Under a Remediation Manager, Who Will Actually Control Rikers Island?

Under a Remediation Manager, Who Will Actually Control Rikers Island?

Over the past four years, an unlikely alliance of advocates for people behind bars and former Department of Correction commissioners joined forces to urge the federal judge overseeing Rikers Island to appoint an outsider to run it. They argued that it is impossible to turn around the beleaguered department without giving the person in charge more power to make sweeping changes. Last Tuesday, Laura Taylor Swain, the chief district judge for Manha…