ADVOCATES CONDEMN MAYOR ADAMS’ COMMENTS ON THE PLAN TO CLOSE RIKERS, URGE DECARCERATION

The Campaign to Close Rikers, representing more than 160 organizations across the City, condemns Mayor Adams’ bald-faced attempt to circumvent the law and evade responsibility for the closure of Rikers Island. Just two days prior to August 31st, a day that marks four years until the legally mandated shuttering, Mayor Adams’ remarks are as disingenuous as the actions he proposes are immoral. As survivors of Rikers and impacted family members, service providers, faith leaders, legal advocacy organizations, and community groups, we reject the mayor’s callous response to the humanitarian crisis on Rikers and demand that the administration take the necessary, and very tangible steps, to meet this deadline and save lives in the process. 

With his statement this morning, the Mayor ignores recommendations from his own “Blueprint for Community Safety” as well as the countless empirically-validated proposals from advocates and elected officials that would, if deployed, reduce the NYC jail population and improve community safety. In the campaign’s forthcoming policy brief, the authors outline already existing pathways to decarceration that would ensure that the plan to close Rikers meets the legal requirements, including the recent expansion of supervised release and substantially expanding funding for community-based mental health and substance use treatment, pretrial diversion services, and bolstering the utilization of evidenced-based alternatives to incarceration. The Mayor cannot and should not continue to pursue policies that condemn more people to suffer and die on Rikers Island, and seek to extend the existence of this human rights disaster. He must do everything necessary to fulfill his obligation to the people of New York to shutter Rikers once and for all. 

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