After years of court battles, debate, and continued concerns about violence and excessive force plaguing the troubled jails system, a federal judge officially appointed former CIA officer Nicholas Deml to take control of Rikers Island as \u201cremediation manager.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deml\u2019s appointment, which was announced Jan. 27, comes after Manhattan federal judge Laura Swain spent roughly seven months reviewing candidates for the powerful position. He\u2019ll be tasked with implementing sweeping reforms in New York City jails. And while Swain ordered him to work with the New York City correction commissioner, he\u2019ll also be \u201cempowered to take all actions necessary\u201d to turn conditions around \u2013 meaning he may have more power than the mayor to make final decisions should disagreements arise. Deml previously served as commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections \u2013 a system that incarcerates far fewer people than New York City jails. He\u2019s also held leadership roles in several national criminal justice policy organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Swain\u2019s appointment of Deml as remediation manager is the culmination of roughly 14 years of litigation tied to a class-action lawsuit brought forward by incarcerated people and the Legal Aid Society known as Nunez v. City of New York<\/a>. While former New York City Mayor Eric Adams fought to maintain control of the lockups, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has been far more open to working with a remediation manager. Much is still unknown, however. Mamdani has yet to name someone to replace Adams appointee Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, the current Department of Corrections commissioner. Whoever the mayor ultimately appoints will work closely with Deml.<\/p>\n New York City jails have a long history of abuse and negligence. Rikers was heavily criticized in the 1970s and \u201980s<\/a> for overpopulation, dangerous conditions and violence against incarcerated adolescents. Under then-New York City Mayor Ed Koch, the public began calling for the island to be closed. Those calls have only amplified in recent years as violence, dangerous conditions, understaffing and self-harm skyrocketed, pushing then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to support plans to shut down the facility. Since 2022, at least 48 people have died in city jails or shortly after they were released. In 2025 alone, 15 people died. All this comes as it looks increasingly unlikely that New York City officials will shutter Rikers Island by the legally mandated August 2027 deadline.<\/p>\n City leaders have repeatedly cast doubt on the plan. The capacity of the four borough-based jails intended to replace Rikers Island has grown to 4,160 from the initial 3,300 beds, but even that still falls far short of the roughly 7,000 people who were incarcerated<\/a> in New York City jails as of Dec. 1.<\/p>\n The city has also made little progress so far in building the four facilities. Costs to build the borough-based jails have ballooned<\/a> over the past year, and the Queens and Bronx facilities may not be completed until 2031. The Manhattan facility meanwhile may not be completed until the middle of 2032 \u2013 five years after Rikers\u2019 mandated closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here is a timeline tracking the ongoing effort to close the jails complex, what steps have been taken so far and how movement has steadily built for a federal takeover. This article was last updated on Jan. 28.<\/p>\n August 2014<\/p>\n The U.S. Justice Department released a report<\/a> after an investigation of Rikers Island found \u201ca pattern and practice of conduct at Rikers that violates the constitutional rights of adolescent inmates.\u201d The department learned there was a \u201cdeep-seated culture of violence\u201d that was pervasive among adolescent youth and that staffers frequently used force \u201cnot as a last resort, but \u2026 as a means to control.\u201d<\/p>\n March 2015\u00a0<\/p>\n Following increased calls for action, de Blasio and then-city Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte announced a 14-point plan<\/a> to create a safe environment for incarcerated people at Rikers Island.<\/p>\n November 2015<\/p>\n Then-New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced his support<\/a> to close Rikers Island.