By Jacob Kaye<\/p>\n
The Independent Rikers Commission is hoping to remind New Yorkers why the city first began to endeavor closing its dangerous jail complex, even if it has no shot at hitting the legally-mandated 2027 deadline to do so. <\/p>\n
The commission, which crafted the plans to shutter Rikers Island and replace it with four borough-based jails, began to release a series of public service announcements this week, each of which details the plan to close Rikers and the city\u2019s reasons for doing so. <\/p>\n
The six-part video series, titled \u201cSo Many Reasons To Close Rikers,\u201d aims to galvanize New Yorkers behind the effort to close Rikers, which is running years behind schedule after the borough-based facilities were hit with COVID-related construction delays and after former Mayor Eric Adams largely chose to slow-walk the plan he never truly supported. <\/p>\n
One of the videos, each of which were produced by participants in the commission\u2019s 2025 youth fellowship program, explores the cost of keeping Rikers open \u2013 it takes around $400,000 a year to keep someone incarcerated on the island. Another video details the plan to build the borough-based facilities, which will be placed near courthouses in Kew Gardens, Chinatown, Boerum Hill and Mott Haven. The third video released this week explains the violent and dangerous conditions that have plagued the jail complex since its creation over 100 years ago. <\/p>\n
Together, the videos lay out the argument the commission first made nearly a decade ago, when it issued its first report calling on the city to close the jails, open the borough facilities and convert Rikers into a renewable energy hub. <\/p>\n
\u201cRikers fails incarcerated people, correction officers, crime victims and the public alike,\u201d Commission Chair and former Chief Judge of New York State Jonathan Lippman said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany New Yorkers haven\u2019t yet heard about the human, financial, and public safety costs of maintaining this dangerous, broken jail complex, or the thoughtful plan that exists to safely close it,\u201d he added. \u201cThese videos help bring those realities into focus, giving everyone \u2014 from policymakers and elected officials to crime survivors and everyday New Yorkers \u2014 the information they need to understand why closing Rikers is essential to building a safer, more just city.\u201d <\/p>\n
While the videos may rally support behind the effort to close the jails, the city will still have to contend with the reality that Rikers\u2019 replacements are far from being completed. <\/p>\n
The first borough-based jail to be completed will be the one in Brooklyn, which is on pace to open in 2029, two years after the current deadline to close Rikers. <\/p>\n
In April, the city completed the main structure of the Brooklyn facility, marking the first major milestone related to Rikers\u2019 closure seen in years. <\/p>\n
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his Department of Correction commissioner, Stanley Richards, have vowed to restart the closure effort after it stalled under Adams, a longtime critic of the plan crafted by his predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we’re focused on is our commitment to make sure that we’re doing everything in our power to close Rikers,\u201d Richards said at the April topping off ceremony. \u201cWe have begun to demonstrate to New Yorkers and our partners that we are serious about closing Rikers\u2026Today is another milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both the facilities planned for the Bronx and Queens are expected to open in 2031. Construction of the Queens facility, which will be located behind Queens Borough Hall and Queens Criminal Court, has yet to begin. The 450-bed jail, which will be the only facility to house women and gender-expansive detainees, is the most expensive of all the borough-based facilities \u2013 it\u2019s expected to cost $4 billion. <\/p>\n
The Manhattan jail, which will be built in Chinatown, is not expected to open until 2032. The facility, which, at 300 feet high, will one day be the tallest jail in the world, has received the most pushback from its neighbors, who have unsuccessfully sued to stop its construction several times. <\/p>\n
In all, the four borough-based jails are expected to cost taxpayers around $16 billion, twice the original estimated cost. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jacob Kaye The Independent Rikers Commission is hoping to remind New Yorkers why the city first began…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-316094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}