In a move that's either bold reform or reckless gamble, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed Stanley Richards — a man who served 7 years in prison including time on Rikers Island for robbery — as the new Commissioner of the NYC Department of Correction. Richards becomes the first formerly incarcerated person to lead the agency, and supporters say his lived experience makes him uniquely qualified to fix a broken system. Critics are already calling it "putting the inmates in charge of the asylum."

Stanley Richards was convicted of robbery in the late 1980s and served approximately two and a half years on Rikers Island before being transferred to state prison, where he served an additional four and a half years. After his release in 1991, he became a prominent criminal justice reform advocate, eventually rising to Executive Vice President of the Fortune Society, a nonprofit that helps formerly incarcerated individuals reintegrate into society. Mayor Mamdani's appointment makes Richards the first person with a criminal record to lead NYC's jail system — a system he once lived in as an inmate.