Our Mission
The Independent Rikers Commission seeks to help the City of New York close the jail complex on Rikers Island, improve safety and the functioning of the criminal justice system, safely reduce unnecessary incarceration, develop state-of-the-art, borough-based jail facilities and secure treatment beds, and repurpose Rikers as a hub of green infrastructure to serve all New Yorkers.
Commission Members
The Commission, chaired by former Chief Judge of the State of New York Jonathan Lippman, is an independent body of experts, policymakers, and advocates from many backgrounds, including corrections, law enforcement, victims’ services, the judiciary, academia, service providers, business, and people who have spent time behind bars.
Hon. Jonathan Lippman (Chair)
Former Chief Judge, State of New York; former Chief Judge, New York Court of Appeals; Of Counsel, Latham & Watkins
Richard M. Aborn
President, Citizens Crime Commission
Jennifer Jones Austin
CEO and Executive Director, Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies
Greg Berman
Distinguished Fellow, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation; Co-Editor, Vital City; former Director, Center for Court Innovation
Ana Bermudez
Former NYC Probation Commissioner
Grace Bonilla
President and CEO, United Way of New York City
Courtney Bryan
Executive Director, Center for Justice Innovation
Richard Buery
CEO, Robin Hood
Hon. Matthew J. D’Emic
Administrative Judge for Criminal Matters, Kings County Supreme Court; Presiding Judge, Brooklyn Domestic Violence and Mental Health Courts
Mylan L. Denerstein
Co-Partner-in-Charge of New York Office, Gibson Dunn
Leandro Diaz
Deputy Commissioner (Ret.), Westchester County Department of Correction
Margaret Egan
Chief Executive Officer, Women's Prison Association; Former Executive Director, NYC Board of Correction
Hon. Randall Eng
Of Counsel, Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein; former Presiding Justice, Appellate Division, Second Department
Dean Fuleihan
Senior Fellow, CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance; former NYC First Deputy Mayor; former NYC Director of Office of Management & Budget
Robert B. Fiske, Jr.
Senior Counsel, Davis Polk & Wardwell; former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York
John Gallagher
Warden (Ret.), New York City Department of Correction
MaryAnne Gilmartin
Founder and CEO, MAG Partners; former President and CEO, Forest City Ratner Companies
Colvin W. Grannum
Former President and CEO, Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
Agnes Gund
Founder, Art for Justice
Dr. Michael P. Jacobson
Executive Director, CUNY Institute for State & Local Governance; former Commissioner, NYC Department of Correction
Seymour W. James, Jr.
Partner, Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP; former Attorney-in-Chief, The Legal Aid Society
Archana Jayaram
Former President and Chief Executive Officer, Osborne Association
Hon. Judy Harris Kluger
Executive Director, Sanctuary for Families; former Chief of Policy and Planning, NYS Office of Court Administration
Karol Mason
President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Jonathan McLean
CEO, Center for Alternative Sentencing & Employment Services (CASES)
Julio Medina
Founder, Executive Director, and CEO, Exodus Transitional Community
Ana L. Oliveira
President and Chief Executive Officer, The New York Women’s Foundation
Michael Polenberg
Vice President of Government Affairs, Safe Horizon; Co-Chair, Downstate Coalition for Crime Victims
Rocco A. Pozzi
Probation Commissioner, Westchester County Department of Probation; former Commissioner, Westchester County Department of Correction
Stanley Richards
CEO, Fortune Society; former First Deputy Commissioner of Programs and Operations, NYC Department of Correction
Laurie Robinson
Professor Emeritus, George Mason University; former Assistant Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs
Dr. Noé D. Romo
Medical Director, Bronx Stand Up to Violence Program, NYC H+H/Jacobi; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Hon. Jeanette Ruiz
Former Administrative Judge, New York City Family Court
Peter G. Samuels
Partner, Proskauer Rose LLP
Herbert Sturz (1930-2021)
Board Chair, Center for New York City Neighborhoods; former NYC Deputy Mayor for Criminal Justice; Founder, Project Renewal; Founder, Wildcat Service Corporation
Dr. Alethea Taylor
Executive Director, Hour Children
Jeremy Travis
Senior Fellow, Columbia Justice Lab; former Deputy Commissioner, NYC Police Department; President Emeritus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Nicholas Turner
President and Director, Vera Institute for Justice
Darren Walker
President, Ford Foundation
Rev. Sharon White-Harrigan
Executive Director, Women’s Community Justice Association
Kathryn S. Wylde
President and CEO, Partnership for New York City
Kenneth H. Zimmerman
Chief Executive Officer, Fountain House
FOUNDER
Melissa Mark-Viverito
Former Speaker, New York City Council
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Twyla Carter
Attorney-in-Chief and Chief Executive Officer, The Legal Aid Society
Kandra Clark
Vice President of Policy & Strategy, Exodus Transitional Community
Brandon del Pozo
Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Health Services, Policy, and Practice, Brown University; former NYPD Deputy Inspector and Commanding Officer
Moses Gates
Vice President, Housing & Neighborhood Planning, Regional Plan Association
Howard Kolins
President, Boerum Hill Association
Justin Lapatine
Partner, Global Strategy Group
Darren Mack
Co-Founder, Freedom Agenda
Jo-Ann Yoo
Executive Director, Asian American Federation
STAFF
Zachary Katznelson, Executive Director
Zachary has over 20 years of experience achieving change at Rikers and other jails and prisons throughout the United States. He has represented people on death row with the Equal Justice Initiative, men in Guantanamo Bay with the British charity Reprieve, and women convicted of killing their abusers with the California Habeas Project. He helped found and formerly co-chaired Congregation Beth Elohim's (Brooklyn, New York) racial justice team, which uses faith-based organizing to reform the criminal system. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Isabel Burton and their three sons.
Dana Kaplan, Senior Advisor
Most recently, Dana was Deputy Director of Close Rikers and Justice Initiatives at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, where she oversaw programming to reduce the city’s jail population and played a leadership role in the development of the plan to close Rikers. She also coordinated implementation of Raise the Age, school climate reform, and other city initiatives to reduce unnecessary incarceration and support community-based public safety solutions. Prior to her time in City government, Dana was Executive Director of the New Orleans-based non-profit legal and advocacy organization the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana. She has also been a Soros Justice Fellow with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and has worked throughout the US on issues including detention reform, the cost of collect calls from prison, and policing reform.
Giovana Castaneda, Program Coordinator
Giovana has over 8 years of experience as a community organizer, specializing in base-building, stakeholder mobilization, and policy innovation across several issues. She won over 6 state and local campaigns for immigrant and workers’ justice (including a $15 minimum wage) and for education reform with Make the Road NJ. In 2021, she led a campaign to demand the end of the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline in NJ. This included passing state bills requiring yearly reports on school disciplinary actions broken down by race and gender, and higher investment in guidance counselors. To further build the political power of BIPOC & queer youth, she then launched Vote16, a campaign to make NJ the first state to allow 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections. Giovana believes that all fights are intersectional and is committed to continuing these efforts in the criminal justice reform movement.