Mamdani names jails reformer Stanley Richards to steer chaotic Rikers complex

Mayor Zohran Mamdani is turning to a prominent criminal justice reformer to stabilize New York City’s jail system and help kick-start a stalled plan to close the detention centers on Rikers Island — all under the eye of a court-appointed manager.

Mamdani named Stanley Richards to lead the Department of Correction at a press conference Saturday afternoon.The move puts Richards in charge of the same Rikers Island jails where he once served two-and-a-half years on robbery charges in the 1980s.

“Stanley will make history in this role as the first ever formerly incarcerated person to serve as commissioner,” Mamdani said during a Saturday news conference. “That achievement is not merely symbolic. It is a testament to the thought and leadership he will bring to every member of correction staff and incarcerated New Yorkers underneath his purview.”

Richards was convicted of robbery and spent an additional four-and-a-half years in state prison before his release in 1991. After his release, Richards landed a job as a counselor at the Fortune Society, an organization that provides housing and re-entry services for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers.

Over three decades later, Richards rose to the top position in the organization and served as the Fortune Society’s president until his appointment by Mamdani. He has also served as a deputy correction commissioner under former Mayor Bill de Blasio and on the city’s Board of Correction, which provides oversight of the jail system.

Richards said he will chart “a path of hope” and reform in his new role.

“The future of Rikers is not endless confinement, scapegoating or demonizing,” he said. “It is safety, transformation and rehabilitation.”

But Richards is inheriting a jails system in crisis.

In recent years, the jails have been plagued by staff misconduct, violence and drug overdoses. At least 76 people died in custody between 2019 and 2025, including 15 last year, according to city data. And a plan to close the facility and replace it with smaller borough-based facilities has stalled in the face of a rising jail population and political resistance.

The Department of Correction employs more than 7,200 people, including nearly 5,000 uniformed officers organized in the powerful Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

COBA President Benny Boscio said the union hopes Richards “demonstrates a commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology.”

More than 6,800 people were held in city jails as of Saturday, the vast majority awaiting trial according to a daily analysis of city data by the Vera Institute of Justice. The number marks a sharp increase from a historic low of about 4,000 during the early days of the pandemic in May 2020, but is still well short of the more than 9,000 people detained in January 2018.

The facility was already notorious for violence and abuse, but under former Mayor Eric Adams conditions deteriorated.

Surveillance footage first obtained by Gothamist in 2022 revealed horrendous conditions in the Rikers Island jails: One man was locked in a cage shower for nearly a day, another man defecated in his shorts due to a lack of toilets in an intake area, and detainees were seen dragging sick people for medical treatment because jail staff were not present. A separate Gothamist investigation detailed rampant sexual abuse at the women’s jail on Rikers Island.

Those circumstances have prompted ongoing calls for a federal receiver to take control of the jail complex and institute systemic reforms. A federal judge named a new remediation manager, former Vermont jails boss Nicholas Deml, to oversee the jails this past Tuesday.

The city is also approaching a deadline to close the detention facilities on Rikers Island and move detainees to four other jails under construction in every borough but Staten Island. The so-called borough-based jail plan was approved by the City Council and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2019, with a mandatory deadline to close Rikers facilities by 2027.

But nearly seven years later, project costs have ballooned and none of the new jails are close to being ready, with a facility in Manhattan’s Chinatown not expected to open until at least 2032.

As a candidate, Mamdani vowed to stick with a plan to close Rikers jails and open the four new facilities — a move that will also require the city to shrink its jail population.

Justice reform advocates and local leaders praised Mamdani’s pick.

“Few people understand New York City’s jail system — and what is needed to reform it — more deeply than Stanley Richards,” said Tina Luongo, the top attorney in the Legal Aid Society’s criminal defense practice. “He brings unmatched insight, credibility, compassion, and a deep commitment to advancing meaningful reform.”

Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, a Queens Democrat who chairs the criminal justice committee, said he “brings lived experience, credibility and moral clarity to a system that demands all three.”

This story has been updated with new information.