Who’s at the wheel?

After the announcement that Department of Correction Commissioner Lou Molina was leaving his post to become assistant deputy mayor for public safety in the Adams City Hall, we’ve been hoping for some clarity on who’s replaced him. Turns out it’s no one, at least not yet. In a declaration presented to Manhattan Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain last week, Molina revealed he’s still commissioner, and has no timeline for his departure.

There’s a certain irony in the fact that, as the consequential question of who should run the DOC is litigated in court, there was doubt as to who even was already running the DOC. Molina was ostensibly going to move into his new role in mid-November, and yet here he is, still in charge and with no clarity on when or if he is going to leave.

At this moment of acute crisis, is the department led by a kind of lame-duck leader with one foot out the door? Who is going to permanently replace him? Who knows? It’s also telling that, in his declaration, Molina admits he wasn’t aware of the creation of an Arson Reduction Unit that was opened without required notification to the monitor. Is Molina even really running the show?

We do know who should be in charge, and it’s not his deputy. It should be an experienced corrections administrator brought in from the outside, appointed by and accountable to Swain, to the law and, if we’re being frank, interested in the basic human dignity of the people on Rikers Island.

We were a relatively early and consistent voice in this chorus, and we’re glad to have been joined by more and more observers, interested parties and experts. On Friday, state Attorney General

Tish James added her voice in the form of an amicus filing, where she stressed that her own office had investigated multiple instances of officers, through malice or negligence, causing the deaths of detainees.

“Despite years of oversight by a federal monitor and scrutiny by the press, oversight agencies, and elected officials, New York City jails remain dangerously unsafe… A receiver is needed to effectuate the safety and order required under State and BOC minimum standards,” wrote Assistant Attorneys General Louisa Irving and Lois Saldana on behalf of the state’s chief legal officer.

Earlier the same day, another pro-receiver amicus was filed by Liz Glazer, Martha King, and Sarena Townsend, who had held executive roles at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the Board of Correction and the DOC’s internal affairs and staff discipline units, respectively.

These amici came the day after the monitoring team filed its latest report, which noted that “interference, obfuscation, and deflection have become normalized, and yet another imminent leadership transition is expected to further impact an already unstable, erratic, and chaotic environment.” This was less than two weeks after the Legal Aid Society put forth its long-awaited motion and proposed order for a receiver, an effort now formally supported by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.

We’ve reached the point of consensus; people who’ve seen the DOC’s operations from within and without, prosecutors, defense attorneys, oversight bodies. The department can’t bring itself back from the brink. The order is there. All it needs is Swain’s signature.