Department of Corrections Commissioner Nicholas Deml speaks in Montpelier on May 2, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

Nick Deml, former commissioner of the Vermont Department of Corrections, will lead the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. 

Federal district judge Laura Taylor Swain picked Deml for the role Tuesday, the New York Times reported. 

In May, the judge first decided an outside official — rather than a member of the mayor’s staff — should run the jail complex as a “remediation manager,” years into federal oversight of the scandal-plagued institution.  

Swain requested that Deml meet promptly with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office, though Deml will not report to the new mayor.  

Roughly 7,000 people are incarcerated at Rikers, four times Vermont’s prison population. 

New York City first agreed to federal oversight of the notorious jails in 2015 following a class action lawsuit over use of force incidents, according to the Times. 

Deml stepped down from his Vermont post in August after almost four years on the job. He previously worked for the CIA and said he would begin consulting on prison-related issues following his departure. 

Under Deml’s leadership, Vermont’s Corrections Department focused on addressing substance use disorder among people in prison. The department prioritized providing medication for opioid use disorder and worked to expand peer recovery coaching and educational opportunities. 

A spate of deaths in 2022 and 2023 at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield also colored Deml’s tenure, as lawmakers and advocates for the incarcerated called into question the medical care provided by the prison’s health services contractor.

Deml declined to comment about his new role Tuesday, citing a court order precluding him from doing so.