Mayor Mamdani announced his appointment of five new city agency commissioners Saturday afternoon — including the first-ever formerly incarcerated person to serve as head of the Department of Correction.
Mamdani entrusted Stanley Richards, an ex-Rikers Island inmate and former executive vice president at The Fortune Society, with overseeing the Big Apple’s jails, aiming for both a safer jail system and reform.
“That achievement is not merely symbolic,” Mamdani said of Richards’ historic appointment. “It is a testament to the thought and leadership he will bring to every member of Correction staff and incarcerated New Yorkers.”
Richards served four and a half years in prison for robbery in the late 1980s. Since then, in his role at The Fortune Society, he has worked to help prepare people for their release from prison and reentry into society.
“My experience and journey is a testament,” Richards said, “that when we provide support, when we center our collective work to hope instead of fear, when we see the best in all of us instead of judging people in the worst thing we ever done, when we see our commonality (more) than our difference, we can achieve the unimaginable.”
Of the mayor, he said, “His administration made clear that the future of Rikers (Island jail) is not endless confinement, scapegoating or demonizing. It is safety, transparency and rehabilitation — my vision aligns fully with that mission. Safer jails today — borough-based facilities that prioritize dignity, opportunity and humanity.”
In a statement, Benny Boscio, the president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association union, said of Richard’s appointment, “Despite the many false narratives that have portrayed COBA as an ‘obstacle to reform,’ we have been ready, willing and able to meet and work with anyone, as long as they respect the rights of our Correction Officers and understand that their safety and security matter. … It is our hope that Mr. Richards understands that dynamic as he takes on this new role and demonstrates a commitment to putting safety and security before any political ideology.”
Mamdani also named Dr. Alister Martin as commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Martin is an emergency physician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, having previously served as an adviser in the Office of the Vice President under Kamala Harris and a White House Fellow in the White House Office of Public Engagement.
“A city is only as vibrant as it is healthy, and in Dr. Martin, an emergency room physician with extensive experience on the front lines of public health, as well as at the highest levels of government, New Yorkers will be well looked after,” Mamdani said.
Sandra Escamilla-Davies will serve as the new commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development after serving as the executive vice president of Children’s Aid.
“As commissioner of DYCD, she will do more to build after-school programs and expanding the summer youth employment program,” Mamdani said. “She will work every day to ensure that every child in this city can imagine a future of health, joy and a possibility in a place that they call home.”
Yesenia Mata, a former military police sergeant in the U.S. Army and executive director for La Colmena NYC, will serve as the new commissioner of the Department of Veterans’ Services.
“Yesenia will continue that work fighting for the 135,000 veterans who call this city home and ensuring they are able to access the housing, the health care, the supportive services that they sacrificed so much for,” Mamdani said.
Former commissioner of the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection Vilda Vera Mayuga will serve as the new head of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, or OATH.
“In addition to having served in state government in a number of roles where she advanced civil rights and advocated for workers, as OATH commissioner she will oversee our city’s independent administrative law court and make justice the expectation for every New Yorker,” Mamdani said of Mayuga.
