New York City is now responding after the legal aid announced they will be asking the federal government to take over Rikers Island for what they say is an alarming rate of violence.

The city's law department says that a foreign federal take-over of Rikers Island would be pointless, and that there's nothing a foreign agency could do that the Department of Corrections isn’t already doing.

However according to the Legal Aid Society, the amount of violence on Rikers Island is at its highest since 2016. Officials are now sounding the alarm and asking a federal judge for a receivership to take over the city’s jails on Dec. 15.

In a report released by the federal monitor last month, there have been more recorded incidents of violence against incarcerated New Yorkers this year since 2016, and they often result in more serious injuries.

This comes as 18 inmates have passed away just this year while in Rikers custody or shortly after their release.

While the law department agrees that there is still more work that the city could do to improve the conditions of its jails, they say they are proud of the work the administration has done in the last ten months.