De Blasio appoints Cynthia Brann to head NYC jail system

The city’s troubled jail system has a permanent commissioner, Cynthia Brann, who has been promoted from the acting post after the de Blasio administration looked “far and wide” around the country to fill the vacancy.

Brann, a probation and parole officer early in her career, had been acting correction commissioner since June, and was elevated Tuesday by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Brann spent 26 years in Maine’s prison system before becoming a top aide to predecessor Joe Ponte, a fellow Mainer, in 2015.

“We thought she combined alignment on vision with real experience in making the changes and reforms needed,” de Blasio said at a police station in the East Village.

“She knew the job. She knew the system. She knew the people. And I like her approach to leadership, and it just makes sense to go forward with her,” he added.

The jail system has long been plagued by violence, mismanagement and abuse. De Blasio has promised to close Rikers Island, the main jails complex, in 10 years.

A federal monitor is overseeing the jails. In 2014, the U.S. Justice Department said the system reflects “a deep-seated culture of violence” where “staff routinely utilize force, not as a last resort, but instead as a means to control the adolescent population and punish disorderly or disrespectful behavior.”

A memo from the mayor’s office said Brann is committed to reducing solitary confinement and was instrumental in rolling out a new use-of-force policy approved by the monitor.

Earlier this year, the city’s anti-corruption agency said 21 city correction officials, including Brann’s predecessor, Ponte, and Brann, improperly used official take-home cars for personal trips.

Ponte announced his resignation in May, two weeks after the city Department of Investigation said he violated ethics rules by using his official car on 18,500 miles of improper out-of-town trips and billing taxpayers for gas and tolls. The department used GPS to conclude Brann had also used her official car for personal errands — mostly to Long Island.

As acting first deputy commissioner, she made repeated trips in the car — to the Gallery at Westbury Plaza, Roosevelt Field Mall, Century 21 in Westbury, the Tanger Outlets in Riverhead and a Stop & Shop in Great Neck, according to the report. She also admitted on at least one occasion picking up her husband at Kennedy Airport when he visited from Maine. She paid back the city for those costs, mayoral spokeswoman Natalie Grybauskas said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.