to showcase our ability to deliver safety and justice.”
Adam Daly contributed to this report.
