Rikers Island Faces Pressure to End Death and Disorder Crisis | #ukscams | #datingscams | #european

But as the hearing date approached, Mayor Eric Adams said that he wanted to see the Correction Department maintain control of the jails despite its track record, saying that a federal takeover would amount to a stinging defeat for the city.

“It says we can’t do our job,” he said, adding that it could set a precedent for federal takeovers of other city agencies. “I’m not surrendering this city to anyone who believes we can’t do our job.”

To Tatiana Sokolova, however, whose son was detained at Rikers, it seems clear that the city cannot in fact do its job in the jails system.

On April 12, her son, Vyacheslav Kargin, 47, was being held in the Anna M. Kross Center on Rikers Island on a probation violation charge when he got into a fight with another detainee. During the 13-second struggle, Mr. Kargin suffered a head injury that was so grave he had to undergo emergency surgery to drain blood pooling around his brain, according to his family.

Mr. Kargin is now partially paralyzed, unable to move his left arm, said Richard Skinner, his brother-in-law. Ms. Sokolova, 73, said he could only utter a few words before he became incoherent.

“How could this happen?” Ms. Sokolova said in a recent phone interview, speaking through a Russian translator. “It’s a tragedy. I want him to come back to the way he was before — normal and fine.”

Mr. Kargin is currently relearning how to walk and talk, his family said. But, as far as the Correction Department’s records are concerned, he suffered only a laceration on the left side of his head, according to two people with knowledge of the reporting system. A third person said the officer was unaware of the severity of Mr. Kargin’s internal injuries and had reported only what he could see. Mr. Kargin’s medical records, meanwhile, show that he was unable to speak when he was admitted to the hospital. The incident has not been previously reported.