<\/p>\n February 2016\u00a0<\/p>\n In her State of the City address, then-New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito called for reforms<\/a> to reduce the incarcerated population at Rikers Island and, ultimately, to shut down the island. Mark-Viverito\u2019s call for the island\u2019s closure gained support<\/a> from then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, while de Blasio shot down the proposal.<\/p>\n March 2017<\/p>\n De Blasio pledged<\/a> to shut down Rikers Island alongside Mark-Viverito in an announcement at City Hall.<\/p>\n April 2017<\/p>\n An independent commission led by former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman released<\/a> an in-depth report pitching borough-based jails.\u00a0<\/p>\n June 2017<\/p>\n De Blasio released a roadmap<\/a> for the jail complex\u2019s closure, including safety protocols, reduced capacity and reduced isolation for inmates.<\/p>\n February 2018<\/p>\n Alongside then-New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, de Blasio announced four borough-based jails<\/a> in every borough except Staten Island to replace Rikers Island and introduce a fairer and smaller criminal justice system.<\/p>\n October 2019\u00a0<\/p>\n De Blasio and Johnson agreed<\/a> to close the jail complex by 2026 and open four new jails at a total cost of $8.7 billion. A week later, the City Council approved<\/a> the deal.<\/p>\n August 2020<\/p>\n Gothamist acquired planning documents<\/a> that showed delays would stretch the closing of Rikers Island well into 2027.<\/p>\n October 2020<\/p>\n The city officially delayed<\/a> the plan to close Rikers Island and build new jails until 2027.<\/p>\n November 2020<\/p>\n New York City Department of Correction officials announced the city would shut down<\/a> the Manhattan Detention Complex, commonly known as \u201cThe Tombs,\u201d in Lower Manhattan and the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island.<\/p>\n June 2021<\/p>\n The New York City Board of Correction approved new rules<\/a> aimed at reducing the use of solitary confinement in city jails. The rules require incarcerated people in punitive segregation to spend at least 10 hours outside of their cells a day and limit the length of stay in the most restrictive tier of punitive segregation to 15 days in most cases. Advocates said the rules fell short of de Blasio\u2019s promise to completely ban the practice.<\/p>\n September 2021<\/p>\n New York City Congressional Democrats called on President Joe Biden <\/a>to launch a civil rights investigation into the humanitarian crisis at Rikers.\u00a0<\/p>\n October 2021<\/p>\n Then-mayoral candidate Eric Adams expressed support for closing Rikers Island,<\/a> telling NY1 he believes it should be closed and replaced with borough-based jails. \u201cYes, I do,\u201d he said when asked by anchor Errol Louis if he agreed with the plan promised by de Blasio. \u201cAnd I believe we need to change the ecosystem of our incarceration system.\u201d<\/p>\n October 2021<\/p>\n Gov. Kathy Hochul and de Blasio announced that nearly all women and trans individuals incarcerated at Rikers Island would be transferred to state custody<\/a>, amid safety and staffing concerns.<\/p>\n December 2021<\/p>\n Advocates and community leaders expressed concern that Adams\u2019 plans for Rikers Island are unclear. He had said repeatedly that he supports closing the island jail complex, but his comments on how the city would go about that \u2013 and whether borough-based jails would be a part of his plan \u2013 were \u201cintentionally ambiguous,\u201d Tracie Gardner of the Legal Action Center told Politico.<\/a><\/p>\n December 2021<\/p>\n William Brown was found dead at the Anna M. Cross Center<\/a>, marking the 16th death at Rikers Island in 2021 \u2013 more fatalities than the last two years combined and the most since 2016.<\/p>\n December 2021<\/p>\n Adams appointed Louis Molina<\/a>, chief of the Las Vegas Department of Public Safety, to lead New York City\u2019s jail system as commissioner of the Department of Correction.<\/p>\n January 2022<\/p>\n Hundreds of incarcerated people staged a days-long hunger strike <\/a>in protest of abhorrent conditions at the island jail complex, including a lack of heat and hot water in some units, inconsistent medical care, rampant fighting, and issues with security and sanitation.<\/p>\n April 2022<\/p>\n More than 8,400 people missed medical appointments in city jails in February alone, according to city data released in April. That\u2019s up from 1,600 missed appointments in January 2022, what advocates called \u201cfurther proof that DOC remains unwilling to protect the health and safety of the New Yorkers in its custody,\u201d the Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services and Milbank law firm said in a statement \u201cWe once again call on the courts, prosecutors, and elected officials to use every avenue to effect immediate decarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n June 2022<\/p>\n A federal judge approved the city\u2019s plan<\/a> to make long-sought changes on Rikers Island, essentially eliminating the threat of a federal takeover for at least the next several months.