City expands commission to close Rikers: Lippman Commission grows as mayor’s position on jail’s closure shifts

Former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has again been appointed to lead a commission tasked with formulating a plan to close Rikers Island. AP file photo by Mike Groll

By Jacob Kaye

Over three dozen people have officially been appointed to serve on the second iteration of the Independent Rikers Commission, the group that has again been tasked with mapping a plan to shutter Rikers Island’s jail complex.

The appointments to the commission and the launch of the commission’s work essentially marks the first time the city has begun to make an effort to close Rikers Island since Mayor Eric Adams first took office two years ago.

The commission, which was ordered to reconvene by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams last month, is again being led by Jonathan Lippman, the former chief judge, and features 24 others who served on the original commission that laid the groundwork for the city’s current plan to close Rikers by 2027 and replace it with four borough-based jails.

On Friday, the commission announced that 17 additional members would be joining the group to right the ship toward Rikers’ closure as the city appears poised to blow past its current deadline. Its newest members include former judges, retired city officials, academics and criminal justice nonprofit workers.

Those appointed include Randall Eng, the former Queens judge who presided over the Appellate Division, Second Department; Ana Bermudez, the former commissioner of the city’s Department of Probation; Jennifer Jones Austin, the former chair of the Board of Correction; Karol Mason, the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice; and Grace Bonilla, the president and CEO or United Way of New York City.

The group has been brought together because city officials say that the original plan to close Rikers is no longer viable – the jail’s population has steadily risen over the past three years and the construction of the borough-based jails is at least two years behind schedule.

The original plan, which was passed into law by the City Council in 2019, was never fully embraced by Mayor Adams, whose administration has missed a number of deadlines and milestones baked into the original timeline to close Rikers.

The mayor, who is separately attempting to stave off a federal takeover of the management of Rikers Island, has cast doubt on the city’s ability to meet the deadline since he first took office at the start of 2022 and has instituted a number of policies that have made closing the jail on time an impossibility, advocates say.

Under his leadership, the city’s work toward Rikers closure has largely come to a complete standstill.

Though the administration’s posture toward the closure of Rikers has caused public disputes between the mayor and Speaker Adams, who has made closing Rikers a focal point of her tenure as leader of the City Council, the recreation of the Independent Rikers Commission has been pitched as a joint effort between the legislature and executive and appears to mark a change in the mayor’s approach to closing the jail.

In a statement on Friday, the mayor said that he was supportive of closing the jail complex where over two dozen people have died since he took office, and said that he was supportive of the borough-based jail system.

“We support the commission and its members in their work to bring us closer to shutting Rikers for good,” the mayor said in a statement. “It is important to close Rikers Island in a safe, effective manner that will not jeopardize public safety, and with a responsible borough-based jail system in place.”

“Our administration looks forward to working with the commission on a refreshed plan that is reflective of our post-pandemic reality and takes into account the ongoing issues that are affecting our city today,” he added.

But the mayor remains unconvinced of the original Rikers closure plan, passed into law by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.

Appearing on NY1 on Friday morning, Adams said that the “idealism” of the original plan to close Rikers “can’t collide with realism.”

“We want Rikers closed, but it has to be done correctly,” he told the outlet. “Our goal is to get everyone to the table, look at the correct timeline, look at the dollar amount attached, and get it done the right way.”

What exactly the “right way” is, remains to be seen.

It’s unclear if the commission’s work will lead to a new deadline to close the jail – the laws dictating Rikers’ 2027 closure remain on the books, as does the plan to turn Rikers into a renewable energy hub once the jail complex is shuttered.

It’s also unclear if the commission will remain committed to the borough-based jail program, which was pitched as a way to reduce the size of the city’s incarcerated population, and to provide safer facilities and more targeted programming.

In a release announcing the appointment of the new members, the commission said that they will “take a clear-eyed look at the plan to close Rikers Island jails in the context of the current realities following the COVID-19 pandemic.” Their work will culminate in “an enhanced blueprint of proven policies to help ensure the closure of Rikers, safely, swiftly and permanently.”

In a statement, Lippman said he was “incredibly proud to be joined by our impressive new members in continuing the work to ensure the closure of the dangerous, decrepit Rikers Island jails.”

“As we take a fresh look to ensure a realistic pathway to the swift and safe closure of Rikers, we are thankful for the insight, perspective, and guidance from our new members,” he added. “Our members – new and existing – will help us develop essential policy blueprints, and bring together key stakeholders to catalyze implementation of those policies.”

Speaker Adams, who has publicly ridiculed the mayor’s management of Rikers, said in a statement that the city “must remain steadfast in our commitment to expeditiously close Rikers.”

“For far too long, Rikers Island has undermined public safety and harmed New Yorkers,” the speaker said. “I look forward to working alongside the Independent Rikers Commission 2.0 to ensure that all stakeholders across New York work together to close Rikers and build a safer city for all.”

The situation on Rikers Island has changed since the initial plan to close it was first passed.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought with it a backlog in the court system, contributing to a rise in the number of people incarcerated on Rikers Island for two or more years. The pandemic also brought with it a staffing crisis in the jail, which contributed to an increase in detainees not being brought to their court cases because staff wasn’t available to take them there.

Also, for the first time in a decade, misdemeanor arrests jumped by 25 percent during the first year of the Adams administration, marking the first year-over-year increase in around a decade, Bloomberg reported. Advocates have said that the mayor’s approach to public safety has largely contributed to Rikers’ rise in population, which has gone from around 5,100 detainees the first month he took office to nearly 6,200 as of September.

The Adams administration has also blown past a number of milestones and deadlines the city has been supposed to be meeting along the path toward Rikers closure.

The city has not been quick to get the process for building the borough-based jails moving along. Only one of the facilities, the Brooklyn jail, has begun the city’s contracting phase and is not expected to be completed until 2029, two years past the current deadline.

Additionally, the Adams administration has ignored a key part of the legislation outlining the effort to turn Rikers into a renewable energy hub.

Every six months, the Department of Correction is required to assess whether any unused parcels of land or facilities could be transferred to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. The transfers are meant to make the transition from Rikers use a jail complex to a renewable energy hub smoother and quicker.

But the Adams administration has yet to effectuate a transfer, despite the fact that there have been empty facilities on Rikers at multiple times in the past two years.

As per the Renewable Rikers Act, the city is scheduled to make another transfer at the end of December – it also is required to make up for the two transfers missed last year and another missed over the summer. With the deadline approaching – and with several facilities currently empty – advocates are calling on the mayor to show his commitment to closing the jail complex through his actions.

“The most important tangible step Mayor Adams can take to show his commitment to closing Rikers is to finally make this month’s land transfer deadline and start the process of closing jails like [the Anna M. Kross Center] that are not in current use, and finally move towards the vision of Renewable Rikers legislation,” Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, said in a statement to the Eagle. “This is something he can get done right now.”