The federal monitor overseeing New York City jails recommended to a federal judge Monday that she hold the city in contempt for failing to comply with court orders to combat violence.
“The monitoring team recommends that the court initiate contempt proceedings in order to coerce compliance by the city, department, and the commissioner,” the federal monitor team wrote in a 245-page report issued Monday, referring to Correction Department Commissioner Louis Molina.
The monitor went on to write that more needs to be done beyond contempt proceedings, signaling the team’s possible support for the appointment of a federal receiver which would take control of some or all of the troubled Correction Department’s operations.
“(The circumstances) require that additional remedial relief is necessary in order to implement the requirements of the court orders and catalyze the substantive changes required to protect the safety and welfare of the many people held in custody and who work in the jails,” the monitor wrote.
The monitor has been issuing reports on high levels of violence and unnecessary and excessive use of force for eight years.
The report offers an in-depth assessment of the progress of the Adams administration’s year-old action plan to address violence in the jails. The contempt findings mark a major change of message from the monitor.
Contempt means the city has disobeyed court orders and the judge in the case, Laura Taylor Swain, should step in and force compliance.
“There is no question that some progress has been made, but many of the initiatives required by the Action Plan remain incomplete or have not been addressed,” the report said. ‘Worse, there has been a disturbing level of regression in a number of essential practices.”
Last month the monitor filed two reports and a letter which charged that the Correction Department failed to fully disclose circumstances around five serious incidents in the jails, including two deaths and an encounter…
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