The day after the mayor’s office announced that the city jails chief will leave his post this month for a new role at City Hall, experts were divided over how the departure will affect the dangerous conditions at Rikers Island.
In a press release Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams praised Molina’s “exceptional leadership and dedication” and called the move a “promotion.” But there will be no pay increase for Molina from his current salary of $243,000, said mayoral spokesperson Kayla Mamelak, and he will continue to work with the troubled department in his new role.
Molina’s replacement has not been announced. His second in command is Charles Daniels, who was appointed in September. Daniels, who held the same post six years ago before leaving it and suing the department, has a checkered background in corrections.
Elizabeth Glazer, who led the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice under Mayor Bill de Blasio, said the change in leadership could provide an opportunity for improvement in a jails system where conditions are the worst they’ve been in “many years.”
But she said it’s unfortunate Molina will still be involved. She cited his “inability or unwillingness” to look “in a clear-eyed way” at what is driving violence on Rikers.
“If he’s still involved in the running of the department, that diminishes the opportunity for there to be a new start,” Glazer said.
Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association president Benny Boscio said the union will work with any new commissioner committed to helping it build its staff headcount “to provide safety and security in our jails in order to move this agency forward.”
Molina departs at a critical time for city jails. A series of reports from a federal monitor who has overseen city jails since 2015 say violence and conditions on Rikers Island are getting worse, particularly in the past two months, with a spike in slashings and stabbings. Last month, federal monitor Steve J. Martin took aim at Molina in his…
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