Stanley Richards, the new commissioner of the Department of Correction, sat down with the Eagle for a wide-ranging interview last week. File photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By Jacob Kaye
The history of Rikers Island is unambiguous.
For nearly a century, the isolated island, connected to the city only by a narrow bridge to Queens, has been defined by violence, chaos and death.
But its future is far less clear.
To Stanley Richards, the city’s new commissioner of the Department of Correction, it may even be one filled with hope.
Though Richards inherited a department mired in dysfunction, he’ll be given a number of opportunities to enact the reforms he’s been advocating for since he was released from prison more than 30 years ago.
Richards, who will become the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the DOC when he officially gets the keys to the commissioner’s office on Feb. 17, enters the job as the city is on the cusp of major changes to its jail system.
Days before his appointment, a federal judge tapped a former CIA agent to serve as her remediation manager and assume significant responsibility over the day-to-day management of Rikers Island and the DOC in an effort to reduce the violence and dysfunction that has persisted in the jails for decades. Though Richards said he and the remediation manager, Nicholas Deml, have agreed to work in partnership, Deml’s authority will supersede Richards’ on a number of occasions. Unlike Richards, who will report to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Deml will answer only to the judge.
The relationship between the two will likely have a major impact on whether or not the reforms both desire actually take root.
Then there’s the city’s plan to close Rikers Island, which fell years behind schedule under the tenure of former Mayor Eric Adams. Though city law mandates that the dangerous jail complex be shut down by August 2027, city officials have all but admitted the deadline has become impossible to meet.
Nonetheless, Richards said he is committed to fulfilling the plan and to opening the four borough-based jails to replace Rikers once it’s actually closed.
“We’re at a moment where City Hall and our mayor are saying that accepting the status quo is unacceptable, and we need to do something about it and bring change,” Richards told the Eagle. “And so that’s the work that I’ve been charged to do.”
Richards discussed the critical moment the city, the DOC and its jails are in, as well as his philosophical approach to leading the department, how he’ll measure his performance, how he’ll address the growing number of deaths in the jails last year, and more during a recent interview with the Eagle.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Eagle: Starting with a little bit of a philosophical question. There are a number of reactions people have to the onslaught of stories about violence and dysfunction on Rikers Island. Some are infuriated, some are apathetic, some are exasperated or resigned. Where do you land on this spectrum?
Richards: I think that’s the heart of the work that I need to focus on – making sure that our jails are safe for staff, our jails are safe for incarcerated people. And it starts by making sure that we have fundamental correctional practices, and also bringing in programs, creating incentives for both staff and for incarcerated people, so that the level of frustration, distrust, and anger begins to dissipate. I’m going to build an administration that delivers that.
This is not an overnight process. Every day we need to take a critical inch that demonstrates that jails are getting safer, people are feeling valued.
When you look at Rikers, from the facilities, from the isolation of the island, from the continuous demonization and scapegoating, what that has done is just kept us entrenched in what we’ve seen decade after decade. What I want to do is to bring some light, to bring hope.
Eagle: You’re making history as the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the DOC. Can you name one thing that’s changed about Rikers since you were incarcerated there in the 1980s, and one thing that hasn’t changed?
Richards: One thing that hasn’t changed is the mental state from when I was there for almost a year and a half. What has changed is the process by which cases are getting adjudicated, and I think it’s gotten worse. That’s something we need, as the mayor says, all of government to lean in on that.
What has gotten better is the number of people we have detained. When I was there, there were 22,000 people in the system. We’re down to 6,800 right now. Although when I left the DOC in 2021, it was lower. The numbers have been going up under the last administration. But it’s my hope we use this all-of-government approach to begin to bring that number down, begin to engage our community partners so that we can safely divert people to community-based services, making sure the service providers that are working in partnership with us on the island are engaging and connecting people to services and housing and mental health services upon their release. It’s about using the DOC commissioner’s 6-A authority to safely release people to the community through the work release program. It’s working with the state to make sure that when cases get adjudicated and they’re ready for transportation to state prison, that that happens in a timely way. If we use all those strategies, we could begin to reduce the population and prepare for the borough-based jails.
