A federal judge on Tuesday seized control of New York City's notorious jail complex on Rikers Island, which will now be run by an official who reports directly to the court. In a 77-page ruling, Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote that she found the conduct of city over the last nine years "leaves no doubt that continued insistence on compliance with the court's orders by persons answerable principally to political authorities would lead only to confrontation and delay.

Laura Taylor Swain, a federal judge, seized control of New York City’s lockups, which have been rife with violence and dysfunction.