In 2015, City Limits published the most comprehensive look to date at the political and policy dimensions of closing Rikers Island. Read those stories and our continuing coverage below.
The division between people who support the de Blasio administration plan to site a new jail in the Bronx to facilitate the closing of Rikers and those who don’t is about a lot more than the location.
‘An impartial and fair assessment of this process can lead to only one conclusion: Closing Rikers will lead to a more just New York.’
While many Bronx politicians oppose the specific site the mayor has targeted for a new facility to partly replace Rikers Island, a vocal coalition of protesters is calling for an end to jails and policing as we know it.
Not so fast. With Raise the Age going into effect this week, the city’s 16- and 17-year-olds in custody are just moving from one jail to another.
‘We must recognize that the culture of violence exists on Rikers Island – and will continue to exist in the new borough facilities that will be built – if concrete measures aren’t taken to directly address and effectively reduce the violence that exists currently.’
In the wake of a state budget that whiffed on criminal justice reform, Gov. Cuomo has continued to chide Mayor de Blasio for sticking to a 10-year timeline for closing Rikers Island that the governor believes is too slow.
Also: Marking the anniversary of Malcolm X’s death.
While there’s a lot of discussion about where new jails might go, the heavier lift might be figuring out how to release enough violent-felony defendants to allow the city to move detainees off the island.
A writer currently incarcerated on the island writes that re-establishing similarly flawed facilities elsewhere will displace the problems on Rikers, but won’t dispense with them.
Whether the timeline is three years or 10, a former Correction captain lays out the issues facing policymakers, officers and inmates.
Albanese described a plan that revolved around thinning out the population on the island and then closing the facilities there that displayed the worst conditions.
There will be questions about this topic during the mayoral race. The bigger questions will be answered down the line.
The biggest reason for the doubts about de Blasio’s devotion to closing Rikers is that doing so will require tough decisions in a policy area where this mayor faces unusually high expectations and especially acute risks.
Theodore Hamm | A point of contention among the candidates is how much the DA’s office is currently doing to limit the use of bail in cases involving alleged misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies.
Theodore Hamm | Amidst the splash created by Mayor de Blasio’s pledge to close Rikers, it’s somewhat surprising that there hasn’t been more attention to the future of broken-windows policing.
The city will sweat the details for a long time. But let’s give de Blasio his due for putting his stamp on history.
A veteran DOC officer writes: ‘We simply must develop the will to expend the money for services and staff, rather than on restraint chairs and solitary cells.’
A reform advocate, a former inmate and the head of the correction officers union discussed where the reforms of Rikers stand, whether they go far enough and what’s driving the surge in violence.
A former corrections captain maps out a planning process that to create the community detention facilities New York needs.
Nearly a year ago, the city’s Board of Correction voted to enact revised guidelines to address high rates of sexual abuse in the city’s correctional facilities. The final rule has encountered a chain a delays.