Some 314 detainees were in NIC as of March 10, the last publicly available count. An estimated 25 will be transferred to the new unit on Bellevue\u2019s second floor. The others will be transferred to different locations on Rikers, according to jail insiders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 104-bed<\/a> Department of Correction unit has nearly doubled in cost<\/a> and is years behind schedule, with its price tag climbing from $130 million to $241 million, according to Correctional Health Services, the NYC Health + Hospitals division that provides care to detainees.<\/p>\n That works out to just over $2 million per bed \u2014 including recreation space \u2014 spread across much of the historic hospital\u2019s second floor.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamd<\/a>a<\/a>ni<\/a> plans to hold a press conference Tuesday morning at Bellevue announcing the long-awaited partial opening of the new unit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to open in phases,\u201d said a source familiar with the plan. The first phase is expected to be just around 25 beds, the source said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At least one veteran clinician working in the jail system said the shortage of space at Bellevue raises the risk that patients with significant medical needs will be housed in general population units on Rikers, where they are often more vulnerable to other detainees and poor medical care.<\/p>\n \u201cHealth care providers are scrambling to find beds,\u201d the clinician told THE CITY.<\/p>\n Jeanette Merrill, a spokesperson for Correctional Health Services, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Bellevue already has a jail ward on the hospital\u2019s 19th floor where some 60 detainees were housed last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n First unveiled in 2019 with a planned 2022 opening, the project fell years behind schedule and has now spanned three mayoral administrations. Construction records indicate the delays were driven in part by repeated requests from jail officials to modify the design to better protect correction officers.<\/p>\n Last year, former\u00a0 Corrections Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie pointed to a separate obstacle, saying the project had yet to receive approval from the New York State Commission of Correction, the state\u2019s jail oversight body.<\/p>\n The commission has refused to disclose what outstanding issues remain.\u00a0<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, city jail officials during the Adams administration also said they would need to hire at least 200 new officers to staff the specialized site, THE CITY reported last summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Mamdani administration came up with a solution: move staff from infirmary on Rikers Island<\/a> to the Bellevue unit, jail insiders said.<\/p>\n City Hall officials have repeatedly tried to shutter some of the 10 jail facilities on Rikers Island ahead of the broader plan to close the complex. But those efforts have repeatedly stalled as the jail population has climbed since the pandemic.<\/p>\n There were 6,797 people in custody as of March 10, up from just under 4,000 in 2020, according to jail records.<\/p>\n In 2022, officials in the Adams administration said they would immediately close the Otis Bantum Correctional Facility, which housed 1,410 detainees last month.<\/p>\n Similarly, de Blasio administration officials announced plans in 2019 to shutter the Eric M. Taylor Center, where 1,397 people were being held last month, records show.<\/p>\n Officials in the Mamdani administration are expected to frame the infirmary\u2019s closure as permanent, since the facility will be decommissioned with the state Commission of Correction, a move that would complicate any attempt to bring it back online.<\/p>\n In recent years, the infirmary was where jail officials \u201cdisappeared\u201d detainees who repeatedly act out, according to advocates.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like a pseudo- solitary area,\u201d a jail source said, noting that the facility had many empty spots where high-profile detainees could be \u201cstashed\u201d for months.\u00a0<\/p>\n Victor Pate, co-director of the HALT Solitary campaign and a former Rikers detainee, said he welcomed the opening of the Bellevue unit as \u201can important step\u201d in getting medically vulnerable people out of \u201cdeplorable conditions,\u201d while calling NIC \u201cone of the most extreme sites of isolation\u201d in the jail system.\u00a0<\/p>\n He added the city must still go further to end solitary confinement and close Rikers entirely.<\/p>\n NIC was the site of a major fire three years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Chaplain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/082825_rikers_freedom_ride-5.jpg\")
Chaplain Dr. Victoria A. Phillips joins a rally outside Rikers Island, Aug. 28, 2025. Credit: Alex Krales\/THE CITY<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nic_1.jpg\")
The Corrections Department designated \u201cstructurally restrictive areas\u201d in the North Infirmary Command on Rikers Island as a replacement for solitary confinement. Credit: Courtesy of Board of Correction<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bellevue_rikers_unit-3.jpg\")
The Bellevue Hospital jail ward was supposed to open in 2022. Credit: Photos Courtesy of NYC Health +<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bellevue_rikers_unit-2.jpg\")
Inside the $241 million Bellevue Hospital jail ward. Credit: Photos Courtesy of NYC Health +<\/p>\n![\"Security](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/120824_rikers_6.jpg\")
Security cameras kept watch at Rikers Island, Dec. 8, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n