Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo advised enterprise leaders Wednesday morning that he desires to scrap the town’s plan to switch Rikers Island with neighborhood-based jails and as an alternative construct new “state of the art jails” on the positioning of the present complicated.
Cuomo’s stance runs opposite to a legislation mandating the town shut Rikers by 2027 and marks a significant departure from the de Blasio-era plan to shut the troubled jail complicated, the place a dozen have died to this point this yr.
Cuomo mentioned that as mayor, he would plan to supply free bus service to Rikers and use the present borough-based websites for “major housing and commercial developments.”
“It would immediately unleash great potential while avoiding more years of delay and government waste,” he mentioned on the Crain’s mayoral discussion board, calling the present plan a “debacle.”
The 2027 deadline to shut the complicated in lower than two years is broadly acknowledged as now inconceivable to fulfill, as building of latest jails has stalled and estimated prices to finish have risen. The borough-based jails have additionally confronted neighborhood pushback for years from residents.
Nevertheless, to maneuver ahead together with his proposal, Cuomo would face many obstacles.
The Metropolis Council would want to undo its personal 2019 legislation. The candidate argued on the discussion board that he thinks he can win them over: “Dealing with the state legislature is dealing with 240 people, New York City Council is 50 people,” Cuomo mentioned.
Cuomo’s proposal may additionally price the town extra. Rebuilding the present run-down jails on Rikers would take longer and price 8%-15% greater than constructing the borough-based jails, per a March report from the Impartial Rikers Fee.
Housing inmates at Rikers whereas concurrently rebuilding it could deliver further logistical challenges.
Town has additionally inked or dedicated to contracts totaling over $15 billion for the borough jails.
“This isn’t a plan; it’s a political scam with no basis in facts or reality,” Mandela Jones, a spokesperson for Council Speaker Adams. “It would cost the city billions of dollars more and make our city less safe for all New Yorkers.”
Cuomo’s camp cited 2020 numbers by conservative think-tank the Manhattan Institute that discovered ditching the borough-based plan would save the town a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
“We can and must do both things at once: Close Rikers as we know it, and rebuild it the right way. We own the land and we can phase construction safely while keeping operations running,” Cuomo mentioned, evaluating his proposal to the reworked LaGuardia airport.
“… Instead of building four massive jails in the middle of residential blocks, we can partner with local communities to reimagine those sites for affordable housing, mixed-use development, and neighborhood renewal.”
Mayor Adams, who dropped his re-election bid final month, had beforehand floated the same plan, directing staffers to look into abandoning the borough-based jails and constructing inexpensive housing and psychological well being services on the websites as an alternative.
Frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has mentioned he helps the plan to shut Rikers by the 2027 deadline.
“Part of closing Rikers Island is following through on the contractual obligations that the city has with the construction of these new jails,” Mamdani mentioned Sunday. “That doesn’t preclude me from meeting with New Yorkers who have immense concerns about them, but it does ensure that the focus has to be on following that law.”
Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa slammed Cuomo’s plan as a seize for conservative voters. Sliwa opposes the present plan to shut the jail, as an alternative advocating for the present complicated to be improved upon.
“New Yorkers are watching a Cuomo that is so desperate for personal redemption that he will say whatever is convenient,” Sliwa mentioned in response to the ex-governor’s plan.
Mamdani and Sliwa each took the stage earlier than Cuomo on the Crain’s mayoral discussion board, held on the New York Athletic Membership.
The occasion was attended by New York enterprise leaders, who’ve been cautious of Mamdani’s plan to boost taxes on millionaires and firms in an effort to fund his affordability agenda.
“I know that when many in the business community envisioned their dream candidate for mayor, it may not have been me on the stage,” Mamdani, a democratic socialist, advised the well-heeled crowd to some laughter.
Mamdani additionally promised to base his mayoral hiring choices on competence, not ideology, and mentioned he wouldn’t rule out hiring with former Adams officers.
“I will consider everyone on the basis of the work that they do, not on the basis of who appointed them,” Mamdani mentioned.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
Initially Revealed: October 8, 2025 at 12:37 PM EDT