\u00a0<\/p>\n July 2022<\/p>\n The city missed its deadline for transferring unused Rikers facilities to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, as required by the Renewable Rikers Act of 2021, The City reported.<\/a> \u201cWe are not in a position to transfer (the Otis Bantum Correctional Center) to DCAS. Population estimates that were made under the prior administration, that we would only have only 4,000 or less people in custody, have not not borne out,\u201d Molina said in a statement to the outlet.<\/p>\n August 2022<\/p>\n Michael Nieves became the 13th person to die on Rikers Island in 2022 in a suspected suicide, The New York Times reported.<\/a> A Department of Correction captain and two guards were suspended for allegedly watching him bleed for 10 minutes after he slit his throat with a razor, The Times wrote, citing sources familiar with the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n September 2022<\/p>\n Adams expressed doubt that Rikers Island could close by the 2027 deadline set during Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s tenure, because, Adams said, the jail was full of violent criminals who couldn\u2019t safely be let out.<\/p>\n Later in the month, three men died either while they were held in city custody or shortly after being released. Kevin Bryan, 35, was suspected to have died by suicide on Sept. 14 and Gregory Acevedo died nearly a week later after jumping into the East River from a recreation yard on the roof of a barge. Elmore Robert Pondexter died at a hospital a few days later after he\u2019d complained to family members that he was having chest pain and trouble breathing. The Daily News reported<\/a> that Molina appeared to have told staff to grant Pondexter compassionate release shortly before his death in order to keep him off the Department of Correction\u2019s growing list of people who\u2019d died in city custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n October 2022<\/p>\n Erick Tavira, 28, was suspected to have died by suicide and Gilberto Garcia died from a suspected overdose about a week apart. The federal monitor that\u2019s investigated New York City jails since 2015 issued its latest report, which found they remain \u201cdangerously unsafe\u201d and \u201ctrapped in a state of persistent dysfunction,\u201d with \u201ca few glimmers of progress,\u201d according to Gothamist.<\/a> That progress largely came in the form of fewer fights and assaults on guards and the fact that staff are replacing broken cell doors.<\/p>\n November 2022<\/p>\n The Board of Correction issued a report<\/a> analyzing nine of the recent deaths in city jails\u00a0 the night before the Nov. 17 court hearing, which found each individual had missed medical appointments leading up to their death.<\/p>\n A Manhattan federal judge ruled against a request from detainees\u2019 lawyers to strip New York City\u2019s control of Rikers Island and transfer it to federal oversight, siding with city leaders who\u2019ve argued that doing so would be premature. Attorneys from the Legal Aid Society and several others representing incarcerated people had filed a brief in hopes of holding the city in contempt of a court decree issued in 2015 to improve New York city jails. The judge\u2019s decision struck a major blow to the hopes of criminal justice advocates and elected officials who\u2019ve long urged the courts to appoint a third-party federal receiver to oversee the system. The decision will be revisited in April.<\/p>\n December 2022<\/p>\n Edgardo Mejias, 39, became the 19th person to die in city jails and hospitals in 2022, officially bringing the death rate to the highest it’s been in at least 12 years. While the correction department provided few details about how he died, sources told the Daily News<\/a> he likely died of a drug overdose.<\/p>\n A few days later at an oversight hearing, Molina told members of the City Council that Rikers Island\u2019s population is growing at a rate that indicates that, without changes, the number of people incarcerated will exceed 7,000 in less than two years. He said this is likely to prove problematic as there will be more than 3,300 people incarcerated there in 2027 \u2013 the number the complex is legally required to be at in order to close as mandated.