DOC two months late on deadline to transfer part of Rikers Island
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The city has yet to issue any updates on the transfer of Rikers Island facilities to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, after Mayor Eric Adams announced the July transfer would not happen. Photo via Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By Rachel Vick and Jacob Kaye
Every six months between August 2021 and August 2027, the Department of Correction is required to transfer pieces of Rikers Island, be it shuttered buildings or vacant land, to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.
Last year, the transfers began and the DOC handed over what was the first-ever permanent jail on the island to DCAS. In December the corrections agency transferred a parcel of vacant land to DCAS.
No transfer was made in July of this year and two months after the missed deadline a transfer has yet to be made – a possible violation of the law passed several years ago to close down Rikers Island as a jail facility for good.
During a June 22 press conference, Mayor Eric Adams and DOC Commissioner Louis Molina announced the planned July 1 transfer of the Otis Bantum Correctional Center could not take place, THE CITY reported.
DOC officials say that to close facilities, the overall jail population needs to be 4,000 or less and the current average is about 5,500. On August 11, the population was 5,707, according to the DOC.
“We are not in the position to transfer OBCC to DCAS,” Molina said, citing population numbers higher than than the previous administration anticipated. “It would not be logical for us to have a facility transferred to DCAS when there's a possibility in the future we may need that.”
There has been no word on whether a transfer will take place once the population crosses the threshold or if they are on hold until the next scheduled transfer. It is also unclear which facilities on the island are available for transfer.
DOC deferred comment to City Hall, and City Hall pointed the Eagle to the June press conference. City Hall did not respond to further requests for comment, questions or clarification from the Eagle.
The transfers are outlined in the Renewable Rikers Act, which was signed into law by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2021. The law established a path to closing Rikers Island as a jail complex and giving it a second life as a renewable energy hub by 2027. The closure also hinges on the completion of construction of a series of borough based jails, including one underway in Kew Gardens.
The law, which was introduced by former City Councilmember Costa Constantinides, says that “the mayor shall transfer charge over every portion of Rikers Island that the mayor determines is not in active use for the housing of incarcerated persons, or in active use for the providing of direct services to such persons.”
There have been two transfers to DCAS — under the law mandating shifted oversight of any part of the island unused by incarcerated people — including the 1,200 bed James A. Thomas Center and the Dec. 2021 transfer of 43 acres of unused land.
“If it's still in use, it gives them the leeway to make that statement,” Constantinides told the Eagle. “That being said, that dissipates by 2027 when they are going to need to accelerate land transfers toward the back end, or as things move along much more quickly later on when this becomes closer to needing to be completely off the island by 2027.”
“This deadline is important,” he added.
The former lawmaker said the transfers were baked into the law to ensure that the transition of Rikers Island from a crumbling jail complex to a source of renewable energy takes place as quickly as possible.
“The rationale was really about the desire to make sure that as parcels of Rikers Island were becoming vacant that they were going to be transferred away from the Department of Corrections so they couldn't build new facilities, nor come up with new uses for old facilities,” he said. “We wanted to get this moving, we wanted to make sure that they were getting this done in a in a way that fit the ending of use on Rikers Island.”
Constantinides’ successor, Councilmember Tiffany Cabán, said she and other councilmembers are aware of the alleged violation, but the course of action remains unclear in part because of the language used in the law.
“It's hard because the language is… ‘as it becomes available and practicable,’” she said. “As you stop using facilities, then you transfer them as you go.”
Cabán said that despite her belief the closure is doable on the initial timeline, she is “deeply concerned” about meeting the 2027 deadline.
“There's a lot of pieces at play, right; it's the mayor, it's the DAs, it's whether we commit to building out more public health infrastructure that disrupts that pipeline,” she explained. “It definitely seemed doable [when] this passed, and it certainly is still doable, but there has to be a really concentrated strategic effort to get the census down.”
Constantinides said he’s confident the island will be fully transferred and the island set up as a renewable energy hub by the deadline, despite some concerns.
“Every day that goes by that things are not moving forward, it's worrisome but I'm not ready to declare any failure yet,” he said. “I still feel that it's still early enough that things can still be done.”
Should the DOC be in violation of the Renewable Rikers Act, it’s unclear who could or how it could be enforced.
“If somebody sues, who has standing, who would be legally able to be a plaintiff and in a situation like that?” Cabán said. “What's the oversight mechanism?”
Darren Mack, the co-director of Freedom Agenda, said closing and transferring facilities would be a win for everyone involved, pointing to the potential for correction officers to not be stretched as thinly and, in turn, enable detainees to have better access to medical services and programming.
“It's disappointing but we're still hopeful that this mayor realizes consolidating operations is a win-win for DOC and those detained,” he said. “We hope he makes this transfer and continues to consolidate operations.”
“We hope this mayor will follow the law that's been established by the Renewable Rikers Act,” he added. “At this moment this administration is operating outside of the law… and I think this administration needs to take the next step, which is transfers.”
At the beginning of the month, Adams slammed the branches of the criminal justice system – outside of the NYPD – for allegedly falling short on their responsibility to address crime.
Arrests are up 24 percent in the first half of the year, with 109,000 by Aug. 1 compared to 87,794 in the same period last year, according to the NYPD.
