NEW YORK — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that an independent outside official will take control of Rikers Island from New York City in a sweeping ruling aimed at fixing years of violence and deteriorating conditions.

In her 77-page ruling, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain didn’t immediately identify the official who will take over management of the facility and report directly to the court.

Swain did rule the official cannot be a city government employee, rejecting a proposal from Adams’ administration to keep the infamous jail under local control. The ruling marks a blow to Mayor Eric Adams, who has said his administration can properly run the dangerous jail complex

Mary Lynne Welwas, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project, said Swain’s “historic decision” will help “end the culture of brutality in the city’s jails.”

“For years, the New York City Department of Correction has failed to follow federal court orders to enact meaningful reforms, allowing violence, disorder, and systemic dysfunction to persist in the jails,” Welwas said in a statement with Debra Greenberger, a partner at the Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel law firm that also helped bring the original suit against the city that established the consent decree.

“This appointment marks a critical turning point — an overdue acknowledgment that City leadership has proven unable to protect the safety and constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals.”

The official, dubbed a “remediation manager,” will report directly to Swain, who has helped oversee management of the city’s jail system as part of a consent decree Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration entered into nearly a decade ago to address systemic issues on Rikers.

In November, Swain found Adams’ administration in contempt of multiple provisions of the consent decree designed to improve conditions for inmates and staff on Rikers. Since then, she has weighed whether to formally take control of the city jail system from Adams’ administration, culminating in Tuesday’s order.

In the decision, Swain wrote that the remediation manager will have “broad powers” to “take all actions necessary” to fix the jail system. That will include an ability to make decisions about personnel, according to the ruling.

The ruling says the independent official is expected to work with the Department of Correction commissioner. But the judge also wrote the person will “possess all” powers of the commissioner “necessary to remedy” the situation on Rikers, giving the manager wide latitude to run the complex.

The class-action lawsuit that resulted in the consent decree was brought against the city by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of inmates on Rikers.

The judge asked that the plaintiffs, the city and the federal government present her with four candidates for the remediation manager job by Aug. 29 so she can make an official appointment.

In response to the decision, Mayor Adams said that, due to the law mandating the closure of Rikers, the administration has been prevented from making improvements to the jail complex. Under city law, Rikers is supposed to close by 2027 but Adams has said that is an unrealistic deadline.

“How much oversight are you going to do before you realize that there are systemic problems that we have turned around?” he said, adding that he would comply with the order.

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