Judge orders NYC jails chief to appear at status conference

Judge orders NYC jails chief to appear at status conference

FILE - A Rikers Island juvenile detention facility officer walks down a hallway of the jail, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in New York. It's hard to find anyone on board with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's plan to toughen the state's bail laws, two years after they were retooled to keep people from being jailed because they are poor. The debate over bail in New York has been fierce enough to delay passage of the state's budget. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the head of New York City’s jails to appear at an upcoming status conference on conditions at the troubled Rikers Island jail complex. U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain directed city Department of Correction Commissioner Louis Molina to attend the session scheduled for Tuesday. She issued the order after getting a letter earlier in the week from the office of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. New York City Mayor Eric Adams says “Fixing Rikers is critically important, a moral imperative, and we need to get it right. But to do that, we need the opportunity to implement our plan.”

Photo: FILE – A Rikers Island juvenile detention facility officer walks down a hallway of the jail, Thursday, July 31, 2014, in New York.(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)