Will teamwork make the dream work? Former executive director of Bronx Defenders Justine Olderman has joined the Mamdani administration’s growing roster of criminal justice reform experts tasked with closing the Rikers Island jails. On June 5, Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed her as criminal justice coordinator, a key advisory role for reducing the city’s carceral footprint.
“This is an effort that is going to take all of us to close Rikers Island,” Olderman said by phone. “For me in particular … that means working with the [public] defenders, the DAs, the judges, and the service providers to reduce the number of people held in pretrial detention.”
She pointed to three ways the city can bring down Rikers’ population. First, through fewer people going in, then by connecting those in custody with services and revisiting what support they need so they can get out faster, and finally by reducing case delays — lengthy case delays are the biggest factor in increased pretrial detention, according to the city.
Just a little over a year remains before the city’s deadline to shut down Rikers. Reducing the jail population is probably required to comply with the law. Four borough-based jails will hold the remaining people in custody after Rikers Island shutters, but there are fewer beds in the new facilities combined because their designs focus on programming, healthcare, and — generally — more “humane” spaces.
In this position, Olderman will answer directly to First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and also oversee day-to-day operations for the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice.
“Justine Olderman has spent her career standing alongside New Yorkers as they navigate a criminal legal system that too often falls short of the fairness and dignity every person deserves,” said Mamdani. “Her commitment to justice and accountability reflects the values our administration is fighting for every day. We’re proud to welcome Justine to our team, where she will help build a city in which justice is accessible to every New Yorker.”
Over the past several months, Mamdani has enlisted several other criminal justice reform advocates to serve in his administration. He appointed Stanley Richards, who led the re-entry nonprofit Fortune Society, as Department of Correction commissioner in late January. Mamdani later handpicked Dana Kaplan, one of the key figures behind the borough-based jail plan, to serve as the Close Rikers czar. His Office of Community Safety, headed by criminal justice reform experts Renita Francois and Dr. Ayesha Delany-Brumsey, will focus on “upstream” solutions to divert people from entering Rikers Island.
“[Olderman] knows that addressing people’s needs before they result in arrest and incarceration will both reduce crime and decrease the number of people in jail and prison,” said Richards. “She will be an essential partner in helping us close Rikers and create a justice system that is centered on the humanity of everyone involved.”
Olderman spent her recent years at NYU School of Law, where she leads the Pretrial Freedom Lab and teaches as a distinguished scholar at the Center on Race, Equity, and the Law. Previously, she worked at the Bronx Defenders for more than two decades and spent her last six years there as executive director. She pointed to her previous work collaborating to bring down the city jail population during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were all very motivated to get as many people out of Rikers Island as possible,” said Olderman. “We routinely met and went through the jail roster to try to figure out who could be released as quickly as possible to bring that population down, and that’s an example of the type of work that I think I’ll be doing in this new role as criminal justice coordinator.”
