Department of Correction News

Mayor Eric Adams talks with people in custody on Rikers Island on Thursday, July 7, 2022.

Jails

Federal Judge Orders Appointment of Rikers Island ‘Remediation Manager’

May 13, 2025, 12:44 p.m.May 14, 2025, 10:16 a.m.

Fourteen years after the filing of a landmark class-action lawsuit over brutality in city jails, a judge has ruled that a third-party should manage the Department of Correction.

Rikers Island

Advocates Call on City to Protect Transgender People Behind Bars in the Trump Era

April 25, 2025, 5:00 a.m.April 28, 2025, 1:01 p.m.

As the White House and Department of Justice attack funding for trans issues and their very rights, local leaders want state and city lock ups to act proactively.

The Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island.

Jails

Rikers Island Forced to Reopen Closed Jail as Understaffed State Prisons Refuse Transfers

April 3, 2025, 5:47 p.m.April 3, 2025, 5:47 p.m.

Some 500 people waiting to be sent to upstate prisons won’t be moved until at least late April, THE CITY has learned.

Alex Rotar speaks in a Rikers Island meeting room about his mental health struggles.

Courts

One Man’s Year on Rikers Exposes Limits of Mental Health Reforms

April 3, 2025, 5:00 a.m.April 6, 2025, 11:05 a.m.

Prosecutors won’t let Alex Rotar into a special court designed to help steer people with mental illness away from incarceration. A proposed law could make that path easier to access.

Rikers Island

City Jail Population Sures 7,000, Headed in Wrong Direction for Close-Rikers Plan

March 20, 2025, 5:00 a.m.April 4, 2025, 3:27 p.m.

By law, the city will be legally barred from using Rikers jails after 2027, but the move-out can happen only if there are less than 5,000 people behind bars.

Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley Liddie testifies at a City Council budget hearing.

Jails

Rikers Now Looks to Bring Back Nonprofits After Kicking Them Off Island

March 7, 2025, 5:22 p.m.March 7, 2025, 5:25 p.m.

Two years ago, Department of Correction officials said they could cut costs by in-sourcing social and educational programs for detainees. It did not work out.

People with family who died in state prison decry a corrections officers strike.

Prisons

Two Sing Sing Prisoners Die Hours Apart as Illegal Guard Strike Drags On

Feb. 27, 2025, 5:52 p.m.Feb. 28, 2025, 10:22 a.m.

Anthony Douglas, 67, and Franklyn Dominguez, 35, died on Wednesday afternoon within about four hours at a prison that has been on lockdown since correction officers launched a wildcat walkout in mid-February.

People wait in line to visit loved ones detained on Rikers Island.

Jails

At Rikers Commissary, Prices Exceed Those at Local Stores Despite Pledge to Bring Costs Down

Feb. 26, 2025, 5:00 a.m.March 13, 2025, 3:02 p.m.

A spot check by THE CITY following our investigation finds a private company charging huge markups under an agreement that was supposed to rein them in.