A Decade of Failure, Futility, and Violence on Rikers Island

Photo: Todd Heisler/The New York Times/Redux

The recently announced federal-court takeover of Rikers Island was a long-overdue attempt to remove a stain on the soul of New York that shames all of us. The jail is being placed under the control of a “remediation manager,” with all major decision-making taken away from city officials who have squandered one opportunity after another to quell the out-of-control violence in our jails.

The vast majority of people detained at Rikers are...