Power move by NYC’s Board of Correction chair rebuked by members of panel: Reports

This aerial photo shows Rikers Island, New York City's biggest lockup, June 20, 2014. (Seth Wenig/AP)Seth Wenig | AP Photo

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Five members of the city's Board of Correction held an emergency meeting Monday where they overruled efforts by the chair to implant his own executive director, according to reports.

Board chair Dwayne Sampson — who was appointed to the role last fall by Mayor Eric Adams — moved to circumvent long-held rules held by the BOC in unilaterally replacing acting executive director Jasmine Georges-Yilla with his own pick, Chai Park Messina. The board is an independent entity tasked with regulating conditions of confinement and correctional health and mental health care in all city correctional facilities.

The five members who pushed back this week took issue with the fact Sampson didn't seek board approval before announcing his decision by letter to staff, the Daily News reported. By the end of the five's 15-minute meeting Monday, they reaffirmed Georges-Yilla as the interim executive director.

Sampson is seen as a board member closely aligned with the Department of Correction and the Adams administration, while the five who appeared at the emergency meeting Monday are considered more progressive and are more inclined to be aligned with criminal justice advocates, according to a NY1 report.

In Sampson's letter to staff regarding his decision to appoint Messina as executive director, he wrote in part, "I took actions to pull the agency back from the brink of dysfunction and toward bold initiative."

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