Eagle: Speaking of 6-A, the DOC’s work release program: Your predecessor, Lynelle Maginley-Liddie has been criticized by advocates for failing to use the program as frequently as she could. Do you have a target number of work releases in mind?
Richards: I don’t have a number but I have two practices. We’re having nonprofit program providers come back in the department and I want to set up everyone who enters our jails. I want them screened to see what Alternative to Incarceration diversion programs they are eligible for. So, as soon as they’re coming in, we’re identifying whether or not they’re eligible for diversion, getting them connected to a service provider. That service provider will work with the judge and the district attorney to see if they could engage in a diversion program. Second, everyone that comes in will be assessed to see if they are eligible or a good candidate to be safely managed in the community under 6-A.
We have no control over who comes into our system, but we do have control what we do with them when they’re with us, and I think that’s where we should use every opportunity to make sure that they have connection to services, and that they have an opportunity to build a different life.
Eagle: Many past DOC commissioners come into the job in a place of control and most are committed to at least some level of reform. But the crises often pile up very quickly, and once they do, most commissioners become defensive, less transparent and less reform-minded. How do you prevent yourself from falling into that pattern?
Richards: My whole approach to management is transparency and partnership. And so I anticipate being very transparent and in partnership with advocates, community-based service providers and with the public, because I think you can’t address something that’s in the dark. I’m going to bring light to the role of the DOC commissioner, because Mayor Mamdani said that every New Yorker deserves to live in dignity, and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to make sure our officers live with dignity and are valued. I’m going to make sure people in our custody live with dignity and that they are valued. We are not the judge and jury, but while we have them, we are going to do what’s necessary to help them build a new life so that they don’t come back. It starts with being in the light.
Eagle: The federal monitor said in December that “an entrenched culture that opposes and/or resists reform continues to hobble the department’s ability to materially improve the jail’s conditions with the necessary level of urgency.” How do you plan to address this entrenched culture and how will you measure your success in doing so?
Richards: When we stop scapegoating and demonizing, and when we can see the humanity in everybody, we can start moving the conversation in a different way. I did my first tour Tuesday and met with leadership in multiple facilities. My sense is that they want to do a good job but they feel attacked, they feel isolated, they feel scapegoated. So, part of what I am going to do, how you change the culture is you begin to live it. Everyone in my administration, we will be on Rikers Island. We will be in those facilities. We will be talking to people, we will be listening to people, and we will be making the changes that allow us to build the foundation for transformation.
I’ve talked to Nick Deml, who will soon serve as the remediation manager, and he sees his work in partnership with me. I think our goal is the same – safety for staff, safety for incarcerated people. When we do those things, you can begin to change culture. This isn’t about blaming officers or blaming incarcerated people. This is about saying, let’s fundamentally change how we want to see each other and how we change how we operate.
That’s one of the reasons why I’m looking forward to the borough-based jail system and closing Rikers. Everything about Rikers, from the facilities, the officers’ locker rooms, the officers’ eating area, the incarcerated people’s housing area, the recreation area, everything about it says, “You are not valued.” Now we can build a jail that is centered on the humanity of people who are working there and the people who are entering it. You can begin to have a different way of operating.
Eagle: Going back to your conversation with Nick Deml. I imagine it might be beneficial to you both that you’re each starting your new jobs around the same time.
Richards: Absolutely. And I think our values are aligned, our goals are aligned. What he said to me, and what I said to him, is that I’m looking forward to this partnership. Yes, he reports to the judge, I report to the mayor, but our goal is the same, and we’re going to be working together to address the 18 contempt orders. And that’s going to be the seeding that I need to transform the way the department operates, the way the department is seen, the way officers feel and the way incarcerated people experience our department.
Eagle: The way that the receivership is laid out, Deml will craft these action plans, and then it will be on DOC to implement them. But do you foresee a situation where maybe you go to him first and say, “I want to address this issue in this way,” and that you’ll be able to?
