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.
Read MoreThe City Council is currently drafting a bill to extend the deadline to close Rikers and replace it with four borough-based jails
Read MoreTwo detainees died on Rikers Island in quick succession of each other on Monday and Tuesday as the jail’s top officials were across the Atlantic, touring jails in Europe.
Read MoreWhile it’s long been expected, the contract presented for Manhattan’s borough-based jail made it official – none of the new jails will be completed before Rikers is required to close.
Read MoreMayor Eric Adams pitched a vague plan to turn one of the city’s proposed – and extremely delayed – borough-based jail facilities into a mental health treatment jail, confusing advocates and lawmakers who say the mayor has thus far resisted calls to support treatment facilities and programs for detainees.
Read MoreAs the three-year countdown to the closure of the jails on Rikers Island begins this week, major questions remain about whether or not the city will – or even can – meet the August 2027 deadline to shutter the notorious complex.
Read MoreThe Adams administration has yet to complete a single transfer of land on Rikers Island, a crucial part of the city’s plan to turn the jail complex into a renewable energy hub by 2027.
Read MoreThe Board of Correction’s monthly meeting fell into chaos after technical difficulties left the board’s livestream sputtering, and after the board’s chair clashed with a criminal justice reform advocate and his fellow board members agitated by the board’s inability to hold its scheduled public hearing.
Read MoreAdvocates and lawmakers rallied at Rikers Island to call on the city to meet the demands made by hunger striking detainees who say they’ve had enough of the deteriorating conditions inside the jail complex.
Read More“While there are other contributing forces to this shameful situation…there is no doubt that the driving cause behind it remains the decision of your offices to seek bail recklessly and in virtually every eligible case.”
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