\u00a0<\/p>\n February 2023<\/p>\n Marvin Pines<\/a>, a 65-year-old man, was the first person to die in city custody in 2023 on Feb. 4. According to a report from the Board of Correction later in the month<\/a>, several correction staffers were suspended following Pines\u2019 death, with the Board finding that Pines had been sick in a bathroom, where he was later found unresponsive, for more than an hour without an officer checking on him, and that officers had failed to properly tour his housing unit.<\/p>\n March 2023<\/p>\n In her State of the City address, New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams carved out time to renew the council\u2019s commitment<\/a> to shutting down Rikers by 2027. It\u2019s a goal that Adams\u2019 late mother, a former correction officer, called a long time coming. \u201cWhen I asked my mother what she thought about closing Rikers when we held a Council hearing a couple of years ago \u2013 I still had her with me \u2013 she said to me, \u2018Baby, we should have closed that place a long time ago,\u2019\u201d Adams recalled at the March 8 speech.<\/p>\n But with less than five years to go before that deadline, there are new reasons to doubt that it will happen on time. According to a public notice<\/a> posted in mid March and first identified by the the Daily News<\/a>, a proposed city contract to build a new jail in Brooklyn \u2013\u00a0one of four borough based-jails meant to replace Rikers \u2013\u00a0wouldn\u2019t finish until 2029, two years after the 2027 deadline to close Rikers. A mayoral spokesperson attributed the 2029 completion date to supply chain delays and construction costs.<\/p>\n April 2023<\/p>\n Manuel Hernandez, the head of the city correction department\u2019s investigation division,\u00a0 resigned in wake of questions about how he handled probes into excessive force cases, the Daily News <\/a>reported April 2. According to sources, Hernandez opted to close several extreme use-of-force cases instead of charging the offending officers or after he filed lighter, reduced charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n May 2023<\/p>\n On May 29, federal monitor Steve Martin filed a special report<\/a> that highlighted five \u201cserious and disturbing incidents\u201d involving incarcerated people who\u2019d been harmed over a two-week period. The report slammed Molina and his team for suppressing information about the incidents, questioning whether they are \u201ccapable of managing such serious incidents.\u201d One of the incidents involved an individual named Rubu Zhao, 52, who died May 16 after suffering a skull fracture from an apparent fall, according to the Times.\u00a0 Another was Joshua Valles who died at Elmhurst Hospital on May 27. While the Correction Department said Valles died of a suspected heart attack and it wasn\u2019t a \u201cuse of force case,\u201d the monitor said it couldn\u2019t independently verify the claim due to a lack of information.<\/p>\n The Daily News<\/a> reported that Molina urged the federal monitor not to release the report because it would \u201ccause great harm to the department when we are making great strides.\u201d<\/p>\n June 2023<\/p>\n Swain, the federal judge tasked with deciding whether to appoint a federal receiver, said that recent reports<\/a> raise profound questions about the city\u2019s ability to protect incarcerated people and correction department staff. While she said during a hearing that she\u2019s not ready to hear arguments on the matter yet, she said her faith is significantly shaken, signaling that she may be open to considering a federal takeover.\u00a0<\/p>\n July 2023<\/p>\n Four incarcerated men died throughout July: William Johnstone<\/a>, Ricky Howell,<\/a> Felix Taveras<\/a>, and Curtis Davis.<\/a> According to the Daily News<\/a>, four Rikers Island staffers were suspended in wake of Tavaras\u2019 death, believed to be caused by a drug overdose \u2013 two of whom were correction officers accused of failing to act quickly enough to save him.<\/p>\n In a significant shift that could persuade Swain to strip the city of its power over Rikers Island, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called for a federal receiver to assume control of city jails on July 17.<\/p>\n A day after William\u2019s remarks, Swain wrote <\/a>that the Adams administration had failed to \u201caddress the dangerous conditions that perpetually plague the jails and imperil those who are confined and who work there.