An eight-year veteran of the Department of Correction who cites having a “healthy moral compass” as a personal virtue will lead New York City's jails, Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday, as the city faces a potential federal takeover of the beleaguered department.
Adams named Lynelle Maginley-Liddie as the new Department of Correction commissioner. She will succeed Louis Molina, who will assume a new role at City Hall as the assistant deputy mayor for public safety, with oversight of the Department of Correction.
“Never would I have thought that as the child of a pastor from a small Caribbean island, I’d be standing here as commissioner of such a great institution,” Maginley-Liddie said at a news conference on Friday. “My focus will be restoration and investment in a safe, secure, humane and supportive environment for each person entrusted in our care.”
Maginley-Liddie, who served as first deputy commissioner under Molina, takes the helm as Legal Aid Society lawyers last month kicked off arguments in a high-stakes court battle over whether control of New York City’s jails should be turned over to a federal receiver due to rising violence on Rikers Island and a lack of transparency from Molina and his team. She is the second Black woman to serve as commissioner.
“It was a tough decision,” Adams said of Maginley-Liddie’s appointment. “But she brought the emotional intelligence that’s needed.”
The federal government, the state attorney general's office, state public defenders and criminal justice advocates have all backed the call for receivership in court.
The move also comes as Molina, who has served as commissioner since January 2022, faces calls for an investigation after his former deputy said in court papers that he tried to cover up problems at Rikers.
“It’s a very good day for the Department of Corrections,” said Paul Shechtman, a former department attorney and the former assistant U.S attorney for the Southern District of New York. “[Maginley-Liddie] knows the department and cares about it and the people who work there more than one can imagine.”
Maginley-Liddie, who was born in Antigua, was only the third woman to serve as first deputy commissioner in the correction department’s 128-year history, she told Caribbean Life in March. In her role, she advised commissioners on departmental operations, policy improvements, new initiatives and legal issues, according to the department's website.
“As a woman of color, I recognize the significance of this role — not only for me, but more important for the staff who work at this agency,” she said at the time.
Maginley-Liddie said in the profile that she is the daughter of a Christian pastor, adding that her parents taught her to be “impartial” and “just,” and to approach life and work “with compassion.” She said she “always aims to abide by a healthy moral compass.”
She started as an attorney at the department in 2015, and rose through the ranks to serve as deputy general counsel, leading the department’s General Litigation Unit in 2018, according to a city press release when she was appointed first deputy commissioner. In 2020, she was promoted to acting senior deputy commissioner and chief diversity officer. In that position, she led efforts to provide staff with onsite COVID-19 vaccinations, the release says.
In 2021 then-Commissioner Cynthia Brand made the senior deputy role official, calling Maginley-Liddie a “phenomenal leader and dedicated civil servant who represents the best of this department.”
Joseph Russo, union president of the Assistant Deputy Wardens and Deputy Wardens Association, called Maginley-Liddie a “very good choice.” “I think she's professional and knows the department very well.”
Previously, she worked as an associate attorney at Leader Berkon Colao & Silverstein LLP. She’s a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She raised a young family while studying, beginning law school while her daughter was only 4 months old, she told Caribbean Life.
Maginley-Liddie takes over the department at a challenging time. One of her first jobs in the role will be to appear before a federal judge on Dec. 14 to address what a federal monitor calls the "pervasive and rampant" problems on Rikers Island. Maginley-Liddie said on Friday that she has a “good relationship” with the monitor.
Darren Mack, the co-director of criminal justice reform organization Freedom Agenda, said Rikers was irredeemable “no matter who is running it.”
“We hope the new commissioner will focus on getting Rikers closed while reducing harm in every way possible for people there now, instead of trying to hide and justify its abuses,” he said in a statement.
During Molina’s tenure, there were 28 detainee deaths in Department of Correction custody, and last year’s death rate was the highest in 25 years. Jail slashings and stabbings have increased since 2021 and more than tripled since 2019, according to data in the annual Mayor's Management Report. The violence rate among detainees is at its second-highest level in more than a decade, the reports show.
The Adams administration has defended Molina’s record, saying he brought the agency “back from the brink of collapse” by reducing fires and staff absenteeism and also bringing more detainees to court on time. The city has vowed to fight receivership.