Richards: This is something we talked about. He’s going to be out on Rikers Island next to me. We’re going to have weekly check-ins and meetings more frequently as needed. As he’s drafting his plan, he’ll be asking for input from me. When I’m moving forward with other responsibilities, I’ll be asking for feedback from him. This isn’t going to be a situation where I’m on one track and he’s on another one. This is going to be a real partnership.
This is an opportunity for this city to fundamentally change how we operate in our jails. This is an opportunity for us to move from the demonizing, scapegoating and being sort of stuck in the horror of the facilities that we currently have. This is really a watershed moment in our city, for the department, for the people incarcerated, and for our staff. And so Nick and I will be working very closely together to bring about the resolution of the 18 contempt orders and ultimately bring about the ending of the Nunez consent decree.
Eagle: DOC in-custody deaths reached a three-year high last year. We saw similar patterns leading up to many of the deaths. Officers didn’t do their tours or abandoned their posts. Detainees with severe mental health issues were left alone without supervision. Drugs were snuck into the jails. How do you plan to address these repeated failures?
Richards: We start with establishing basic correctional practices first. Second, we need to look at how many officers are leaving. I think the number of officers right now is down to 5,600. We need to fill the vacancies that we have, and we need to then make sure our officers are fully trained to deal with the population that we have right now. The training that we had was for the population we had a decade ago. Now, the majority of the people in our care are people with mental health diagnoses, and our staff are not clinicians and therapists. We need to bring about the change in the training necessary for them to be able to manage the population that we have right now. And we have to go back to correctional best practices.
Eagle: Obviously you believe in the power of programming, having worked and led The Fortune Society for as long as you did. Is there a type of programming that you think should be mandatory or highly encouraged for all detainees?
Richards: I don’t think you make programming mandatory. I think you design programs to address the needs that people have, and you build in incentives for people to engage with them.
One of the things that I want to do is I want to create a model facility. Take one of our facilities and turn it into a model that would look like the borough-based facility in terms of how it operates. Every housing area would be like an honors housing area. The requirements for that would be no infractions over the last six months, a willingness to engage in programs. They would go into programs from 9 to 11 a.m., go back to the housing area, go to lunch, and then go back to programs. They could have a selection of programs to choose, from hard skills to education, to substance use groups, to trauma-informed groups. Following their afternoon programming, they would have dinner, and then we would have evening programs. I’d like to bring in colleges to offer classes in the evenings.
If they are doing what they need to do, we could have unescorted movement. If they need to go to sick call, or to a visit, we don’t need two officers to take them. Those are the incentives that you want to leverage, because that will keep the jail safe. Officers won’t be assaulted. Incarcerated people will be safe. They will be engaged in something they would have for later. The curfew wouldn’t be 9 p.m., it might be 11 p.m. So, there are things that we can do to encourage people not to engage in violence.
Eagle: When you and I sit down for another interview a year from now, what metrics do you hope to point to to show that conditions on Rikers are improving?
Richards: Population is down. Uses of force and violence are down. One of the things I want to be able to measure, and I’m talking to the leadership about it, is morale. I want to look at how many officers are out? What does our retention look like? All the metrics in regards to the Nunez issues. Are we coming into compliance? All those metrics will let me know that we are heading in the right direction.
Eagle: You said earlier that this is a “watershed moment” for the city’s jails. And it really is. There’s a new mayor, a new DOC commissioner and the unprecedented appointment of a remediation manager. We are a year and a half away from the deadline to close Rikers, even if many experts say that deadline can’t be met. Intellectually, how do you go about thinking about this pivotal moment?
Richards: Yes, it’s a moment that we ought to seize and take action. And I think what action means is delivering results, which are going to require movement as if you were turning a battleship, not a speedboat. But movement nonetheless. And that’s this moment we’re at. We’re at a moment where City Hall and our mayor are saying that accepting the status quo is unacceptable, and we need to do something about it and bring change. And so that’s the work that I’ve been charged to do. That’s the work that I think this moment has been calling for the city to do. And I’m looking forward to getting in here and getting to work.
