Since Mayor Adams entered office last year, the number of individuals incarcerated on Rikers diagnosed with a serious mental illness has increased by 38%, and currently 52% of those incarcerated on Rikers have received a mental health diagnosis. About 90% of the Rikers jail population are individuals being held pre-trial, waiting 115 days on average for their trial. That is four times the national average. These are clear policy failures.
As the City Council holds its executive budget hearing this afternoon, concerns remain about the city’s ability to hold the Department of Correction accountable, and the department’s ability to safely care for those in its custody and provide a path to successful community reintegration.
Current conditions on Rikers undermine public safety and subject staff and detained individuals to continued violence and trauma that perpetuate cycles of harm. With spending levels of 350% more per incarcerated person than the two other largest jail systems in the country — Los Angeles and Cook County’s serving Chicago — Rikers is both the most expensive and least effective intervention our city has to offer.
Decades of organizing to close Rikers culminated in 2019 with a historic deal that codified a timeline for closure and transition to more humane borough based jails that would connect people to their communities. In coalition, the City Council has charted a path forward, and we have the tools needed to responsibly build a more fair criminal legal system and safer communities.
New York City is not safer with more people in jail, and the City Council will not support the mayoral administration’s path forward on arresting and incarcerating more people, while slashing funding for social services providers. We can and must close Rikers by 2027 by right-sizing the department budget and making the appropriate investments in housing, mental health services, and alternatives to incarceration programs.
The tragic death of Rubu Zhao in a mental health unit this week underscores that fact Rikers continues to be used to warehouse our most vulnerable neighbors. It is imperative that the Department of Correction consolidate their jail operations in order to close jails on Rikers and improve provision of services within a smaller number of facilities; and begin implementing policies to swiftly move people out of their custody and into proven alternatives, like those utilized during the onset of COVID.
Recently, the City Council passed legislation creating jail population review teams to identify people in custody of the Department of Correction whose cases could be resolved or who could be safely placed in community treatment settings instead of jail. Where gaps in services exist, the Council and community partners will continue to advocate for increased investments.
Nationally, on average, for every four people in jail, there is one correction officer on staff, whereas on Rikers, for every four people in jail, there are four and half correction officers. New York City would be better served by shifting funds from the jail system to prevention like crisis respite centers, mental health community treatment teams, clubhouse-style community centers; and non-incarceration alternatives like enhanced models of supervised release, designed to work with people with higher levels of need.
The budget for the next fiscal year must also increase investments in barrier-free rapid re-entry housing and supportive housing to break the shelter-jail pipeline. The Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice reports that approximately 1,000 people in DOC custody would have likely been released at arraignment if they were stably housed. Additionally, it is estimated that 2,500 people in custody each year could be served by supportive housing, which would save the city $1.2 billion annually.
Without investments to address root causes like lack of housing, treatment, and stable income, the mayor’s focus on “recidivism” will only amount to churning more desperate people through the city’s jails. Not only is that cruel, but research from the Data Collaborative for Justice showed that jail stays actually increased a person’s likelihood of future arrest.
As next year’s budget is negotiated, our city faces an unacceptable status quo, in which our neighbors are languishing on Rikers for longer and longer periods of time, while effective and affordable alternatives exist.
We remain committed to working in coalition to advance concrete solutions to protect the rights of incarcerated people and reduce the jail population by making long overdue investments in community well-being. We can and must close Rikers by 2027.
Rivera represents part of Manhattan in the City Council and chairs the Committee on Criminal Justice. Mack is a survivor of Rikers and co-director from Freedom Agenda, one of the organizations leading the Campaign to Close Rikers.
![In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own. In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity, nothing less, nothing more. We hope that’s the clear conclusion of the courts that will now rule on a lawsuit being brought by the Chamber of Commerce, which has strenuously supported this anticompetitive practice. Of the arguments that the business group and other opponents have rolled […]](https://www.nydailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1820955015.jpg?w=490 "In a narrow vote this week, the Federal Trade Commission approved a rule that will ban the vast majority of noncompete clauses by U.S. employers, which have long prevented workers from switching jobs or setting out on their own. In doing so, the agency did its duty to protect American economic dynamism and opportunity, nothing less, nothing more. We hope that’s the clear conclusion of the courts that will now rule on a lawsuit being brought by the Chamber of Commerce, which has strenuously supported this anticompetitive practice. Of the arguments that the business group and other opponents have rolled […]")
