NYC's jail department has let violence and force stay 'normalized' at Rikers despite years of federal court orders, monitor finds
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What happened
The court-appointed monitor in Nunez v. City of New York reported on June 17, 2026 that the risk of harm in the city's jails 'remains unreasonably high,' listing 'high rates of violence and uses of force that are normalized' among core problems that remain 'with little to no change' despite years of court orders. The monitor found the in-custody mortality rate rose 170%, from 0.78 in 2024 to 2.1 in 2025, and that security and operational lapses appear to contribute to almost all deaths in custody. A federal judge held the City in contempt in 2024 and installed a court-appointed remediation manager in 2026; the monitor's September 30, 2026 report said the constitutional violations cannot be resolved on the current trajectory.
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On 27 January 2026 U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain appointed Nicholas Deml, a former Vermont corrections commissioner, as remediation manager for New York City's jails including Rikers Island, with authority over major jail operations, reporting directly to the court in the Nunez case. Source ↗