Departing head of NYC’s troubled jails will continue to work with department

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 report, raising “grave concerns” about the commissioner’s commitment to transparency and reform. A judge has agreed to hear arguments this winter over whether a federal receiver will take over Rikers.

Even as rumors of Molina’s departure from his post began to swirl in September, Molina and five members of his executive team took a taxpayer-funded trip to Paris and London to tour European prison and jail facilities and compare best practices, Department of Correction spokesman Frank Dwyer confirmed.

Defense attorney Sarena Townsend, who previously led investigations for the DOC was pushed out by Molina, said she wasn’t surprised he was leaving, as he faced backlash from the federal monitor, the federal court and possible receivership.

She said receivership was still necessary to change the culture of Rikers and ensure detainees’ basic rights are being met.

“Even with talented commissioners, the department was still problematic and the culture was still toxic,” she said, warning that the city could use the appointment of a new commissioner as a “stall tactic” for receivership, saying that person hadn’t had a chance to prove themselves.

Glazer said the move should not have an effect on receivership, but she hoped the new appointment might influence the mayor to work with the receiver, and see it as a way to improve conditions at city jails in a way the city cannot do alone.

He has not done a good job because people continue to lose their life there. It needs to be closed.

Lezandre Khadu, advocate and mother of one of 16 detainees who died on Rikers in 2021.

Michael Jacobson, the former Department of Correction commissioner from 1995 to 1999, agreed that federal receivership was still necessary, regardless of a change in leadership.

“Someone needs to be there for a decent amount of time who has some political independence, who can stay long enough to effect all sorts of organizational and culture change," he said. "Even if you had God's gift to a commissioner, if they only stay for a couple of years, it's just not going to happen.”

Molina was one of the first commissioners announced by Adams before he was sworn in as mayor in January 2022. In total, 28 Department of Correction detainees have died since Mayor Eric Adams' inauguration in January 2022, and the city's jail system had its highest detainee death rate in a quarter-century last year. Nine people have died so far this year while incarcerated on Rikers Island, or immediately following their technical release.

Lezandre Khadu, an advocate for Rikers detainees and their families, spoke through tears when she listened to Adams praise Molina’s work as commissioner.

“Hearing you say that it brings tears to my eyes and it cracks my heart more than it is already cracked,” she said. Her son, Stephan Khadu is among 16 detainees who died on Rikers in 2021.

“My son went in there perfectly healthy, and for my 24-year-old child to die from meningitis and for him to say that this man did good coming up after, that's just like a slap on my face," she said. “No. He has not done a good job. Because people continue to lose their life there. It needs to be closed.”