New York City to close Rikers Island
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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 series of new jails spread across the city’s five boroughs. (Reuters)
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday vowed to shutter Rikers Island and replace it with “at least a few new facilities” to lock up jailbirds elsewhere in the city.
“New York City will close the Rikers Island jail facility,” de Blasio said during a City Hall news conference.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“It will take many years, it will take many tough decisions along the way. But it will happen.”
But de Blasio stopped short of adopting the recommendations in a draft report from a blue-ribbon panel headed by former New York state Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}That plan calls for building a new jail in each of the city’s five boroughs at a total estimated cost of $10.6 billion.
“I’m working from a neutral position of saying I only know this: We will need a few more facilities,” de Blasio said.
“There’s no assumption on the number or location or how many.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}De Blasio last year publicly rejected calls to close Rikers, calling it a “noble concept” but saying “it would cost many billions of dollars — and I have to look out for what’s feasible, and I have to look out for the taxpayer.”
A draft version of Lippman’s report obtained by The Post recommends reducing the Rikers population — now around 10,000 — by about half and replacing the violence-plagued correction complex with five new jails spread across the city.