Rikers Island is a 413 acre (0.65 square mile) island in the
East River between Queens and the Bronx that is home to New York City's main
jail complex. It is close to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. Population: 11,355 (2009) Established: 1932 (87 years). Nearest
city: New York.
The city expressed a desire to open a jail for men on Rikers
Island as early as 1925, in order to replace their overburdened and dilapidated
jail on Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island; the jail was opened in 1932.
New York City Department of
Correction operates the prison.
It has a budget of $860
million a year, a staff of 9,000 officers and 1,500 civilians managing 100,000
admissions per year and an average daily population of 10,000 inmates. Approximately
85% of those detained at Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime.
Detainees include pretrial
defendants, either held without bail or remanded in custody. The rest of the
population have been convicted and are serving short sentences. According
to a study done in 2015 by the Vera Institute of
Justice,
it costs the city approximately $209,000 to detain one person for one year at
Rikers Island.
Rikers Island has a
reputation for abuse and neglect of inmates, attracting increased media and
judicial scrutiny that has resulted in numerous rulings against the New York
City government. It is also notorious for numerous assaults by inmates on
uniformed and civilian staff, resulting in often serious injuries. In May 2013,
Rikers Island ranked as one of the ten worst correctional facilities in the
United States, based on reporting in Mother Jones magazine. Violence
on Rikers Island has been increasing in recent years. In 2015 there were 9,424
assaults, the highest number in 5 years.
Rikers Island closure explained. Plan to
shutter the complex and open borough-based jails, by Lauren Cook, 6/6/19.
Community advocates from Manhattan,
Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx have formed a new coalition to fight the de
Blasio administration's borough-based jails plan to replace Rikers Island.
Rikers Island is projected to close by
2027, with smaller, borough-based jails replacing the massive complex.
There are few things in this world that
New Yorkers can agree on but closing Rikers Island is likely among them.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has a 10-year plan
to shutter the scandal-ridden jail complex for good, and the City Planning
Commission has begun the approvals process for his proposal to replace
Rikers with smaller borough-based facilities.
“Closing Rikers Island is a key piece of
creating a smaller, safer and fairer criminal justice system in New York City,”
de Blasio said in a statement on the Roadmap to Closing Rikers website. “It is the right thing to do, but will
take time, the effort of many and tough decisions along the way. ”New, smaller
jails are being proposed in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx. However,
the plan to build smaller jails closer to courthouses in Queens, Brooklyn,
Manhattan and the Bronx is being contested by some community groups and
city officials.
The Diego Beekman Mutual Housing
Association has filed a lawsuit against the city to stop the jail plan in Mott
Haven from moving forward. Additionally, community advocates from Manhattan, Queens,
Brooklyn and the Bronx have banded together under the coalition Boroughs United
to fight the proposal.
Scroll down to learn more about the
problems at Rikers Island, the plan to shut it down and the proposed
community-based jails.
When will Rikers Island close? De Blasio’s plan to close Rikers Island is expected to be completed in 2027, 10 years after it was announced and long after he is out of office.
What is the plan to close Rikers Island? The city’s ability to shutter Rikers hinges on significantly reducing the daily jail population to 5,000.
What will replace Rikers Island? The city has proposed to open four new 1,510-bed jails in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, which would support a total population of 5,000 while leaving room for more inmates if necessary.
Existing detention facilities in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn would be remodeled in a more modern, humane design — a model that also would be used to construct a new jail at an NYPD tow impound lot in the Bronx.
Where will the new jails be located?
320 Concord Ave., in Mott Haven, the Bronx,
275 Atlantic Ave., in Downtown Brooklyn
Why isn’t Staten Island getting a new jail? Staten Island’s comparatively small jail population about 250, as of August 2018 does not warrant a new facility, according to the de Blasio administration. Inmates from Staten Island would be housed at the new Brooklyn facility instead.
Are there benefits to borough-based jails? The de Blasio administration believes that housing inmates closer to courts and their homes will make New York City’s criminal justice system “smaller, safer and fairer.” The jails also would be paired with on-site supportive services to help inmates get their lives back on track and reduce recidivism rates.
How much are the new jails going to cost? The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Director Elizabeth Glazer said it is too soon to offer cost estimates for the jails, which are expected to take five to six years to design and build.
Is there any pushback from the communities where the jails are being proposed? Since announcing the planned locations of the borough-based jails in February 2018, the de Blasio administration has come under fire for a lack of transparency in its decision-making, particularly with regard to the proposed sites in Manhattan and the Bronx.
Will the communities be able to weigh in on plans?
What are the next steps? The City Planning Commission certified the land use review process for the jail locations in March, which sent the proposal to the community boards where the jails would be built. All four community boards voted against the proposal, but the decisions are advisory and doesn't not keep the plan from moving forward.
The issues plaguing the jail complex,
which mostly houses inmates awaiting trial, became so dire that the city and
Department of Correction entered a consent decree with the Department of Justice in 2015 that mandates
the monitoring of inmates’ civil rights after a consistent pattern of abuse was
proven.
