At a federal court hearing Thursday in a case involving violence at Rikers Island, the Correction Department is expected to tout the hiring of five civilian wardens in an effort to bring an infusion of infusion of new, outside ideas to the agency.
But three of the hires now known as “assistant commissioners” are to varying extents insiders, having already worked for the Correction Department, two of them for a combined 55 years. One was suspended on charges of doing nothing while a mentally ill detainee bashed his head repeatedly against a wall.
“I know that their impressive credentials, their professionalism, and expertise will help us to continue to move this agency forward,” Correction Commissioner Louis Molina said in a statement.
Newly-minted warden Antoinette Cort was suspended from her supervisory job in February 2021 over the incident in which a detainee repeatedly bashed his head against a jail wall. Cort was charged during the de Blasio era, but in late 2022, Molina dismissed the disciplinary case against her.
Cort has been with Correction Department for 25 years and won a series of awards for her work in the jails, the department said. “I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve this agency and to help turn it around,” Cort said in a news release.
Two other of the new wardens have sued the Correction Department on either racial discrimination or sexual harassment grounds — cases that ended in settlements totaling $520,000.
One of those new wardens, Charles Williams, spent 30 years working for law enforcement, including the federal prison in Ray Brook, N.Y., and agencies in South Carolina, Florida, Kansas. His most recent stop was the Alabama Department of Correction.
He was hired by the city Correction Department in 2016 in an administrative role, but claimed he was forced out under then-Commissioner Cynthia Brann in 2018 and then filed a lawsuit alleging the mostly white leadership of the agency was racist and discriminated against…
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