\u201d While her words don\u2019t necessarily prove she will end up appointing a receiver, it suggests it could be likely in the months ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n August 2023<\/p>\n While momentum for a federal receiver continued to build in the first few weeks of August, the jail complex gained a handful of defenders:<\/a> members of the New York City Council\u2019s Common Sense Caucus who went on a tour of the complex Aug. 8. The group\u2019s positive remarks about observed conditions \u2013 \u201cfreshly painted walls,\u201d air conditioning, \u201cworking locks\u201d and programming geared toward young adults \u2013 garnered a wave of pushback.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few days later, Swain began the process <\/a>of potentially stripping the city of its control\u00a0 during a key Aug. 10 hearing. Amid Martin\u2019s arguments that pointed to \u201creal, abject harm\u201d happening every day at Rikers, Swain said \u201ctransformative change\u201d is needed if the city is to maintain its stewardship.<\/p>\n On Aug. 22, Donny Ubiera died in his cell on Rikers Island, becoming the eighth person to die in DOC custody this year. The department reported that Ubiera received immediate medical care after being found unconscious, but two people detained in the same unit on Rikers told City & State<\/a> that correction officers didn\u2019t respond to Ubiera\u2019s calls for assistance in the hours before his death.<\/p>\n With four years left before a 2027 deadline, the Adams administration has again suggested there\u2019s a need to revisit the plan to close Rikers Island and replace it with four smaller borough-based jails. In a conversation at New York Law School on Aug. 29, Adams suggested that the City Council needs to revisit the plan it approved in 2019, in part because of Rikers\u2019 growing population and the smaller capacity of the borough-based jails.<\/p>\n October 2023<\/p>\n A new report from the federal monitor slammed the city and<\/a> Department of Correction\u2019s attempts at reform, pointing to the 74 fights, 23 suicide attempts, 15 fires, 34 assaults on staff, and one sexual harrassment allegation that occurred in city jails over a one week period. Martin\u2019s report \u2013 his 10th evaluating operations at Rikers Island \u2013 said that conditions have only worsened and accused Molina and his staff of trying to hide multiple assaults.<\/p>\n A few hours after the report was filed, 27-year-old Manish Kunwar was found unresponsive in his cell on Oct. 5, becoming the ninth person to die in the jail system this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n On Oct. 31, Adams announced that Molina would be receiving a \u201cpromotion,\u201d leaving his post as the head of the city jail system to become the \u201cnew assistant deputy mayor for public safety.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n November 2023<\/p>\n The federal government formally joined efforts to appoint a federal receiver on Nov. 17 when Williams wrote in a court filing that an outside authority was the only solution to the violence that has consistently plagued Rikers Island. In the filing submitted to Swain, he cited how staff \u201cuse force against incarcerated people at an extraordinarily high rate\u201dand a \u201ca pattern of unnecessary force.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n December 2023<\/p>\n While state Attorney General Letitia James has long raised concerns about conditions at Rikers, her office publicly voiced its support for a federal takeover for the first time in early December. In a letter to Swain<\/a> dated Dec. 1, James\u2019 office pointed to the string of recent deaths and said that it sees receivership as the \u201cway forward for the good of all the people who live and work in the NYC jails.\u201d Swain also issued a contempt order<\/a> against the city and the Department of Correction for failing to cooperate with the federal monitor on Dec. 14.<\/p>\n On Dec. 8, Adams appointed Lynelle Maginley-Liddie as the new<\/a> Department of Correction commissioner, making her the second Black woman to ever hold the position. Maginley-Liddie, who most recently served as the department\u2019s first deputy commissioner and chief diversity officer, touted her \u201cstrong working relationship\u201d with the monitoring team and said she would focus on restoration and investment in a safe environment in city jails.<\/p>\n On Dec. 15, the second iteration of the independent Rikers commission unveiled its 41 members<\/a> as it prepares an updated plan to close the embattled jails complex.