The 23-page document calls on the incoming mayor to immediately reduce the number of people incarcerated, fully end solitary confinement and improve medical and mental health care. It also demands that Mamdani do everything possible to close Rikers Island for good, a shuttering required by legislation passed by the City Council in 2019 with the approval of then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must end the abuses, neglect, torture, and lack of mental health and medical care treatment that continue on Rikers Island,\u201d said Victor Pate, a former Rikers detainee who is now co-director of the #HALTsolitary Campaign. \u201cWe are far beyond a humanitarian crisis on Rikers and it must be ended.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of the decisions may not be directly up to the mayor and his hand-selected commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Laura Swain, chief district judge for Manhattan federal court, is in the process of selecting a so-called \u201cremediation manager<\/a>\u201d to take over large parts of the city\u2019s troubled Department of Correction.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mamdani told THE CITY<\/a> last week that he supports a court-appointed receiver but hasn\u2019t detailed how that person will work alongside his yet-to-be named jails commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n His press team did not respond to an email seeking comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Blueprint paints a grim picture of life inside New York City\u2019s jails: rampant staff brutality, sexual abuse and medical neglect; widespread use of solitary confinement despite a city law banning it, and the continued incarceration of thousands of legally innocent people awaiting trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over the past five years, more than 70 people have died in city custody, including at least 12 so far this year, according to the report. Many have died from drug overdoses, and some have taken their own lives, records show.<\/p>\n The number of people detained has also nearly doubled since Eric Adams became mayor in January 2022, Department of Correction records show. The population has spiked from a pandemic-era low of roughly 3,800 to 7,022 as of Tuesday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The suffering and harm inflicted on thousands of people in the city jails cannot be ignored,\u201d said Jennifer Parish, director of Criminal Justice Advocacy at the Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project. \u201cAddressing these atrocities must be the first priority of the next administration.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The \u201cBlueprint\u201d also highlights the racial disparities underpinning the city\u2019s jail system: as of this fall, Black New Yorkers were incarcerated at 10 times the rate of their white counterparts, and 86% of people in city custody were being held pretrial \u2014 often because they cannot afford bail.<\/p>\n Closing Rikers, the document contends, is not just a moral imperative but a fiscal one.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe city spends over $1 billion a year maintaining Rikers, largely due to staffing, overtime and inefficiency,\u201d the report said. \u201cAt the same time, prolonged detention, often for people who cannot afford bail, contributes to overcrowding and worsening conditions within the jail complex.\u201d<\/p>\n The advocates also want the incoming Mamdani administration to implement Local Law 42<\/a>, which strictly limits the use of solitary confinement beyond four hours and replaces it with structured, out-of-cell programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n After years of lobbying from activists and criminal justice reformers, the law had been set to go into effect in July 2024 before Mayor Eric Adams signed an emergency executive order<\/a> that blocked major parts of its implementation.<\/p>\n The emergency hold has not been lifted since that time.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Close-Rikers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763086211_652_011024_rikers_deaths_protest-2.jpg\")
Close-Rikers advocates rally ahead of a Board of Correction meeting in Lower Manhattan, Jan. 10, 2024. Credit: Ben Fractenberg\/THE CITY<\/p>\n