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Mayor Backs Plan to Close Rikers and Open Jails Elsewhere Mayor Backs Plan to Close Rikers and Open Jails Elsewhere
(35 minutes later)
Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed on the contours of a plan to close the troubled jail complex on Rikers Island within 10 years, a move he said was intended to end the era of mass incarceration in New York City. Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed on Friday to close the troubled jail complex on Rikers Island, which has spawned federal investigations, brought waves of protests and became a byword for brutality, in a move he said was intended to end an era of mass incarceration in New York City.
The details of his plan were not immediately clear, though they were expected to include some of the recommendations in the 97-page report by an independent commission, led by Judge Jonathan Lippman and created by the City Council last year to study the issue. The pledge to eventually close Rikers, a proposition once thought to be politically and practically unfeasible, came as an independent commission was about to release a 97-page report that recommended replacing the jails on Rikers with a system of smaller, borough-based jails, at a cost of $10.6 billion.
The commission’s top recommendation, according to a draft of the report reviewed by The New York Times, is to move inmates off Rikers Island and into a system of smaller, borough-based jails, at a cost of $10.6 billion. “This is a very serious, sober, forever decision,” Mr. de Blasio said, standing in the marbled rotunda of City Hall beside the speaker of the City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, who has championed the closing of the complex while pushing the mayor to embrace the idea. “Once you’re off, you’re off,” he said of the island.
“The commission believes that the use of Rikers Island must be phased out over the next 10 years and its facilities demolished,” the report recommends. Mr. de Blasio said the jails could be closed in 10 years, providing the city could reduce the number of people who cycle through the city’s system to 5,000; low enough, that is, for every inmate to be taken off the 400-acre island and housed instead in jails elsewhere in the city.
The jails there would be replaced with new jails built in each of the five boroughs that “would vary in size, on the expected population in each borough.” There would be 5,500 beds across the borough jails, under the commission’s plan, with the largest in Manhattan and the smallest on Staten Island. He conceded that the process would be arduous and could take more than a decade if conditions in the court system did not improve, or if crime on the streets did not continue its decades-long downward trajectory.
Mr. Lippman and the speaker of the City Council, Melissa Mark-Viverito, were expected to announce the findings of the report on Sunday at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions. The mayor had been expected to join them, but despite a meeting late on Thursday at City Hall, those plans remained fluid, according to one person briefed on the discussion. Though Mr. de Blasio provided few specifics about his plan, its contours were expected to include some of the recommendations of the commission, led by Judge Jonathan Lippman and created by Ms. Mark-Viverito last year to study the issue.
Asked about closing Rikers Island during his weekly radio interview on Friday, Mr. de Blasio said he would not be “making any news on this broadcast,” but would address the issue at a 1:30 p.m. news conference. “What we’re doing here is a whole philosophy shift,” Ms. Mark-Viverito said. “After decades of having a system that what it wants to do is strip away the dignity of individuals,” she said, “we’re trying to put some humanity back.”
Mr. de Blasio had said last year that closing the city’s troubled jail complex on Rikers Island is a “noble idea,” but doing so could cost billions of dollars and take years to shutter. The needs on the island were immediate, he argued, so he had refused to publicly back the idea. Mr. de Blasio stopped short of endorsing the details of the commission’s report. He refused to say, for example, where any new facilities would be located, or to rule out building new jails on Rikers Island in the interim.
But at some point, the mayor changed his position. He met with Mr. Lippman and Ms. Mark-Viverito late on Thursday, and then added a 1:30 p.m. news conference to his Friday schedule to make what he characterized as a “historic announcement.” The report says the new jails “would vary in size, based on the expected population in each borough,” and would be built as close as possible to courthouses. There would be 5,500 beds across all five borough jails under the commission’s plan, with the largest one in Manhattan and the smallest on Staten Island.
