“This moment highlights the role nonprofits play in supporting rehabilitation and reentry over the long term. Experience, empathy, and strong management are all essential when tackling deeply complex institutional challenges.”
– Diana Miller, Partner, Not-For-Profit, Wiss
Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Stanley Richards as Commissioner of the Department of Correction on January 31, 2026, placing a formerly incarcerated person in charge of New York City’s jail system for the first time. Richards will oversee the same Rikers Island complex where he served two-and-a-half years on robbery charges in the 1980s.
The appointment comes as the city’s jail system faces significant operational challenges and a court-ordered deadline to close Rikers facilities by 2027—a timeline that appears increasingly unlikely.
Richards’ Background
After serving seven years total between city and state facilities (released in 1991), Richards spent three decades at the Fortune Society, eventually becoming its president. The organization provides housing and reentry services for formerly incarcerated individuals. He previously served as deputy correction commissioner under Mayor Bill de Blasio and on the city’s Board of Correction, which oversees the jail system.
“The future of Rikers is not endless confinement, scapegoating or demonizing,” Richards said at his appointment. “It is safety, transformation and rehabilitation.”
The Numbers Tell the Story
Richards inherits a system managing approximately 6,800 detained individuals as of January 2026—most awaiting trial. That’s up significantly from the pandemic-era low of 4,000 in May 2020, but still below the 9,000-plus detained in January 2018.
The Department of Correction employs more than 7,200 people, including nearly 5,000 uniformed officers represented by the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. COBA President Benny Boscio said the union hopes Richards “demonstrates a commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology.”
Between 2019 and 2025, at least 76 people died in city custody, including 15 last year, according to city data.
The Rikers Closure Challenge
The 2019 plan to close Rikers and transition to four borough-based jails (excluding Staten Island) set a mandatory 2027 closure deadline. Nearly seven years later, none of the new facilities are operational. The Manhattan Chinatown facility isn’t expected to open until at least 2032, and project costs have increased substantially.
Successfully closing Rikers requires not just building new facilities but also reducing the jail population—a politically contentious proposition that involves coordination among the courts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and city agencies.
A federal judge appointed Nicholas Deml as remediation manager on January 28, 2026, to oversee reforms. Ongoing federal oversight reflects the severity of documented conditions: surveillance footage has shown individuals locked in cage showers for extended periods, a lack of basic facilities in intake areas, and absent staff during medical emergencies.
What This Means for Corrections Management
Richards’ appointment represents a philosophical shift in leadership of the jail system. His lived experience provides firsthand knowledge of conditions of incarceration, but he’ll need to navigate relationships with correction officers, maintain security protocols, and implement reforms under federal supervision—all while managing a 7,200-person agency.
The practical challenges are immediate: reducing violence, addressing staffing issues, improving conditions, and simultaneously planning for a facility transition that may take another decade to complete.
Legal Aid Society attorney Tina Luongo called Richards someone who “understands New York City’s jail system — and what is needed to reform it — more deeply” than most candidates. Councilmember Selvena Brooks-Powers, who chairs the criminal justice committee, emphasized his “lived experience, credibility and moral clarity.”
Whether that experience translates to operational improvements in a complex, unionized system operating under federal oversight remains the open question.
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Editorial Note: This article provides general information about New York City government appointments and correctional system operations. It does not constitute legal, policy, or advisory recommendations. Wiss & Company LLP provides accounting, tax, and advisory services to government contractors, nonprofit organizations, and public sector entities in the New York metropolitan area.
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