NYC Lawmakers Approve Plan to Close Rikers Island by 2026 - NBC Chicago

NYC Lawmakers Approve Plan to Close Rikers Island by 2026

"Mass incarceration did not begin in New York City, but it will end here," Mayor de Blasio said this week



    NYC City Council Votes to Close Rikers

    While the lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to close the much-maligned prison, some residents in areas where the smaller borough prisons are set to be built are less than enthused about potentially living near a prison in the future. NBC New York’s Michael George reports.

    (Published Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019)

    New York City lawmakers moved a step closer to closing Rikers Island, a massive jail complex notorious for violence and dysfunction that is increasingly seen as a relic. 

    The City Council voted Thursday afternoon on a plan to replace the complex with four smaller jails located closer to the city's main courthouses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

    The measure required 26 votes to pass and eclipsed that mark before the voting was through, with the final tally being 36-13 in favor of closing. There was a one vote difference on the borough jail plan, with 35 voting yes to place four smaller jails spread out between Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens.

    During the voting, a group of protesters in the balcony interrupted the process while chanting "there is blood on your hands" and throwing papers down at council members. Police cleared the balcony soon after, and voting was able to continue.

    Under the approved plan, Rikers would shutter by 2026 — ending a decades-long run as one of the world's largest jails. 

    Mayor de Blasio and other Democrats previously voiced their support for the plan, which would cost more than $8 billion, in part because of a belief that in an age of falling crime rates, huge jails are part of the public safety problem rather than part of the solution. 














    The plan met some resistance from residents of neighborhoods surrounding the jail sites. One resident in Kew Garden, where one of the new jails is set to be built, called the idea "a downgrade for the entire community."






    (Published Friday, Nov. 15, 2019)







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