"A federal judge has appointed a former CIA officer to take the mayor's place managing operations at the jail complex on Rikers Island, part of a decade-and-a-half-long prisoner civil rights case that has now played out over four mayoral administrations. Nicholas Deml, who most recently was commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, previously worked as a directorate of operations officer at the CIA and as an aide to U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Swain made the decision public Tuesday. She directed city officials to meet with Deml to begin the onboarding process, including discussing compensation, a start date and staffing up Deml's remediation team. An initial report is due in 21 days."
"The rulings stem from the landmark 2011 class action Nunez v. City of New York in Manhattan federal court, which cites systemic abuse, falsified records and unconstitutional conditions in NYC jails. In 2015, a consent judgment in the case sparked the push for reform but since then, Swain said last May, the use of force state and other rates of violence, self-harm and deaths in custody are demonstrably worse."
Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Swain placed Rikers Island under federal receivership in May 2025 and appointed Nicholas Deml to oversee remediation. Deml previously served as a CIA directorate of operations officer, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, and aide to U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin; he is also a member of the Council on Criminal Justice and a Marquette University Law School graduate. Swain directed city officials to meet with Deml to begin onboarding, discuss compensation, set a start date, and staff a remediation team, with an initial report due in 21 days. The rulings arise from the 2011 Nunez v. City of New York class action and a 2015 consent judgment; violence, self-harm, deaths in custody, exhausted staff, faulty plumbing, and crumbling infrastructure persist.
Read at www.amny.com
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