Add The New York Post on Google A federal monitor overseeing Rikers Island blasted the city’s jail boss for muzzling his underlings from speaking with court-appointed watchdogs at the troubled jail — even after he was warned of “dysfunctional” management practices.
Department of Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards has been working to “undermine” efforts to clean up the notoriously mismanaged lockup — most recently by demanding that his staff brief him before speaking with investigators, monitor Steve Martin said in a scathing letter.
In a Sept.1 directive, Richards also ordered his staff to document “all meetings” with Martin or Nicholas Deml, the court-appointed remediation manager running the jail, Martin wrote in a letter to Manhattan federal court judge Laura Swain dated Thursday.
City jails boss Stanley Richards made history as the first formerly incarcerated position to get the position. AP An “anonymous source” promptly leaked Richards’ orders, which were sent out by his chief of staff America Canas, to the oversight team, Martin said.
The moves by Richards and his leadership are “among the most specific, direct, and consequential actions” taken to “undermine” the court-appointed monitor that Martin has observed in his more than a decade watching over Rikers, the monitor alleged.
DOC leadership, “at the highest levels, is actively engaging in efforts to evade transparency and impede cooperation and collaboration,” Martin fumed in the letter.
Richards’ demand for staffers to report to him before speaking with the monitor or remediation manager came after he’d been warned in several recent meetings about his “dysfunctional, haphazard, and problematic management strategies,” the monitor wrote.
Rikers has been subject to a federal monitor since 2015 as a result of a settlement of a federal lawsuit alleging horrible conditions and rampant violence at the city jail.
The judge has repeatedly found that the city failed to comply with court orders, and in 2024 found the administration of former Mayor Eric Adams in contempt of court. The contempt finding led to Deml, the former head of Vermont’s prison system, being appointed in January to take control of the lockup.
Mayor Mamdani said that he maintains “complete confidence” in Richards despite the monitor’s scathing letter. Matthew McDermott for NY Post Martin singled out two members of DOC brass that he said have been faithfully complying with the court order, unlike their colleagues: Senior Deputy Commissioner for Investigations, Intelligence and Accountability Sarena Townsend, and another top administrator, Jean-Claude LeBec.
Richards was appointed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to run the DOC in January shortly after Mamdani replaced former Mayor Adams. Richards had served as president of the nonprofit Fortune Society, which provides housing and other services for people returning from lockup.
The jails honcho, who reportedly served jail time in the late 1980s for robbery before making a career in criminal justice reform, made history as the first formerly incarcerated person to get the position.
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Mamdani said Friday that his administration is working to “address” the concerns raised by the monitor’s letter — and that he still has “complete confidence” in Richards.
“I would say first and foremost, I have complete confidence in Commissioner Richards and his commitment to this work,” he told reporters at an unrelated presser.
“I actually was just with him right before this as we were together on Rikers Island to commemorate the service and the sacrifice of DOC members on 9/11, close to 25 years ago,” Hizzoner added.
He said the administration is “addressing those concerns” in the letter and “committed to working closely and collaboratively” with the monitor and remediation manager.
“And one of the things that that means is keeping lines of communication open, sharing information transparently and taking the steps necessary to deliver reforms,” the mayor said.
