A day after the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan called for New York City’s jails to be taken over by an outside authority, the judge who would make the decision expressed strong disapproval of the city’s management of its lockups.

The federal judge, Laura Taylor Swain, wrote in an order on Tuesday that the administration of Mayor Eric Adams had failed to comply with her orders and “address the dangerous conditions that perpetually plague the jails and imperil those who are confined and who work there.”

“These concerns raise questions as to whether defendants are capable of safe and proper management of the jails,” Judge Swain said, referring to the city and its Department of Correction.

Her language echoed that of the prosecutor, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He said on Monday that “we cannot wait any longer” for the city to remedy the yearslong crisis in its jails. He called for an outside authority — known as a receiver — to take control of the city’s jail facilities.

Though Judge Swain’s comments do not necessarily mean she will strip the city of its authority, they emphasize the growing likelihood that it could at least lose some control over Rikers Island and its other jail facilities. On Tuesday, she ordered the city to inform the U.S. attorney’s office and others how it planned to fix some of the pressing issues within the jails.

Shortly after the judge’s order was made public, Mayor Adams delivered a strenuous defense of his management of the jails. He said that his administration would abide by the law, but he appeared frustrated and defiant at the idea that a takeover might be necessary.

“I am the best person in this administration to finally turn around the Department of Correction,” the mayor said during a news conference.

Mr. Adams, while voicing his respect for Mr. Williams, said that his administration had improved the jails and cited some approving comments that appeared in an April report to the judge from a federal monitor who oversees conditions at Rikers. Mr. Adams asked what had changed since then to suggest that the city should be stripped of its authority.

But the monitor, Steve J. Martin, has been clear in recent months about what has changed. In a series of recent reports, the first of them issued in May, Mr. Martin criticized Mr. Adams and his correction commissioner, Louis A. Molina, for hiding episodes of violence and negligence. These included a confrontation between correction officers and a detainee that left the detainee paralyzed and another incident, in which staff members left a detainee who was badly beaten by other inmates naked in a jail facility for hours.

Mr. Adams was asked about the lack of transparency by a reporter at the news conference on Tuesday.

“Let’s correct that,” Mr. Adams said, before exclaiming, “But you don’t go to receivership!”

He emphasized — contradicting the monitor and the lawyers for detainees — that the city was “trending in the right direction.”

“Let’s sit down and talk,” he said. “Let’s work together towards a goal of how do we correct the system.”