Years later, the corruption and violence
– perpetrated by both correction officers and inmates – persist.
The George Motchan Detention Center was
the first of the complex's nine jails to close, the Mayor's Office of Criminal
Justice said in June 2018.
A panel led by former Chief Judge of the
New York Court of Appeals Jonathan Lippman issued a report in April 2018 that
suggested Rikers Island could be closed by 2024. The report cited the quick process in
which locations for replacement jails were chosen; a shrinking inmate
population; and new authority granted by the state to cut red tape in new jail
design and construction as reasons for the three-year jump in suggested closure
date.
When de Blasio first unveiled his plan
to close the jail complex in 2017, the daily population was around 9,400.
Through a series of citywide programs and
initiatives, the
average daily population has dropped to 7,865, as of March.
The mayor’s office attributes the steady
decrease to several factors, including a reduction in low-level crime
arrests, refocused law enforcement, the citywide Supervised
Release program and
expanded diversion programs.
While not technically part of the
10-year plan to close Rikers, the Raise the Age law that went into effect in October
2018, which transferred all 16- and 17-year-olds to juvenile detention centers,
has also helped reduce the daily population. In October, all
18-year-olds will be moved to juvenile detention centers.
The cells where inmates are housed would
be designed to bring in more sunlight, offer guards better observation points
and include space for programming. The Queens jail would be outfitted to
handle pregnant inmates and those with more severe medical needs.
The city also proposed to include
neighborhood-friendly amenities like affordable housing, ground-floor retail
and community spaces in the jail designs.
The Bronx jail plan in
particular includes a proposed residential building that could offer more
than 200 apartments in addition to ground-floor retail space. The proposal
requires a rezoning of the western portion of the site.
126-02 82nd Ave., in Kew Gardens, Queens
125 White St., in lower Manhattan
Assemb. Yuh-Line Niou, who
represents parts of lower Manhattan, chastised the de Blasio administration
after it changed the site of the borough’s proposed jail from 125 White St. to
80 Centre St. without any community input. Businesses and homeowners in lower
Manhattan also banded together as a coalition to
oppose the proposal.
Citing unforeseen logistical
challenges at 80 Centre St., the city announced on Nov. 28 that it would revert
back to its original plan to house inmates at a remodeled 125 White
St. Mayoral spokeswoman Natalie Grybauskas said the Manhattan
Detention Center on White Street "better addressed their needs without
the costly challenges created by using 80 Centre."
The White Street location isn't without
controversy, either. The community group Neighbors United Below Canal opposes
the jail site and issued a list of demands that included a full analysis of
alternatives, a scoping meeting and six additional weeks of public comment on
the plans.
De Blasio met with community
stakeholders on Dec. 18 to address residents' concerns. Eric Phillips, the
mayor's spokesman at the time, said progress had been made in the meeting.
The proposed jail site in the Bronx has
been opposed by the Mott Haven community from the outset. Bronx Borough
President Ruben Diaz Jr., his constituents and community advocates
have rallied against the
proposal on
several occasions, and a lawsuit filed by the Diego Beekman Mutual Housing
Association seeks to stop the jail plan in its tracks. Diaz put forth an
alternative site for the Bronx jail and has repeatedly urged the de Blasio
administration to halt the process.
"Rikers Island must be closed, but
the city cannot ignore community input and steamroll neighborhoods through the
land-use process in order to do so," he said in May.
In response to the criticism, the
Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice has said that the administration
worked closely with lawmakers and other stakeholders in determining the
locations for the jails.
The development of the jails requires
the completion of a City Environmental Quality Review, which seeks to pinpoint
negative impacts the facilities might have on the environment, including
traffic, pollution and tenant displacement.
The city held four public hearings
– one in each borough – in September and October. There is no word yet on
whether future public meetings would be scheduled.
Next, the borough presidents will issue
opinions in favor or against the plan, but again the decisions are advisory.
The City Planning Commission will vote
after hearing from the community boards and borough presidents. If approved,
the proposal would go to the City Council for a vote, which is expected to take
place this summer.
Comments
The Judicial System is
cluttered with abusive processes. Police can arrest and jail anybody, book them
in jail, have an arraignment the next day, send them home and file charges with
the court without charges being filed by a victim. These charges are often
dropped by the District Attorney months or years later. Those charged have high
legal bills. Arraignment Judges should dismiss charges filed by Police unless
victims file charges. Police should not be able to arrest and incarcerate
citizens on the spot without a warrant.
Why aren’t more
non-violent suspects given “home arrest” with ankle bracelets and expected to
get themselves to court? $209,000 per
inmate per year is a high price for banishment and baby-sitting. The $860
million per year cost to operate Rikers is no surprise with 10,500 staff
handling 10,000 inmates and 100,000 admissions per year. Most of the staff
spends their time shuttling inmates to and from court. Concentrating high tech
prisons next door to courthouses makes more sense. Inmates could be walked to
court.
I expect depopulating
the prisons will result in more crime and homelessness due to drug and alcohol
addiction. But it is addiction that is driving the arrests and the crime.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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