Mayor Adams defends New York City's handling of Rikers Island
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams is defending the city's handling of Rikers Island.
The mayor is speaking out just days after a Bronx Supreme Court judge found the Department of Correction in contempt for denying inmates access to medical care.
The department is now preparing a plan that it describes as a complete overhaul of the complex. If the plan is rejected by a federal judge, the city could be stripped of its authority to run Rikers.
Thursday, Adams blasted the idea of federal intervention.
"I'm not surrendering this city to anyone that believes that we can't do our job. And let's be clear, I don't see federal penitentiaries running all smoothly. Go right to the federal penitentiary in Brooklyn and see the concerns that they are having there," he said.
Five detainees have died in custody at Rikers Island this year. Sixteen people died there last year.
