The mayor has requested prime staffers to look into what number of models of housing may very well be constructed on the websites recognized for the borough-based jails in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx, in keeping with sources acquainted with the matter.
Metropolis Corridor can also be trying into whether or not the Brooklyn web site, which is at the moment below building, may very well be become some form of a psychological well being facility, in keeping with sources. About half the detainees on Rikers are affected by some type of psychiatric incapacity.
Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Photos
Building work continues on the web site of a 15-story jail complicated in Brooklyn. (Photograph by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Photos)
A transfer to scrap the plan to shut Rikers would have quite a few hurdles to clear and would probably immediate vital backlash. It might additionally probably drive a breach of a regulation mandating the town shut down the jail complicated by August 2027.
Regardless of the numerous challenges, Adams, First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro and Tiffany Raspberry, the deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs, have been in discussions concerning the housing-related substitute proposal, sources stated.
“The Adams administration’s position has not changed,” Adams spokesperson Liz Garcia stated in a press release. “It continues to build borough-based jails while working to close the jails at Rikers.”
Garcia disputed that the administration is contemplating turning the Brooklyn web site right into a psychological well being facility.
One of many sources acquainted with the discussions stated the plan is in its preliminary levels, and added there’s no recognized timeline for any official announcement.
To hold out a plan like this, the mayor would want the Council’s approval to alter the regulation mandating the closure of Rikers. If that didn’t occur and he went ahead anyway, lawsuits would probably observe.
“Any attempt to reverse the law that requires the city to close Rikers is a useless, unproductive waste of f–king time,” Council Felony Justice Committee Chairwoman Sandy Nurse, who has oversight over Rikers operations, stated Friday, vowing that any such plan could be met with authorized actions.
AP
Rikers Island. (AP)
This transfer additionally raises questions on what would occur with the prevailing services on Rikers, that are decrepit and in want of great restore. Town has been gradual to put money into enhancements below the expectation that new borough jails had been coming quickly. As time has handed, the price of these renovations has elevated.
Garcia, the spokesperson for the mayor, famous that value estimates for the development of the borough jails have additionally risen.
Building contracts for each Queens and the Bronx have been signed, along with Brooklyn, and the contract for the Manhattan web site was being finalized as of February.
The mayor beforehand floated components of this plan final month at a Nationwide Motion Community discussion board.
“Instead of a jail, let’s build a state of the art psychiatric facility and give people the help that they need, and stop criminalizing people who are dealing with mental health issues, that’s what we should be doing, and not just building four smaller Rikers Islands,” Adams stated onstage in April.
Town has lagged behind on following by with the regulation to shutter Rikers, and administration officers have stated they don’t anticipate to fulfill the 2027 deadline. The development schedule for Brooklyn is already roughly three years past that deadline and the timelines for the completion of the others are additional delayed.
“What’s the word: asinine?” Darren Mack, co-founder of Freedom Agenda, stated. “As New Yorkers are being incarcerated at a record rate on his watch, it seems like he’s trying to find ways to prolong their suffering on Rikers Island. It seems the well-being of New Yorkers isn’t one of his priorities. It’s more than just silly — it’s insane.”
Initially Printed: Could 2, 2025 at 3:30 PM EDT
