New York’s new jails boss once served time in a cell block he now oversees

NEW YORK– Stanley Richards knows how dark life can be at Rikers Island, New York’s notorious prison complex. As a young man, he spent two years locked up there for theft.

Today, he’s running the place as the city’s new Department of Corrections commissioner.

In January, Mayor Zohran Mamdani tapped Richards to become the first formerly incarcerated person to oversee the city’s jails. His office, located in a converted chapel, is across the street from his old cell block.

The aging dormitory where Richards was held before his life change was emptied of prisoners three years ago, due to deteriorating physical conditions. But on a recent visit, he paused in front of his old 10-by-7-foot (3-by-2-meter) cell and reflected on how little seemed to have changed — except perhaps his perspective.

“It doesn’t give me any bad feelings, you know,” Richards said as he examined the graffiti-covered concrete walls, metal bed frame and sealed window of the tiny cell. “I offended my community and committed a crime, and I paid the price. The truth of my story is one of redemption.”

Richards, 65, takes over at a critical time for the city’s beleaguered prison system.

In January, a federal judge appointed Rikers’ first “rehabilitation officer,” a new court-ordered position with broad powers to help restore order to the unruly prison after years of problems with violence and questions over inmate health care. Last year, 15 people died in Department of Corrections custody, almost all of them due to medical problems, according to the Vera Institute of Justice, a criminal justice advocacy group.

The deadline to close Rikers and move inmates to four smaller jails across the city is also fast approaching. A city law passed in 2019 mandates the closure of all prisons on the 400-acre island, located just north of LaGuardia Airport, by 2027.

Richards, who began his work in February, believes his experience as an inmate, advocate and department leader has uniquely prepared him for the challenges ahead.

As he tells it, he grew up in a troubled residential neighborhood in the Bronx, joined a gang at a young age and quickly turned to selling drugs and committing crimes. He cycled in and out of prisons for more than a decade. His last and longest stay involved a robbery in the late 1980s.

After being released from an upstate prison in 1991, Richards accepted a position as an advisor to the Fortune Society, a nonprofit organization that helps inmates reenter society. During a three-decade career there, he rose to CEO. Richards also held leadership positions in the city Department of Corrections under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.

Ben Heller, program manager at the Vera Institute, said Richards’ appointment sends an “extremely powerful” message.

“Commissioner Richards understands that treating people with dignity is not incompatible with keeping communities safe. These two elements must go hand in hand,” he said. “It is clear from his own experience and professional expertise that he understands that we cannot incarcerate our way to safety. »

Richards pledged to work closely with the new federal Rikers supervisor, Nicholas Deml. It’s a change, Heller said, from the administration of former Mayor Eric Adams, a former city police captain who fiercely opposed a federal takeover of Rikers.

“Our goals are no different,” Richards acknowledged. “We all want safe prisons. We don’t want our officers to be attacked. We don’t want the people in our custody to be attacked.”

The administration also took steps to close Rikers. The process was years behind schedule, however, and Mamdani acknowledged that the 2027 deadline was “practically impossible to meet.”

Earlier this month, the department opened a corrections unit within Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital that will house more than 100 people with acute health conditions and serious mental illnesses currently detained at Rikers.

Richards said the move allows the department to close a 1930s-era Rikers building in June while ensuring inmates receive appropriate care.

He said the department also works with court officials and prosecutors to ensure cases are handled efficiently so people don’t linger at Rikers while awaiting trial, and that people eligible for diversion programs are managed safely in the community and not in jail.

“If we do these things, we will see the population decline,” Richards said.

As mayor, Adams had opposed closing Rikers, saying he preferred to rehabilitate it, and dismissed plans for smaller jails as “flawed.”

Rikers houses the vast majority of the approximately 6,700 people currently incarcerated in the city’s jail system, according to department data. That’s up from around 3,900 in 2020, but still down from around 20,000 people detained in the early 1990s.

Federal sanitation official Deml, who previously led the Vermont Department of Corrections, and a spokesperson for Adams did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Richards says he plans to combat prison violence by filling some 1,300 vacant positions, which have led to long hours, unsafe conditions and skyrocketing overtime costs. The department employs more than 7,400 people, including more than 5,700 uniformed officers.

Correctional officers’ union President Benny Boscio did not respond to messages from The Associated Press, but said he hoped Richards “demonstrates his commitment to putting safety and security ahead of any political ideology.”

Richards said he was also working to launch new prison programs to help inmates better prepare for life outside of prison, and he pledged to uphold a city law restricting the use of solitary confinement — a reform Adams had called wrong and tried to block.

“It’s a system where society says, ‘Out of sight, out of mind.’ He didn’t pay attention to it, he demonized him, he blamed him, he ostracized him,” Richards said. “And for me, those days are gone. For me, we’re going to walk in the light. We’re going to elevate this place. We’re going to elevate the people who work here. We’re going to elevate the people who are sent to us for care.”

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo.