Top jail officer pushed out
Slew of retirements as correx boss resists fed takeover
The top uniformed officer overseeing city jails was pushed out Monday afternoon in a major shakeup by Correction Commissioner Louis Molina as he seeks to stall momentum toward a federal court takeover of Rikers Island.
Chief of Department Kenneth Stukes was ordered to retire by June 30. Chief of Facility Operations Ada Pressley will retire in July.
“Both are beloved members of this department and they will be dearly missed. Chief Stukes has served this agency for 35 years. He has always been a straightforward and outspoken individual who holds people to the highest standards, which he has always embodied,” Molina said in a statement. “Chief Pressley has served for 26 years and she has always gone above and beyond . ... Their leadership and support were very helpful during the change of administrations and I wish them both the very best.”
Sources said Chief of Administration Sherrie Rembert; Chief Tanisha Mills, who had been in charge of the transfer of women to the Bedford Hills Correctional
Facility in Westchester County, and security operations Chief Charlton Lemon will also retire.
The Correction Department did not respond to an inquiry regarding their status.
As part of the shakeup, wardens will now report directly to the commissioner. The adjusted chain of command is part of the city’s proposal to regain control of Rikers Island, which is mired in chaos. A stunning 21 inmates have died in city custody since last year.
Pressley, notably, was forced to admit in December the agency was not complying with a judge’s order to ensure detainees were making it to their medical appointments. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Taylor found the city in contempt May 17. Molina praised Pressley for managing the transfer of juvenile inmates to the Administration for Children’s Services as part of Raise the Age legislation.
The retirements appear to be part of a 90-day plan by Molina to replace high-ranking uniformed staff with civilians with correction experts from outside the Correction Department. Last week, he named former state prisons official Ronald Brereton as deputy commissioner for security operations.
A federal monitor has written that the Correction Department is in desperate need of an infusion of outside expertise, noting in December that management lacked the “elementary skills” to improve a “persistently dysfunctional system.”
The shakeup had been rumored for weeks. A high-stakes Manhattan Federal Court hearing on the federal oversight of Rikers is scheduled for Tuesday. The city opposes the appointment of a receiver to operate the jails, but the monitor and federal prosecutors are running out of patience.
Meanwhile in a City Council budget hearing, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams pressed Molina on the need for more correction officers. Mayor Adams has asked the Council to approve hiring 578 officers at a cost of at least $59 million in the upcoming budget.
“I am deeply concerned about the department’s inability to effectively manage and supervise its current staff. The department’s mismanagement raises serious concern for this Council,” Speaker Adams said.
Molina said the new officers would help operate a new system replacing solitary confinement.
Speaker Adams also pressed Molina how he could justify the new hires when roughly 1,100 officers a day are absent. Molina said there were 1,155 officers out Monday, but that short-term absences have declined.
“I hope you can understand myself and my colleagues’ confusion with these numbers as far as looking for additional headcount when [the Correction Department] has the highest absentee level of any agency,” Speaker Adams said.
The News reported Monday that hundreds of correction officers across 2021 and 2022 have violated the Correction Department’s sick-leave rules and tried to duck efforts by investigators to hold them accountable. The story cited examples of officers working a second job while out sick for hundreds of days, or out of town when they were supposed to be home. Some even screamed at investigators.
Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) directly asked Molina about The News’ article. “What is it that will break the cycle of people just feeling they just don’t have to be there? It is hard to understand, particularly when you read an article like that,” she said.
Molina insisted that reforms to the sick-leave system were “beginning to take hold.”