A push to put the city’s embattled jail system under a federal court’s control is a judicial tool of last resort — one that would give sweeping powers to an independent authority tasked with finally ending the violence on Rikers Island.

Previous attempts to fix the notorious lockup have failed miserably, Manhattan US Attorney Damien Williams said Tuesday in a legal filing which floated the prospect that “aggressive relief” through a “federal receivership” could be needed. 

“Receivership is a remedy of last resort,” said Hernandez Stroud, counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

“Professors call it the ‘nuclear option’ in terms of institutional reform and litigation because it’s the most … powerful tactic a judge can order in these sorts of cases.”

“Receivers” are typically unbiased experts, given sweeping powers by the judges who appoint them, including the same budgetary and hiring-and-firing authority over an agency or government entity that a mayor or commissioner would have.

They’re also provided separate budgets to hire staff, and outside consultants to help ensure defendants – in this case the City of New York – comply with court orders they’ve proved unable or unwilling to meet.

The tactic has helped remedy entrenched problems at other lockups nationwide, including the prison systems for Alabama, the District of Columbia and Wayne County in Michigan.

Williams raised the idea of receivership in a letter to Manhattan federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain, who approved a landmark October 2015 settlement, in which the city committed to far-reaching reforms at Rikers Island to resolve claims of correction officers using excessive force.

The settlement included appointing Steve J. Martin, a former top lawyer for the Texas prison system, as a federal monitor to help ensure the Department of Correction complies with the agreement.

While monitors comb through records, conduct interviews and issue periodic reports to outline progress and make recommendations, they lack much of the authority of receivers.  Besides Martin, the DOC is under the oversight of monitors in two other settlement agreements, including one dating back 40 years over lockup living conditions that remain abysmal.

Martin, who records show has earned more than $10 million as monitor, issued a scathing report in March saying the rate of violence in city jails is “seven to eight times higher than those observed in other correctional systems.” He also expressed frustration over the DOC’s inability to provide basic information.

Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement Thursday that he believes his administration, which began in January, deserves a chance to fix Rikers. He said DOC Commissioner Louis Molina is “laying the groundwork for long-term change” and that jails under their watch have seen “reductions in use of force” on detainees and “assaults on staff” and have “increased searches for weapons and contraband.”

The issue of receivership will ultimately be decided by Swain, who ordered Molina to attend an April 26 conference “in light of the gravity and urgency of the security situation” at city jails. 

Swain’s order came a day after Martin filed legal papers, saying “conditions in the jails remain unstable and unsafe for both incarcerated individuals and staff and have not materially changed” — even after last month’s scathing status report.

“We are at a crossroads and extraordinary remedies must be given deliberate consideration,” the monitor wrote.