Soft-on-crime ex-NYC, Maryland jail honcho helping Zohran Mamdani reshape services for criminals
Vincent Schiraldi, the former NYC Corrections Commissioner whose brief tenure at the helm of the city’s jail system coincided with a surge in violence, has been tapped by Mayor‑elect Zohran Mamdani to help shape a new public‑safety agenda for the Big Apple. Schiraldi, who has long held a “soft‑on‑crime” stance and supported sweeping releases of inmates, joined a roster of 20 experts on Mamdani’s transition committee for criminal‑legal services. Both men are outspoken advocates for shrinking the city’s prison population and for closing Rikers Island.
Opponents, however, argue that Schiraldi’s record makes him an unsuitable choice. “Vincent Schiraldi failed spectacularly at Rikers, was pushed out of Maryland after yet another correctional disaster, and now Zohran Mamdani is welcoming him with open arms,” ripped Councilman Robert Holden (D‑Queens). “If this is the braintrust Mamdani is building, New Yorkers should expect more chaos, more excuses, and the same public‑safety failures that put our city and our jail system in danger in the first place.”
Schiraldi’s time in public office has been punctuated by controversy. He served as Corrections Commissioner in the last seven months of 2021 under Mayor de Blasio, when assaults on both detainees and officers climbed sharply. In 2023, Maryland Governor Wes Moore named him secretary of the Department of Juvenile Services, only to reportedly pressure his resignation in June after statewide juvenile crime spiked and critics decried his lenient approach, which prioritized rehabilitation over safety. During that stint, he controversially hired Joel Castom—a former first‑degree murder convict who had spent 26 years behind bars—to lead a new unit aimed at reforming juvenile detention.
Earlier accusations also surfaced from Schiraldi’s tenure as director of Washington, D.C.’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services. In 2008, he ordered workers to transport three juvenile detainees to his private home for a holiday cookout, and one of the youths escaped. These past incidents have fueled outrage among law‑enforcement advocates. Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, questioned Mamdani’s decision to bring Schiraldi onto the transition team, cautioning that the union knew from day one that the former commissioner would be a poor fit for the department. “He consistently advocated to protect the rights of violent inmates, while he was our commissioner and then hired a convicted murderer to help reform Maryland’s youth corrections system,” Boscio said. “New Yorkers deserve leaders who are committed to the public’s safety and the men and women who maintain it. He is not one of them.”
Despite the backlash, Schiraldi has defended his record. In a 2022 piece for the nonprofit Marshall Project, he acknowledged that conditions at Rikers had “fallen below [his] already‑low expectations,” noting a rise in staff absenteeism, officer use of force, declining detainee programming, an increase in shank attacks, and a rise in deaths. He blamed the turmoil on the “nation’s racist and destructive fixation on imprisonment” rather than on his leadership. “It’s Exhibit A for why we need to end mass incarceration,” claimed Schiraldi. When the mayor’s transition committee was announced on LinkedIn two weeks ago, he posted that he was “honored to [be] part of this prestigious bunch!”
Schiraldi, 66, and Mamdani now face a tense public debate over the future of New York’s corrections system, with critics warning that bringing a figure marked by past missteps into the town’s core may undo progress on safety and reform.
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