(Editor's note: Shortly after this article was posted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his support for closing Rikers Island.)
Via The New York Times:
Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed on the contours of a plan to eventually close New York City’s troubled jail complex on Rikers Island, telling those working on the issue that his position had changed, according to four people briefed on the mayor’s thinking.
The details of his plan were not immediately clear, though they were expected to hew closely to recommendations in the 97-page report by an independent commission, led by Judge Jonathan Lippman and created by the City Council last year to study the issue.
The commission’s top recommendation, according to a draft of the report reviewed by The New York Times, is to move inmates off Rikers Island and into a system of smaller, borough-based jails, at a cost of $10.6 billion.
“The commission believes that the use of Rikers Island must be phased out over the next 10 years and its facilities demolished,” the report recommends. Continue reading >>>
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