New York City lawmakers are making major strides to shut down Rikers Island jail complex, a jail notoriously known for violence, disfunction, inhumane conditions, and home of one of the world’s largest correctional and mental institutions.
The City Council voted 36-13 Thursday, to close the jail by 2026 and to replace it under an $8 billion plan, with four smaller jails located closer to the city’s main courthouses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, along with other Democrats, have supported the plan with the belief that because crime rates are falling in New York City, the need for Rikers Island jail would only continue to support mass incarceration. He said that the move to close the jail once famed as, “the most perfect prison in the world,” is a generational investment in addressing root causes and changing lives before they go down the wrong path.
De Blasio said that it’s time for change, “Mass incarceration did not begin in New York City, but it will end here.”
Councilman Daniel Dromm also cited the names of former inmates of Rikers Island jail who have died, including Kalief Browder. He was an African American man from the Bronx, who was held in the jail for three years when he was unable to make bail. He was in solitary confinement for two years and was released after the prosecutor’s case was found to be lacking evidence against him. Two years after his release, Browder committed suicide at his mother’s home at age 22.
However, those opposing the closing of the jail say that it will put public safety at risk, claiming that fewer cells may mean that more violent criminals are on city streets.
