"Rikers Island is an example and an expression of a major national problem," the mayor said. Supposedly named after Abraham Rycken, who bought the island in 1664, the island was originally under 100 acres (40 ha) in size, but has since grown to more than 400 acres (160 ha). The movement to close Rikers Island gained significant momentum in 2016, when advocates who had spent time there began mobilizing. Brandon J. Holmes of JustLeadershipUSA, the group that spurred the Close Rikers campaign, believes now is the best moment for the mayor to recommit to the plan with the jail population at its lowest point in decades. A blue-ribbon panel led by former New York state Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman will recommend closing Rikers Island — and potentially replacing it with a … Closing Rikers Island requires a transparent partnership with New Yorkers across the city and with government, including the City Council and the State. Closing Rikers Island without building any new jail beds would require cutting our jail population to about 2,300, the existing capacity of the Tombs, Brooklyn House of Detention, and VCBC, the barge in the Bronx. Why I Support Closing Rikers Island … Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY “The updated schedule reflects the ongoing dynamics forced on the city by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added. So: Close Rikers. On February 11, 2016, former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced the creation of a commission to explore closing jail facilities on Rikers Island. Many critics say they are skeptical of the city’s promise to close Rikers and how it will actually finance such a massive undertaking. Rikers Island (/ ˈ r aɪ k ər z /) is a 413.17-acre (167.20-hectare) island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that is home to New York City's main jail complex. Some who have fought for years to close Rikers Island for good do not see the procurement delay as a bad omen. “The time to close Rikers Island has passed but the best time to do it is now.” Donna Hilton, who spent 13 brutal months on Rikers as a teenager, wanted to be sure the backstory was understood. Rikers Island is actually a microcosm of everything wrong with America’s criminal-justice system, and may also offer a model for how it can be righted. A lawsuit has landed a decisive blow to Bill de Blasio’s plan to replace Rikers Island with a smaller network of borough-based jails. Rikers Island’s end is a sign of where the country is going on criminal justice issues Not because they want Rikers Island to stay open. So why does no one seem to believe the mayor when he says he wants to close Rikers, the vast jail complex that has come to symbolize some of the worst abuses of the criminal- justice system? Why I Support Closing Rikers Island Without Building New Jails: A Letter From Prisoner Lee Doane. He received a sentence of twenty-to-forty years, and spent nineteen months on Rikers. It will take many tough decisions. With the city moving to close the jail complex on Rikers Island, the nation’s second largest jail network, the future of the island is unclear. Equally essential to closing Rikers is our demand to build communities. The proposal to close Rikers Island, which has been plagued by violence and outdated infrastructure, began in 2017, when an independent panel recommended closing the jail complex. They object to this whole plan to close Rikers Island. In 1992, aged seventeen, Mack was arrested as an accomplice to his older brother in a robbery. In her State of the City address, then-New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito called for reforms to reduce the inmate population at Rikers Island and, ultimately, to shut down the island. On October 17, all eyes are on the New York City Council as … Why is Rikers Island so bad? It will take many years. 17 Oct 2019 Shadowproof. But because they don’t want any new jails built to replace it. Rikers Island stained this city’s reputation for far too long. In part, it’s because for two years, as the chorus of voices calling for New York City to shutter the island’s outmoded and isolated jail grew larger and louder, de Blasio dismissed them. "The mass incarceration crisis did not being in New York City, but it will end here. They also recorded that more than 48 percent of adolescents at the institution had been diagnosed with mental health problems. Solutions: In June of 2017, Mayor de Blasio released the City’s “Roadmap to Closing Rikers Island” in 10 years. For decades, Rikers Island has meant tremendous suffering to our city’s most vulnerable communities. The violent conditions at Rikers are even more shocking considering that the majority of people at the jail are awaiting trial and have not yet been convicted of a crime. There are currently just shy of 4,000 people who live, against their will, on Rikers Island. New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer announced his support to close Rikers Island. Rikers Island has become a place where violence and abuse are allowed to flourish, far away … Now Rikers Island is closing down, affecting the roughly 9,000 inmates held there on a daily basis. Rikers Island has become well known over the years for its corruption and “deep-seated culture of violence,” as described by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2014. — Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) March 31, 2017 Mark-Viverito’s call for the island’s closure gained support from Gov. Furthermore, 80 percent of the people detained on Rikers are pre-trial, and should be waiting at home until they have their day in court. Irrespective of whether closing a jail which houses about 7,000 inmates at a time has put an end to “[t]he era of mass incarceration” (much like de Blasio’s quashed presidential campaign, this statement relies on certain grandiose ideas not backed up by the numbers), it’s worth looking at what will replace Rikers Island and what the effects on New York City will be.

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