AS CITY HALL ANNOUNCES FURTHER DELAYS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOROUGH BASED JAILS, FORMERLY INCARCERATED LEADERS AND ALLIES CALL FOR ACTION TO EXPEDITE THE CLOSURE OF RIKERS ISLAND
The Adams administration will today hold a contract hearing for the Manhattan borough-based jail indicating substantial delays in its completion. The proposed contract allows for approximately seven years to complete construction - five years beyond the 2027 legal deadline to close Rikers. This comes after news that the administration is also planning to increase capacity in each of the four borough jails and reduce therapeutic beds, with 154 additional beds added to the Manhattan jail design.
In response, members of the Campaign to Close Rikers issued the following statements:
Darren Mack, Co-Director of Freedom Agenda said, “Mayor Adams says he will always follow the law, but is clearly making no effort to do that as far as closing Rikers is concerned. With a blueprint already in place for the borough jail designs, there is no conceivable reason that the Manhattan jail should be completed five years after the legal deadline to shut the Rikers jails. He also says he wants to ‘close the pipeline that feeds Rikers,’ while taking every opportunity to open it wider by cutting social services, ramping up arrests, and refusing calls from communities and the City Council to scale up programs that work, like Justice Impacted Supportive Housing. Meanwhile, New York City continues to spend billions each year on Torture Island, only to produce more trauma and violence. The Mayor keeps trying to deceive New Yorkers when it comes to closing Rikers, but we aren’t fooled.”
“Closing Rikers Island on time is the only way to end the humanitarian disaster that thousands of our fellow New Yorkers face there each and every day, at a cost per person per year of well over half a million taxpayer dollars. Thirty-three people have died in DOC custody since Mayor Adams took office. Further, young adults there are denied the programming and education to which they are entitled, and the administration’s policy seems to consist of cutting social service funding, sending people with increasingly serious mental health conditions to the Island, and delay, delay, delay. On top of all that, DOC staff are locking mentally ill people in their cells for days, weeks, and months on end in what amounts to torture. The time to decarcerate is NOW; the time to complete construction of the borough jails is by August 2027 in accordance with the law. Anything less is an abdication of responsibility and further evidence of this administration’s malicious incompetence,” said Daniele Gerard, senior staff attorney, Children’s Rights.
“Rikers Island is a stain on New York City. Closing it as quickly as possible should be a top priority for any mayor. Yet, this Administration disregards its obligation to close Rikers and instead promotes policies that result in more people incarcerated and allows years-long delays in borough-based jail construction,” said Jennifer J. Parish, Director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project. “Leaving thousands of people to languish at Rikers where they may be locked in a cell alone and denied medical care is unconscionable. Reducing the jail population to meet the target of fewer than 3300 individuals incarcerated can be achieved through effective leadership by, in part, prioritizing decarceration of people with mental health concerns and expanding supportive housing and community mental health supports. The Mayor has a legal obligation to close Rikers by 2027, and the City Council and the public must hold him accountable for doing so.”
Rob DeLeon, Deputy CEO of The Fortune Society, said, "It is disheartening to learn of yet another delay to the closure of Rikers Island by the mandated deadline of August 2027. By agreeing to yet another construction contract which extends past that date for the borough-based jails, we are perpetuating harm by continuing to subject people to the conditions on Rikers. These conditions are inhumane and unsafe for the people held there and for the people who work there. We should be connecting more people to our existing network of alternative to incarceration (ATI) programs, which are proven to produce successful outcomes, therefore enhancing public safety. Fortune calls for the timely closure of Rikers Island. We stand ready as a thought partner and service provider towards meeting that end.”
“The delays in construction of these facilities are extremely concerning for all New Yorkers. Not only does this veer away from promised and legal guidelines, these delays have increasingly cost the city fiscally each year these facilities have been pushed back. Constant changes in the total number of beds as well as timeline shows clear gaps in the city’s ability or willingness to implement this much needed plan. Research shows what works and we are failing to follow it. Resources used to delay construction of the borough based jails and mismanage Rikers would be better used to fully fund ATI programs as well as provide housing and mental health services,” said Reverend Wendy Calderón- Payne, Executive Director, Urban Youth Alliance (BronxConnect).
Alana Sivin, director of the Greater Justice New York initiative at the Vera Institute of Justice, said, “The delay in closing Rikers Island displays a flagrant disregard for the suffering and abuse of the thousands of New Yorkers housed there. Rather than justify further postponements to the timeline, this administration must act with the urgency necessary to address the humanitarian crisis unfolding on Rikers Island. That means expediting the construction timeline, moving people off the island, and investing in the mental health services, housing, and alternatives to detention that prevent pretrial detention in the first place.”
Megan French-Marcelin, Senior Director of NYS Policy at the Legal Action Center said, “Another delay in construction of the borough-based jails is as distressing as it is potentially deadly for the New Yorkers detained on Rikers Island. There is no way to justify accepting contracts that will delay the construction of the new jails while New Yorkers continue to experience rampant abuse and neglect. If we want to support a safer, more just New York, the city should expedite the borough jails while also investing in diversion and alternative programs better suited to serve New Yorkers with mental health and housing needs.”
“We have the common sense solutions to get Rikers closed swiftly and safely,” said Kandra Clark, VP of Policy & Strategy, Exodus Transitional Community. “It is past time for those in power to step up and get it done! Allowing thousands of New Yorkers with mental health conditions to languish on Rikers over a lack of political will is a disservice to our communities. We all should be outraged at the lack of action and accountability. Our loved ones are dying at the hands of this inaction!”
“Sending young people, the mentally ill, and any of our fellow New Yorkers to the dilapidated and chaotic environment on Rikers for another three years is already too long. Sending people there until 2032--the date the Administration gave yesterday for the completion of the borough-based jails--is illegal, immoral and abhorrent,” said Rev. Dr. Chloe Breyer, Executive Director of the Interfaith Center of New York.
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