{"id":118669,"date":"2026-01-31T22:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/118669\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T22:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T22:46:07","slug":"mamdani-appoints-stanley-richards-as-next-correction-commissioner-queens-daily-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/118669\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani appoints Stanley Richards as next correction commissioner \u2014 Queens Daily Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday appointed Stanley Richards, the former head of The Fortune Society, to serve as the city\u2019s next commissioner of the Department of Correction. <\/p>\n

Richards, a longtime criminal justice reformer, has a unique perspective of the city\u2019s DOC and the jails the agency runs. He once served as a top deputy in the DOC under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. He\u2019s also fought for reforms from the outside as an advocate and criminal justice nonprofit leader. <\/p>\n

Richards also knows what it’s like to be locked up in the city\u2019s jail complex. With his appointment on Saturday, Richards became the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the DOC.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday begins a path of hope, transformation, transparency, and inclusion, and will result in a more humane and just system,\u201d Richards said. <\/p>\n

Richards is taking over the DOC at a moment when the agency and its jails are at a crossroads. <\/p>\n

Just days before his appointment, a federal judge appointed Nicholas Deml, a former CIA agent and corrections official in Vermont, to serve as her remediation manager<\/a>. In the role, Deml will assume significant control over the day-to-day management of Rikers and the DOC. He\u2019ll have the power to hire or fire anyone working for the agency, except the commissioner. <\/p>\n

Both Richards and Mamdani said on Saturday that they were committed to working alongside the remediation manager, whose main mission will be to address the violence that has persisted on Rikers Island for decades. <\/p>\n

Richards also assumes control over the agency a little more than a year and a half before the city reaches its legally-mandated deadline to close Rikers Island. The city is years off of its timeline to shutter the jail complex and open the four borough-based jails it\u2019s creating to replace it. <\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging 2024 interview with the Eagle<\/a>, Richards, who served as a member of the commission that last year revised the city\u2019s plan to shut down the jail complex, said that he wanted Rikers Island \u201cclosed yesterday.\u201d <\/p>\n

The new commissioner stands to be the most reform-minded leader of the DOC since Vincent Schiraldi, Richards\u2019 former boss, served in the role under de Blasio. <\/p>\n

As an advocate, he\u2019s fought for major reforms to the city\u2019s jails and its criminal justice system. <\/p>\n

On Saturday, he said his plan to run the agency aligns with Mamdani\u2019s campaign promise to reform the agency and the jails. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis administration made clear that the future of Rikers is not endless confinement, scapegoating or demonizing \u2013 it is safety transformation and rehabilitation,\u201d Richards said. \u201cMy vision aligns fully with that mission \u2013 safer jails today, borough-based facilities that prioritize dignity, opportunity and humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will prioritize the safety of staff and incarcerated people and strengthen connections to community services like housing, mental health care, education and employment, so that every New Yorker leaving our custody has a real chance to succeed and can contribute to building a stronger and safer New York City,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The new commissioner also spoke to the DOC\u2019s correctional officers, who had a contentious relationship with DOC leadership when Richards served as the agency\u2019s first deputy commissioner of programs and operations. Richards served in the role in 2021, during the height of a staffing crisis that saw thousands of officers go AWOL. <\/p>\n

He told the officers that he\u2019ll \u201cspend every day working to ensure the department keeps you safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benny Boscio, the president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, didn\u2019t outright celebrate Richards\u2019 appointment in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cDepsite the many false narratives that have portrayed COBA as an \u2018obstacle to reform,\u2019 we have been ready willing and able to meet and work with anyone, as long as they respect the rights of our correction officers and understand that their safety and security matter,\u201d Boscio said. \u201cThe jails cannot and will not operate as safely as possible if the concerns of our members are brushed aside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our hope that Mr. Richards understands that dynamic as he takes on this new role and demonstrates a commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Criminal justice advocates hailed Mamdani’s pick on Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cFew people understand New York City\u2019s jail system \u2014 and what is needed to reform it \u2014 more deeply than Stanley Richards,\u201d the Legal Aid Society said in a statement. \u201cDrawing on his lived experience, prior senior leadership within the Department of Correction, and his tenure at The Fortune Society, he brings unmatched insight, credibility, compassion, and a deep commitment to advancing meaningful reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday appointed Stanley Richards, the former head of The Fortune Society,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-118669","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}