<\/p>\n January 2024<\/p>\n Chima Williams, 43, died in custody Jan. 4<\/a> after collapsing after playing basketball on Jan. 4, becoming the first person to die in city jails this year. A few weeks later, 30-year-old Manuel Luna was found unresponsive in his<\/a> cell on Jan. 19. A cause of death was not immediately released.<\/p>\n February 2024<\/p>\n Citing progress on tracking excessive force cases at Rikers, Swain lifted a contempt order against<\/a> the city and the Department of Correction on Feb. 27, saying the department has followed her directive to bolster cooperation and communication with the federal monitor. The decision, which came just a few months after Maginley-Liddie\u2019s appointment, was an important step in aiding the city\u2019s efforts to avert a potential receivership.<\/p>\n According to documents provided to Gothamist, the city plans to house<\/a> hundreds more detainees than initially planned at\u00a0 New York City\u2019s borough-based jails. The jails in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens will each have 1,040 beds, bringing the total capacity to 4,160 people. Still, with roughly 6,000 people currently incarcerated at Rikers, the plan would still fall short of the current population. City officials did not explain how they would reduce the city\u2019s incarcerated population or whether they would add additional space to the jails.<\/p>\n March 2024<\/p>\n During a March 4 preliminary budget hearing, Jiha told council members<\/a> that the borough-based jails won\u2019t be ready to replace Rikers by the August 2027 deadline.<\/p>\n On March 19, the city and the Department of Correction filed its long-awaited response brief to the Legal Aid Society, which argued a receiver isn\u2019t necessary to improve<\/a> conditions on Rikers Island while citing improvements and pointing to Maginley-Liddie\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n On March 22, 51-year-old\u00a0 Roy Savage died in Department of Correction custody at Bellevue Hospital while receiving ongoing medical care for an unspecified long-term illness. He was the third incarcerated person to die in the city this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n May 2024<\/p>\n New York City issued contracts totaling nearly $7 billion with two construction partnerships to build the new Queens and Bronx borough-based jails. Timelines for both projects<\/a> placed completion in 2031 \u2013 four years after the 2027 Close Rikers deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n July 2024<\/p>\n On July 9, Swain ordered a hearing set for Sept. 25 to determine whether the Department of Correction should be held in contempt of court failing to bring down the amount of violence in city jails. Federal prosecutors and the Legal Aid Society will present oral arguments.\u00a0 The hearing\u2019s focus is slated to be narrower than expected, focusing on a potential contempt order as opposed to a federal takeover. As a result, the long-awaited decision on whether or not a federal receiver should be appointed may be pushed to 2025.<\/p>\n On July 14, 23-year-old Charizma Jones died in custody at Elmhurst Hospital after jail staff allegedly repeatedly ignored her requests for medical help, according to her lawyers. Shortly after her death, the city Board of Correction and the state Commission on Correction opened separate probes<\/a> to investigate allegations that correction officers blocked medical staff from treating her on Rikers two months before her death.<\/p>\n On\u00a0 July 27, Adams issued an emergency order<\/a> to stop the Department of Correction from implementing significant aspects of the new law passed by the City Council to limit solitary confinement in city jails. The move came one day before it was supposed to go into effect, outraging advocates and City Council members. The mayor attributed his decision to filings from the federal monitor questioning whether the law could unintentionally endanger correction officers and incarcerated people.\u00a0<\/p>\n August 2024<\/p>\n On August 20, 63-year-old Anthony Jordan died in custody<\/a> after an apparent medical episode \u2013 a mere day after he was seen by a jail medical professional and sent back to his housing unit.\u00a0 He was the fifth person to die behind city bars this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n September 2024<\/p>\n On Sept. 25, the day of the long awaited hearing set by Swain in July, the federal judge ordered city officials to begin creating a plan for a possible federal takeover of Rikers. While she stopped short of handing authority of the jails complex to an outside authority, she told city officials that they have till Nov. 12 to meet with federal officials and advocates to develop a potential route for what a receivership could look like.\u00a0<\/p>\n November 2024<\/p>\n In a significant step forward <\/a>for the city\u2019s ongoing plans to shutter Rikers, the Adams administration tapped construction firms Tutor Perini and O & G Industries to build a new 1,040 bed jail in Chinatown. The collaboration, which has yet to be finalized, was one of the final outstanding contracts needed to build the Manhattan borough-based jail.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a major Nov. 27 ruling, Swain sided with federal prosecutors and Legal Aid Society lawyers in the decade-spanning Nunez v. the City of New York case, holding the city in contempt for failing to curtail violence, deaths, and the use of excessive force at Rikers. In a scathing 65-page contempt order, Swain wrote she was \u201cinclined\u201d to order a receiver, saying doing so appears to be the only way to force the city to fix unsafe conditions that have long plagued the embattled jail complex.\u00a0 She also ordered the city and lawyers representing incarcerated people to present a plan for receivership by Jan. 14. That date was later extended to Jan. 24.<\/p>\n January 2025<\/p>\n While not exactly a surprise given prior reporting, the city officially confirmed Jan. 23<\/a> that none of the borough-based jails will be completed before Rikers is legally required to close. The city held a public hearing on the proposed contract for the construction of Manhattan\u2019s jail, which is set to be built in Chinatown, where it was revealed that the new jail might not be completed until the middle of 2032 \u2013 five years after Rikers\u2019 mandated closure. That would make the Manhattan jail the last to be completed, with Brooklyn\u2019s slated for a 2029 completion, and Queens and the Bronx\u2019s by 2031.<\/p>\n February 2025<\/p>\n On Feb. 24, the city as well as the Legal Aid Society and federal prosecutors each submitted their proposals to Swain on what they think a receivership should look like. While Swain has previously said she hopes both parties can come to an agreement, the filings make it clear that this is unlikely to happen any time soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city\u2019s proposal essentially argues<\/a> that Department of Correction Commissioner Lynelle Manginley-Liddie should take on an additional role as \u201ccompliance director\u201d to make sure the department follows the court orders outlined in Nunez v. the City of New York.\u00a0 She\u2019d answer to Swain, but would also answer to the mayor \u2013 though he would not be allowed to fire her for the next five years \u2013 as she\u2019d also still be serving as commissioner. A federal court-appointed receiver, the city argued, would \u201cunnecessarily multiply bureaucracy, burden and expense.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Legal Aid Society and other advocates were quick to express their opposition to the city\u2019s proposal, arguing that it \u201cpreserves the status quo.\u201d<\/p>\n On Feb. 19, 38-year-old Ramel Powell died in custody,<\/a> becoming the first person to die while incarcerated in city jails in 2025. Just a few days later, 55-year-old Terrence Moore had a seizure ahead<\/a> of a scheduled court hearing and died.\u00a0<\/p>\n March 2025<\/p>\n On March 19, the second iteration of the independent Rikers commission chaired by former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman released its long-awaited report <\/a>on how to best close Rikers. While the report said the city should continue aggressively building the new borough-based jails, it also acknowledged \u2013\u00a0for the first time \u2013 that the city won\u2019t meet the legally mandated goal to close the troubled complex by 2027. The\u00a0 report attributed that to the fact that the replacement jails aren\u2019t slated to be finished until 2032.\u00a0<\/p>\n Appearing in an interview with CBS on March 20,<\/a> Adams again said that one of the four new borough-based jails would be dedicated to treating incarcerated people with mental health issues. He also claimed he\u2019d tapped his newly appointed First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro to head this plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Only three months into the year, the same number of people have died in 2025 while incarcerated or just after being released from custody as they did throughout the entirety of 2024. On March 15, 20-year-old Ariel Quidone reportedly died of<\/a> untreated appendicitis mere hours after he was released from Rikers at a hospital. A few days later, 55-year-old Sonia Reyes was found unresponsive<\/a> in her cell and pronounced dead \u2013 less than a month into what was supposed to be a 364-day sentence. On May 31, 27-year-old Dashawn Jenkins died of a medical emergency, spurring questions<\/a> from his family about what happened.