New York — Stanley Richards knows how depressing life can be Rikers Islandthe notorious prison complex in New York City. As a young man, he spent two years imprisoned there on charges of theft.
Now he’s running the place as the new commissioner of the city’s Department of Corrections.
In January, Mayor Zahran Mamdani Exploit Richards to become the first A formerly incarcerated person oversees the city’s jails. His office is located inside a converted chapel, across the road from his old cell block.
The old dormitory where Richards was an inmate before he changed his life was emptied of prisoners three years ago, due to deteriorating financial conditions. But on a recent visit, he stopped by his old 10-by-7-foot (3-by-2-meter) cell and thought about how little seemed to have changed — except perhaps his view.
“It doesn’t give me bad feelings, you know,” Richards said as he inspected the graffitied concrete walls, the metal bed frame, and the boarded-up window of the small cell. “I offended my community and committed a crime, and I paid the price for it. The truth of my story is one of redemption.”
Richards, 65, takes over at a critical juncture for the city’s beleaguered prison system.
A federal judge in January appointed Rikers’ first “director of corrections,” a new court-ordered position with broad authority to assist Bring order to the unruly prison After years of problems with violence and questions about inmate health care. Last year, 15 people died in the Department of Corrections, almost all of them from medical problems. according to Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice advocacy group.
The deadline to close Rikers and move inmates to four smaller prisons across the city is also quickly approaching. City law Passed in 2019 The law calls for all prison facilities on the 400-acre island, which is located just north of LaGuardia Airport, to close by 2027.
Richards, who started in February, believes his experience as a prisoner, advocate and department head has uniquely prepared him for the challenges ahead.
He also recounts that he grew up in a troubled housing project in the Bronx, joined a gang at a young age, and quickly turned to selling drugs and committing crimes. He has been moving in and out of prisons for more than a decade. His last and longest stint for robbery was in the late 1980s.
After his release from upstate prison in 1991, Richards got a job as a counselor at the Fortune Society, a nonprofit organization that helps inmates reintegrate into society. Over the course of three decades working there, he rose to the position of CEO. Richards also served in leadership roles in the city’s Department of Corrections under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.
Ben Heller, director of programs at the Vera Institute, said Richards’ appointment sends a “very strong” message.
“Commissioner Richards recognizes that treating people with dignity is not in conflict with keeping communities safe. They should go hand in hand,” he said. “It is clear from his life experience and professional experience that he understands that we cannot imprison our way to safety.”
Richards pledged to work closely with Rikers’ new federal superintendent, Nicholas Demmel. Heller said this is a change from the administration of former Mayor Eric Adams, a former city police captain Strongly opposed Federal takeover of Rikers.
“Our goals are no different,” Richards agreed. “We all want safe prisons. We don’t want our officers attacked. We don’t want people in our care attacked.”
Management has also taken steps toward closing Rikers. But the operation is years behind schedule, and Mamdani He confessed The 2027 deadline is “practically impossible to meet.”
Earlier this month, the department opened a prison unit inside the city’s Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan that will house more than 100 people with acute medical conditions and serious mental illness who are currently detained at Rikers.
Richards said the move allows the department to close the 1930s-era Rikers building next June while ensuring inmates receive proper care.
He said the department is also working with court officials and prosecutors to ensure cases are processed efficiently so people do not remain in Rikers awaiting trial, and that those eligible for diversion programs are safely managed in the community and not in prisons.
“If we do those things, we’ll see the population decline,” Richards said.
As mayor, Adams opposed closing Rikers, saying he favored its rehabilitation, and dismissed plans for smaller prisons as “flawed.”
Rikers houses the vast majority of the roughly 6,700 people currently detained in the city’s jail system, according to Section data. That’s up from about 3,900 in 2020, but still fewer than about 20,000 people detained in the early 1990s.
Federal corrections director DeMille, who previously led the Vermont Department of Corrections and is a spokesperson for Adams, did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Richards says he plans to address prison violence by filling about 1,300 staff vacancies, which have led to long hours, unsafe conditions and ballooning overtime costs. The department employs more than 7,400 people, including more than 5,700 uniformed officers.
Corrections Officers Union President Benny Buccio did not respond to AP messages, but said he hoped Richards would demonstrate a “commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology.”
Richards said he is also working to launch new jail programs to help inmates better prepare for life outside prison, and is committed to abiding by a city law restricting the use of solitary confinement — a reform that Adams said was wrong and wrong. I tried to prevent.
“This was a system that society said: ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ It didn’t care, demonized, blamed, ostracized,” Richards said. “And for me, those days are over. For me, we will walk in the light. We’ll raise this place. We will lift up the people who work here. “We will lift up the people who are sent to us for care.”
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Follow Philippe Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo.