Advocates push Mamdani to boost funding for Rikers closure efforts

Dozens of criminal justice organizations called on the mayor’s office to allocate more money toward programs they say will help lower Rikers Island’s population and move the city closer toward the jail complex’s closure. AP file photo by Seth Wenig

By Jacob Kaye

Over 70 criminal justice, social justice and legal organizations this week called on the mayor to shift at least $35 million in the city’s budget to fund new crime prevention, diversion, and reentry programs as the city prepares to release its updated spending plan later this month.

The organizations, which together form the Close Rikers Campaign, urged Mayor Zohran Mamdani to boost funding in the November financial plan for the types of programs they say will help the city inch closer to closing Rikers Island, an effort that is currently years behind schedule.

Though city law requires the jail complex to be shuttered by August 2027, city officials have acknowledged the deadline can’t be met. The four borough-based jails that will replace Rikers aren’t expected to all be completed until at least 2032. There’s also the question of Rikers’ population, which currently sits around 6,661 detainees. The borough-based facilities are currently being built to house no more than 4,400 detainees at any given time.

In a letter to the mayor, the groups, which included Freedom Agenda, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Legal Aid Society and dozens of others, said that by putting money into criminal justice reform and social support programs, the city will begin to solve Rikers’ population problems.

“These investments are long overdue, they save human lives and ultimately save the City millions of dollars, and there is no time to waste,” the letter read. “Every week, dozens of New Yorkers are sent to Rikers while waiting for the community-based supports they urgently need; and dozens of New Yorkers leave Rikers without the support or connections to services that can help them find stability at home. Meanwhile, the Department of Correction struggles to provide adequate care for the large number of people in their custody, especially those with complex needs.”

The Campaign to Close Rikers said the city should put at least $20 million toward creating 650 units of housing for people involved in the criminal justice system who also have a mental health diagnosis, a proposal first suggested by the Independent Rikers Commission, which mapped out the city’s original path toward closing Rikers. The groups also said $10 million should be used to fund new alternative-to-incarceration programs, and that another $10 million should go toward reentry services.

The letter also calls for $1.7 million for an outpatient competency restoration pilot and $3.5 million for the opening of four additional crisis respite centers, which offer those experiencing a mental health crisis an alternative to going to a hospital.

While calling for the new funding, the groups also applauded some of the Rikers closure policy’s Mamdani has pursued since taking office at the start of the year, including closing down several unused facilities on Rikers and opening a hospital unit meant to treat detainees with serious physical illnesses. But despite the effort, Rikers’ population at the start of this month was virtually the same as it was a year ago.

“Mayor Mamdani has taken important steps toward closing Rikers since he took office, and it is largely the fault of the previous administration that New York City will not close all the jails on Rikers by August next year,” Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, said in a statement. “But this administration is still responsible for moving with all possible urgency to close Rikers, and that includes ramping up investments in prevention, diversion, and reentry resources now.”

“With focused action, we can improve community safety and reduce incarceration, and see at least half of the Rikers jails closed by August 2027,” he added. “We won't meet that goal if we have to wait until July to start scaling up these proven solutions.”

The groups suggested finding some of the funds in the Department of Correction’s budget, including by eliminating some of the more than 770 uniformed officer vacancies that the agency has been unable to fill.

Sam Raskin, a spokesperson for the mayor, said City Hall would review the proposals.

“The Mamdani administration is working to improve conditions in our city’s jails, fulfill our legal and moral obligation to close Rikers Island, and transition to a safer, more humane borough-based jail system as quickly as possible,” Raskin said.