A staunch defense from the mayor for his correction commissioner.
“Molina has turned it around and I support him to do the job I hired him to do and whatever method he needs to do it within the boundaries of not violating any laws or rights of people I support,” Mayor Eric Adams said Thursday.
The comments come days after a damning report from the Rikers federal monitor was released questioning Louis Molina’s leadership.
That report detailed several fatal and violent incidents on Rikers Island within the last several weeks — incidents where the department was not forthcoming with information to the federal monitor.
On Thursday, the mayor appeared to question the monitor’s intentions, while also saying his correction commissioner did nothing wrong.
“I am going to respond with what I believe is happening with how this oversight is taking place,” he said. “He did not violate any of the rules that he was supposed to report on. Not one item. Not one. But if you were to read the report, you would think just the opposite. I think there is something else going on with this relationship that we’re having. I have been extremely restrained, but that level of patience is running out.”
This was not the latest incident questioning the department’s transparency.
On Wednesday, the news outlet “The City” reported the department would no longer be reporting in custody deaths to the media as it has for several years.
The move sparked an immediate backlash.
“Why would you not inform the public when somebody dies in city custody?” asked Stan German of the New York County Defender Services. “Would you accept that if this was a school and the Board of Ed? Would you accept it from any other city agency? And what does it cost them? What are they afraid of?”
Even the city comptroller’s dashboard that tracks Department of Correction statistics immediately put “unknown” under the detainee death category for this year.
“There is leadership at DOC that apparently cares so little about the humanity of people in its custody that it won’t even be honest when people die on its watch,” City Comptroller Brad Lander said.
In response to questions about the reported policy change from NY1, a spokesperson for the department sent NY1 a statement saying: “All appropriate internal investigations and required notifications to oversight and outside agencies always take place immediately. Next of kin and the deceased individual’s legal counsel are notified as well. The Commissioner believes in following the rules, and the department is in compliance with all rules and laws and that practice has never stopped. The commissioner wants to respect those who have transitioned while also continuing to be as transparent as possible.”
The department said it notifies multiple agencies when detainees die, including DOC Health Affairs, DOC Chaplains, the DOC special investigations unit, the medical examiner’s office, the Department of Instigation, the attorney general’s office and more.
The department then appeared to backtrack, offering to proactively notify media of deaths in custody as well if they chose to be notified.