After seven months of reviewing candidates, a federal judge overseeing Rikers Island announced the appointment of Nicholas Deml, a former CIA officer, as the \u201cremediation manager\u201d who will have sweeping powers to enact highly-anticipated reforms at the troubled jail complex.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered Deml \u2014 who most recently headed the Vermont detention system \u2014 and the Mamdani administration to meet promptly to hash out the logistics of his appointment including compensation, initial staffing for his team, operational arrangements and a preliminary budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Swain instructed Deml, 38, and city officials to submit a joint report outlining that plan, and any unresolved issues, within 21 days. That\u2019s also when Deml would be formally appointed, she said.<\/p>\n
His appointment comes after Swain repeatedly found prior jail leadership incapable of fixing itself. In prior rulings, she cited missed deadlines, broken promises and a persistent inability by the Department of Correction to rein in violence, chronic staff absenteeism and prolonged lockdowns.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we know about Deml \u2014 and some major outstanding questions about his new role.<\/p>\n
Who is Nicholas Deml?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He is currently the managing director of Everly Bly & Co., what he describes online<\/a> as a \u201cboutique advisory and consulting firm.\u201d He previously served four years as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, overseeing prisons, jails and community supervision statewide.<\/p>\n Vermont\u2019s correctional system operates on a vastly smaller scale than New York City\u2019s.<\/p>\n Its unified statewide system incarcerates roughly 1,600 people at any given time, according to state figures. That includes about 1,100 people serving sentences and roughly 500 held in pretrial detention. Those populations are housed together across six facilities, most holding fewer than 400 people, and some fewer than 100.<\/p>\n Rikers Island currently has about 7,000 people across multiple jails.\u00a0<\/p>\n Before overseeing the corrections department, Deml served as a clandestine service intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2021.<\/p>\n He began his career as an attorney and aide to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, handling matters involving civil rights, constitutional law and national security.<\/p>\n Deml has also held leadership roles in national criminal justice policy organizations, including the Council on Criminal Justice and the Correctional Leaders Association, where he chaired a committee focused on restrictive housing \u2014 a practice that has drawn sustained scrutiny at Rikers.<\/p>\n What was his reputation in Vermont?\u00a0<\/p>\n Some criminal defense advocates who worked with Deml in Vermont say he prided himself on transparency and never shied away from bad news.\u00a0<\/p>\n Marshall Pahl, Vermont\u2019s deputy defender general and chief juvenile defender, said Deml stood out among the many corrections commissioners he has dealt with over the years.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s my favorite one I\u2019ve ever worked with,\u201d Pahl told THE CITY, noting he has served through at least five commissioners during his tenure. \u201cPeople in these institutions tend to be institutionally defensive, and he was not in any way, shape or form.\u201d<\/p>\n Pahl said that even when Deml and the public defender\u2019s office were in direct conflict, Deml did not withhold information or obstruct oversight.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we got with Nick that we did not get with other commissioners was an incredible amount of transparency,\u201d Pahl recalled. \u201cWhether we agreed or disagreed, we never felt like they were hiding the ball on us \u2014 and that\u2019s huge in the work that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Pahl, Deml allowed access to information and investigations that prior commissioners resisted, even when those disclosures risked strengthening legal challenges against the department.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always thought of him as a good adversary,\u201d Pahl said,\u201cnot someone trying to manipulate the perception of what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Pahl cautioned that he has no firsthand knowledge of Rikers Island or the scope of New York City\u2019s jail crisis, calling the remediation manager role \u201ca really big, tough job.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n During Deml\u2019s tenure, the Vermont corrections department emphasized treatment for substance use disorder while broadening peer recovery programs and educational services.<\/p>\n He faced controversy over a cluster of deaths at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield in 2022 and 2023, which raised questions about the prison\u2019s health services. Investigators determined that medical staff employed by VitalCore Health Strategies appeared to struggle with CPR and defibrillator use, according to reporting by Vermont Digger<\/a>.<\/p>\n What was his relationship with unions?<\/p>\n Deml didn\u2019t hesitate to take on the unions representing prison officers and supervisors, according to people who followed his tenure.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe did cause some trouble in Vermont with the union, because they were always one of the biggest issues in prison reform,\u201d said one jail insider who asked to remain anonymous.\u00a0<\/p>\n That sometimes involved firing bad officers or supervisors even though prior commissioners either ignored issues or promoted those people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe won every fight he picked,\u201d the source said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under his watch, the department launched an internal investigations unit<\/a> to scrutinize incidents including inmate deaths and escape attempts, and moved to restructure its grievance process following a critical audit by the state comptroller\u2019s office.<\/p>\n In New York City, Deml will likely have the power to change the city\u2019s longstanding collective bargaining agreements if necessary.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Correctional Officers Benevolent Association welcomed his appointment.\u00a0<\/p>\n