What's New
Back
Mayor Backs Plan to Close Rikers and Open Jails Elsewhere
Mar 31, 2017Mayor 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 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.