George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island, seen from the Bronx.

Adi Talwar

George R. Vierno Center on Rikers Island, seen from the Bronx.

The Vernon C. Bain Center, a jail barge docked off the South Bronx.

Adi Talwar

The Vernon C. Bain Center, a jail barge docked off the South Bronx.

The Brooklyn House of Detention. In the face of community opposition, the Bloomberg administration scaled back plans to move a significant number of Rikers detainees here, and also scrapped plans for a borough-based jail in the Bronx.

Jarrett Murphy

The Brooklyn House of Detention. In the face of community opposition, the Bloomberg administration scaled back plans to move a significant number of Rikers detainees here, and also scrapped plans for a borough-based jail in the Bronx.

Transporting detainees to and from court from Rikers costs the city tens of millions of dollars each year.

Jarrett Murphy

Transporting detainees to and from court from Rikers costs the city tens of millions of dollars each year.

The facade of the criminal court building in Manhattan. Rikers is in many ways an extension of an overburdened, slow-moving court system.

Jarrett Murphy

The facade of the criminal court building in Manhattan. Rikers is in many ways an extension of an overburdened, slow-moving court system.

Read the City & State/ City Limits
series on “Closing Rikers.”