A Shakespearean tragedy behind bars

The bureaucracy leading the NYC Department of Correction appears to be a comedy of errors, but nobody’s laughing.

Rather, like a 16th-century tragic play the agency has experienced a catastrophic downfall over the last 11 years. It has been riddled with chaos, death and destruction, and the ruin continues.

Surrounded by existential suffering, incarcerated persons are living undignified dystopian lives at the hands of the people who claim to advocate and care for them.

Correction officers are NYC’s unsung heroes. Yet, although physically free, they are prisoners of fate confined by anguish.

And despite the torment and trauma surrounding both the incarcerated population and correction employees; federal oversight, City Hall, city council and DOC’s administration continue on the same self-destructive path.

Present in all Shakespearean tragedies are the never-ending hypocrisies, the inevitable clandestine subversions obscured by perceived friendship, double standards that reek of moral decline and paradoxes that intensify the absurdity of the characters.

And DOC’s bureaucracy is no different.

Hypocrisy is used as a weapon to gain power, subversion disrupts order and structure, double standards are selectively applied and paradoxes unveil the truth.

The term “NYC Department of Correction” is itself a contradiction.

Although the original intent may have been to correct criminal behavior, the agency is largely punitive, and “correction” is only an abstract concept.

Still, it seems paradoxical to aim to correct the criminal behavior of detainees in NYC custody while simultaneously arguing they are presumed innocent of the crime they’re charged with.

In Fiscal Year 2026, detainee infractions for assaults and fights nearly doubled to 15,035 from 8,528 in FY 2025 and assaults on correction officers rose by almost 5 percent while 285 incarcerated persons were slashed or stabbed.

In addition, eight incarcerated persons died under the care of DOC Commissioner Stanley Richards so far in 2026 and eight died in 2021 during his six-month tenure as first deputy commissioner, totaling 16 deaths in 14 months.

But there’s little concern coming from the administration because when detainees die the bureaucrats always find a correction officer to scapegoat.

Jail violence and death prevail and the tragic saga continues.

Yet the same politicians, advocates and Legal Aid Society attorneys who have been outspoken and condemned DOC’s dysfunction for a decade are suddenly silent and indifferent to the current administration’s drama and theatrics and instead choose to coddle Stanley Richards and shield him from the consequences of both his action and inaction.

The hypocrisy is palpable and it screams of partisanship and insincerity.

On Sept. 1, Richards issued orders to top DOC officials that according to federal monitor Steve Martin subverted federal oversight.

In an email from the DOC Chief of Staff titled “Instructions from the Commissioner," high level staff were instructed that “[n]o idea, strategy or work” was to be communicated to the remediation manager Nick Deml or the federal monitor Steve Martin without Richards being briefed beforehand.

Richards’ orders apparently vexed the federal monitor, and on Sept. 3 Martin wrote a scathing letter to federal district court Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain chiding Richards. Martin stated that “notification to the Court is necessary in light of instructions issued by the Commissioner on September 1, 2026” combined with the monitoring team’s observations of “dysfunctional, haphazard, and problematic management strategies” over the past several months.

Martin, who learned of Richards’ covert subversion through an anonymous source, lambasted Richards, saying the instructions heighten Martin’s concerns about the Department’s “mismanagement," impede the reform effort, are actions “to undermine the Court’s Orders” and interfere with federal oversight’s “ability to perform their court-ordered responsibilities."

It appears the honeymoon between Martin and Richards is over.

Recent DOC history has shown that Martin will praise a capitulating commissioner at almost any cost and in the alternative, he will also chastise and berate a commissioner who thinks he’s in charge and has the gall to challenge him.

Martin declared, “DOC’s current operations present a serious risk of harm to both incarcerated individuals and staff."

Judge Swain said she was troubled by Martin’s letter and censured Richards’ asserting Richards’ actions appeared to violate court orders.

Further, remediation manager Nick Deml, who I submit is in effect Richards’ boss, immediately rescinded Richards’ order that instructed staff not to communicate ideas, strategies or work to federal oversight without Richards first being briefed.

Richards never acknowledged remediation manager Nick Deml as the person in charge and instead insisted that he (Richards) reports to the mayor.

However, when issues pertain to the Nunez consent decrees even the mayor answers to the federal court.

Further, there was never a “partnership” between Richards and Deml. It was only wishful thinking by Richards.

There is no doubt Richards now knows Deml is in charge and Martin pulls the strings.

Still, it’s evident that jail safety and reform remain elusive and are unlikely to be attained in NYC jails in the foreseeable future.

More than 100 incarcerated persons have died in custody in the last decade.

I speculate the majority of the non-natural in custody deaths are related to illicit drug use. Yet, DOC still continues to enable detainee gangs to freely traffic drugs instead of dismantling criminal gangs and aggressively pursuing criminal prosecution.

Let me be clear, the federal takeover of NYC jails is unequivocally not the solution to the jail crisis.

Similarly, neither is Stanley Richards who is abjectly unqualified to be DOC commissioner.

According to the Mayor’s Management Report, in Fiscal Year 2026 there were 1,092 assaults on staff. That equals 91 per month.

In a July 27 press release issued by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Stanley Richards provided a generic response which he knows he is unable and unwilling to enforce. He stated, “Violence against a correction officer cannot, and will not, be tolerated."

Since July 27 when Richards pledged not to tolerate violence against correction officers, 182 additional correction officers have been assaulted by detainees.

And these numbers don’t include the multiple daily detainee assaults on correction officers with feces, urine and other liquids.

Richards is oblivious when it comes to policies and strategies to reduce assaults on correction officers.

Consequently, the assaults will continue.

His rhetoric is a veneer intended only to appease the uniformed force and jail unions in order to gain their support, but instead it shines a light on his incompetence and lack of credibility.

Notwithstanding, DOC spokesperson Patrick Rocchio said the department “is committed to working with the federal remediation manager and federal monitor to improve conditions in our city’s jails for staff and people in custody."

Rocchio added, “We believe in holding accountable as appropriate people in custody who assault correctional staff or others in custody."

That’s the typical meaningless boilerplate response issued by a political appointee to fool the public and obscure the reality that the DOC commissioner doesn’t have a strategy to reduce assaults.

Moreover, Rocchio ignores the fact that just a few weeks ago Richards attempted to undermine the remediation manager and federal monitor who Rocchio claims the department “is committed to working with."

Except for the occasional arrest there is virtually no accountability for NYC detainees who assault correction officers and others in custody.

DOC’s top civilian leadership, which is selected almost exclusively through nepotism and payback for political favors, lacks both jail management experience and the necessary foresight to achieve safety and reform.

But it’s par for the course since the DOC commissioner who has the power to fire correction officers would be disqualified from becoming a correction officer.

Being formerly incarcerated, some say Richards fits perfectly into the anti-police, anti-law enforcement agenda and political ideology of the mayor.

In the meantime, like a priest in a confessional, I listen to pretentious politicians, political appointees and DOC commissioners speak of their accomplishments, achievements and avant-garde ideas as they unknowingly confess their failures, subversion and hypocrisy in a feeble attempt to self-promote themselves and take credit for perceived successes.

And the epitome of hypocrisy is that Stanley Richards, who has often criticized DOC, now seems unwilling to face similar scrutiny while he is commissioner.

I say to the powers that be and the self-proclaimed correction illuminati, “doth protests too much, me thinks."

Nonetheless, I remain optimistic that somewhere beyond this tragedy there is a faceless statue without a name waiting to be displayed in NYC in honor of DOC’s unassuming savior who brought dignity, safety and order to NYC jails.

The future is waiting for you.