“New York City will close the Rikers Island jail facility,” the mayor said at the news conference. “It will happen.” Mr. de Blasio, at the news conference, denied knowledge of the recommendations of the commission, which was made up of criminal justice and prison reform advocates as well as real estate and business leaders.
earlier on Thursday, Mr. Lippman called commission members, who include criminal justice and prison reform advocates as well as real estate and business leaders, to tell them that Mr. de Blasio has shifted his position and would announce his backing for a closure plan, possibly this week. According to two people with knowledge of the discussions, the mayor was briefed on the report during a Thursday evening meeting with Mr. Lippman, the former chief judge of the state’s highest court, and Ms. Mark-Viverito, and had balked at its specifics, most notably the suggestion that jails would be placed in each borough, a proposition that was “not politically viable” for the mayor, according to one of the people.
“I was delighted of course,” said Herbert Sturz, a former deputy mayor for criminal justice in the Koch administration, and one of 27 members of the commission, who said he heard from Mr. Lippman on Thursday. “I’ve been working on this for years.” Mr. Lippman and Ms. Mark-Viverito were to discuss the commission report on Sunday at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Mr. Lippman did not attend Friday’s news conference.
The about-face by Mr. de Blasio, who is up for re-election this year, comes amid public pressure on the issue from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and at a time when the mayor has been hounded by prison reform advocates at his events, including at town halls around the city and outside a fund-raiser in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Mr. de Blasio had said last year that closing the city’s complex on Rikers Island was a “noble idea,” but he refused to publicly back it because it could cost billions of dollars, take years, and would ignore more immediate needs on the island.
Mr. de Blasio, under supervision by a federal monitor, has made reforms on Rikers Island, including more training for officers, new procedures on the use of force, and less use of solitary confinement. But the city’s continued low crime numbers led him, more recently, to believe the jail complex could be closed.
But the idea of closing the aging jails on the island, between Queens and the Bronx and accessible by a single bridge, has gained traction among criminal justice reformers as a move that accomplishes several goals at once. The about-face by Mr. de Blasio, who is up for re-election this year, comes amid public pressure on the issue from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and at a time when he has been hounded by prison reform advocates at events including town hall meetings around the city and a fund-raiser in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Doing so would allow for safer, more modern jails that could more easily to provide services to inmates and better conditions for guards. Placing them in the boroughs would reduce travel time to court appearances, speeding the process and saving city money, and allow for easier visitation for family members of those in the jail system, most of whom have not been convicted of a crime. And closure would provide a firm break from the history of brutal violence on Rikers Island by inmates and, particularly, by correction officers that resulted in the 2015 federal court settlement. “Clearly his team has been doing research because I heard a lot of things that mirrored the commission’s work,” said Glenn E. Martin, a commission member whose advocacy group, JustLeadershipUSA, has protested at Mr. de Blasio’s events. “Now, the work begins.”
But it was the commission that “created the leverage” to move the mayor to support its eventual closure, said Herbert Sturz, a former deputy mayor for criminal justice in the Koch administration, and one of 27 members of the commission. “It’s good for the quality of justice in this city and beyond,” he added. “Rikers after all these years can change.” Rory Lancman, a Queens councilman who has pressed the mayor to do more on criminal justice issues, said politics drove the timing, if not the substance, of the announcement. Mr. de Blasio did not want to wait for the release of Mr. Lippman’s report on Sunday, he said, which would have left him virtually alone among the city’s progressive Democrats in defending Rikers.
Even so, there appeared to be sticking points between the commission’s plan and City Hall, including whether a new jail on Rikers Island would need to be constructed in the interim, as the new jails are built. Neither Ms. Mark-Viverito, nor the commission, has backed new jails on the island, and the mayor said on Friday that he did not necessarily favor placing a jail in each borough. “He big-footed the Lippman announcement and got on board the train before he was about to be under it,” Mr. Lancman said.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Mark-Viverito declined to comment, as did Mr. Lippman. Under supervision by a federal monitor, Mr. de Blasio has made reforms on Rikers Island, including more training for officers, new procedures on the use of force and a reduction in the use of solitary confinement.
Eric F. Phillips, the mayor’s press secretary, said Mr. de Blasio has “always been publicly and privately supportive of the goal behind the closure movement.” He added: “It’s no secret that City Hall has been working diligently behind the scenes for some time to test whether closing the facility at some point in the future is feasible. We expect to share results of the mayor’s focus on these significant challenges very soon.” But the idea of closing the aging jails on the island, to criminal justice reformers, accomplishes several goals at once.