\u00a0<\/p>\n May 2025<\/p>\n News broke early in the month that Adams is considering a move to abandon the current plan to replace Rikers with the borough-based jails, exploring the possibility of using the sites for new housing instead, the Daily News reported. <\/a>The New York City Council, which would have to sign off on the theoretical pivot, quickly shut down any possibility of this coming to fruition.\u00a0<\/p>\n Issuing the long-awaited order on May 13, Swain officially took Rikers out of the city\u2019s control and ordered that a \u201cremediation manager\u201d (basically a receiver) be appointed to take over instead. This official will have broad power to try and set things on track, though they\u2019ll need to work to accomplish this with Maginley-Liddie. Swain also ordered the Legal Aid Society and the city to each come up with four names for the potential appointee by late August.<\/p>\n June 2025<\/p>\n Less than two hours apart, 37-year-old Benjamin Kelly and 56-year-old James Maldonado died after experiencing separate medical<\/a> emergencies on June 20, prompting outrage from advocates and renewing calls for Rikers to be placed under receivership.<\/p>\n Despite the growing number of incarcerated people, the jail oversight board rejected a request from the Correction Department to expand bed capacity in certain Rikers Island dorms from 50 to 60 beds, The City reported. <\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n July 2025<\/p>\n Roughly two years after city jail officials stopped their practice of immediately notifying the press after the death of an incarcerated person, the City Council passed legislation<\/a> requiring the correction department to notify both the public and family within 24 hours. Viewed by critics as an attempt from the Adams administration to hide wrongdoing within Rikers, the new policy passed by members was met with great relief.\u00a0<\/p>\n Christian Collado, a 51-year-old with cancer, died while receiving palliative<\/a> care at a hospital roughly a day after he was released from custody at the urging of his attorney. About two weeks later, 33-year-old Edwin Quispe was found dead on<\/a> a bathroom floor at the Eric M. Taylor Center from an apparent medical emergency on July 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n August 2025<\/p>\n Ardit Billa, 29, was found \u201cunresponsive in his cell\u201d early on Aug. 23, marking the tenth person to die in city jails or shortly after being released \u2013 officially doubling last year\u2019s toll. While the investigation is ongoing, a correction department captain and two officers were suspended in wake of\u00a0 Billa\u2019s death as investigators probe whether any mandatory 30-minute checks were missed or if signs indicating medical distress were ignored, The City reports.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n September 2025<\/p>\n Two more people died from apparent medical emergencies in early September, 44-year-old Jimmy Avila<\/a> and 43-year-old Carlos Cruz<\/a>.<\/p>\n November 2025<\/p>\n Edwin Ramos, 38, died <\/a>after experiencing a medical emergency, becoming the 13th person to die in New York City jails in 2025.<\/p>\n Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral race, prompting questions about how he\u2019d oversee Rikers Island. He hasn\u2019t released many concrete plans concerning Rikers Island, but has said he\u2019ll seek to close the jails.\u00a0<\/p>\n December 2025<\/p>\n Two people died from apparent medical emergencies while incarcerated, 32-year-old Aramis Furse <\/a>and 33-year-old Kyron Randall. <\/a>That makes 15 deaths in Department of Correction custody in the year \u2013 the highest toll since 2022.<\/p>\n January 2026<\/p>\n On Jan. 6, just a few days after taking office, Mamdani signed an emergency executive order<\/a> instructing the Department of Correction and the city\u2019s Law Department to come up with a plan within the next 45 days to bring city jails into compliance with the Board of Correction\u2019s rules regulating staffing and the rights of people incarcerated in New York. He also directed the law department to help implement a law placing stricter limits on solitary confinement passed by the City Council<\/a> two years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several weeks later, city officials told Chinatown residents that construction on the Manhattan borough-based jail would soon begin.<\/a><\/p>\n