Mayor Eric Adams announces new task force to tackle problems at Rikers Island
NEW YORK - Mayor Eric Adams is creating a new taskforce to address the crisis on Rikers Island.
It comes just days after another detainee died in custody, and as CBS2's Aundrea Cline-Thomas reports, time is running out for the city to overhaul the jail complex.
Adams is under pressure to show a federal judge that his administration would not join countless others by only paying lip service to the chaos on Rikers Island.
This task force is in response to the city being given one last chance to show its capable of reforming the jail complex, or else a federal judge will consider taking away the city's authority to run the jail complex.
The executive order, signed Thursday by Mayor Adams, outlines the task force will be made up of senior leadership from eight city departments, including the Department of Correction, mayor's office of criminal justice and the law department.
The goal is to cut the red tape that often delays progress, from getting contractors to fix broken cell doors to addressing staff misconduct.
The move comes just days after a fourth detainee died in custody this year and a scathing report by the Board of Correction outlining failures surrounding the three prior deaths.
READ MORE: Dashawn Carter, 25, dies in custody on Rikers Island, 4th in 2022
The report found unstaffed housing units, the staff not conducting rounds in a timely fashion and delayed medical responses, among other things.
The mayor has been steadfast, saying he'll do a better job than his predecessors, adding on social media, "Rikers Island has been mired in dysfunction...for decades. We cannot and will not - allow that to continue."
Rikers Island has been mired in dysfunction and plagued by parallel crises for decades. We cannot — and will not — allow that to continue.
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) May 12, 2022
Learn more about our new interagency task force to remedy the Rikers Island Crisis: https://t.co/O9FMO3lZNb pic.twitter.com/jnkWaZsPr0
But a task force is just one step.
Next week, the Department of Correction has to submit a comprehensive plan to a federal judge outlining how the city will aggressively overhaul Rikers Island. It must include immediate actions already underway as well as short- and long-term solutions.
The Legal Aid Society released a statement in response to the plan saying, "An executive order telling City agencies to talk to one another and hold more meetings is not action and will not save lives."