The politics of closing Rikers Island have been well-known since before Ms. Mark-Viverito laid out her "dream” of a city without the jail complex during her State of the City address last year. Siting new jails would require support from local elected leaders and would be certain to face opposition. The mayor is already having to navigate similar issues as his administration embarks on a five-year plan to create 90 new homeless shelters around the city. It would allow for safer, more modern jails that could more easily provide services to inmates and offer better conditions for guards, they say. Putting them in each borough would reduce the travel time to court appearances, speeding up the process and saving the city money, and allow for easier visitation by family members of those in the jail system. And its closure would provide a firm break from the history of brutal violence on Rikers Island by inmates and, particularly, by correction officers that resulted in a 2015 federal court settlement.
The city already has other jails besides Rikers Island: in Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, as well as on a floating barge off the Bronx in the East River, but those facilities total only about 2,400 beds. But it was the commission that “created the leverage” to move the mayor to support Rikers Island’s eventual closure, said Herbert Sturz, a former deputy mayor for criminal justice during Koch administration, and one of the commission’s 27 members. “It’s good for the quality of justice in this city and beyond,” he added. “Rikers, after all these years, can change.”
The population of the city’s jail system is declining, Mr. de Blasio said at a news conference on a new inmate re-entry program this week that acted as a kind of under-the-radar preview of his thinking, but the average still hovers between 9,000 and 10,000. The neighborhood politics of closing Rikers Island have been widely known since before Ms. Mark-Viverito laid out her dream of a city without the complex during her State of the City address last year. Siting of new jails would require support from local elected leaders and would be certain to face opposition. The mayor is already having to navigate similar issues as his administration embarks on a five-year plan to create 90 new homeless shelters around the city.
But before any new jails can be built, the population of Rikers must be brought down significantly: the mayor said on Friday that the goal was to reduce the population to 5,000. That will require reforms up and down the criminal justice system, from the time of arrest to the time that a sentenced inmate is released from city custody. The city already has other jails besides Rikers Island: in Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, as well as on a floating barge off the Bronx in the East River. Those facilities total only about 2,400 beds.
The report outlines a series of steps, including holding fewer people on bail; expanding diversion programs for drug offenders and those with mental illness; and changing state law to treat some low-level offenses — like fare-beating, marijuana possession in public view, prostitution and possession of so-called gravity knives — as civil rather than criminal matters. The court system, which Mr. Lippman once oversaw as the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, would need to adopt changes to speed up cases and trials. .
The report outlines a series of first steps, including holding fewer people on bail; expanding diversion programs for drug offenders and those with mental illness; and changing state law to treat some low-level offenses — like fare-beating, marijuana possession in public view, prostitution and possession of so-called gravity knives — as civil rather than criminal matters.
The commission also calls for reducing the uniformed staff at the Department of Correction by more than half, to 3,700 from about 10,000 now, resulting in about $1.4 billion in annual savings, according to the report.The commission also calls for reducing the uniformed staff at the Department of Correction by more than half, to 3,700 from about 10,000 now, resulting in about $1.4 billion in annual savings, according to the report.
“Closing Rikers Island also provides a unique opportunity to redevelop the island,” the report observes, with the most promising future uses of the island being an extension of La Guardia Airport to create a third runway, or a hub of critical city infrastructure such as water and waste treatment centers, research facilities and a public greenway. “Closing Rikers Island also provides a unique opportunity to redevelop the island,” the report observes, with the most promising future uses including an extension of La Guardia Airport to create a third runway, or a new hub of critical city infrastructure such as water and waste treatment centers, research facilities and a public greenway.
Despite the city’s search for new places to build affordable housing, doing so on the 413-acre island would be infeasible, the commission found, because of height restrictions and noise from the airport that would dissuade private investment. Housing on the island would also require “massive investments” in transit, the report found. Despite the city’s search for new places to build affordable housing, doing so on the island would not be feasible, the commission found.
The island will also likely need a new name, one not synonymous with violence and brutal jail conditions, the report observes, without offering any suggestions. The island will also likely need a new name, one that is not synonymous with violence and brutal jail conditions, the report observes, without offering any suggestions.