NYC commission calls for fixes to speed Close Rikers timeline, reduce jail population
New York City should create two new positions to oversee the closure of Rikers Island, which is mandated by law to take place by 2027, but is now already up to a half-decade behind schedule because the new borough jails won't be finished in time, a commission appointed to review the plans said Wednesday.
The Independent Rikers Commission's report said the plan needs a point person at City Hall focused only on closing Rikers and a similar official at the Correction Department charged with readying the agency for the four new borough jails.
The commission, made up of a range of jail experts and prominent New Yorkers in legal, business and political circles, also pressed in the report for expansion of the number of beds for the mentally ill, who make up half the jail population and might be the most pressing issue confronted in the system on a daily basis.
The Brooklyn jail is slated for completion in 2029, the Bronx jail in 2031, and Queens and Manhattan in 2032. The city could reduce that timeline by a year by having the design and construction work as one team, rather than separately as is the current structure, the panel argued.
The major hurdle is the size of the jail population — currently about 6,800 compared with the 3,300 ceiling originally envisioned in the Close Rikers plan and later expanded by the Adams administration to 4,500. The jail population has risen 32% since January 2022.
The panel called the current population 'artificially inflated,' caused by court backlogs and the large number of mentally ill detainees.
A combination of speedier case management by the state courts, electronic monitoring and expanded drug and mental health treatment could reduce the population to 4,500, the commission said. Another 500 beds would be in state psychiatric facilities and reserved for the severely mentally ill.
'None of this is guaranteed,' the panel wrote. 'We freely admit that our projections are both science and art; the best educated guesses we can make under current circumstances. It is clear from experience that properly funded, properly staffed interventions with reasonable caseloads can make real progress.'
In a statement, Mayor Adams insisted he supports the closure of the jails on Rikers Island, but the original plan was 'not realistic.'
'We are glad that the Lippman Commission is finally recognizing what we have been sounding the alarm on for years — the plan for Rikers was flawed and did not offer a realistic timeline,' he said.
Adams said the city has already been investing hundreds of millions in the Correction Department and he blamed the pandemic for the delayed construction timeline.
He also said laws passed during the de Blasio era 'prohibit' the city from using emergency capital funds to bolster the jail system. 'To leave the plan as is and deny us these funds hurts our staff and is inhumane to those in our custody,' the mayor said.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a recently announced candidate for mayor, countered, 'While success requires partnership and close collaboration from many stakeholders, our city's mayoral administration must be willing to take concrete action steps and dedicate resources required to implement this blueprint, so another viable plan does not go unfulfilled.
'There is no shortcut to the work ahead, and there can be no discussions about the legal closure date without these types of commitments from the administration,' Adams said.
With Chris Sommerfeldt
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
President Trump takes center stage in NYC mayoral race as Dem candidates Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo spar over how to ‘fight' his agenda
Leading Democratic mayoral hopefuls Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo are battling to see who can fend off President Trump's agenda better. Both candidates released plans Tuesday to 'protect' the Big Apple from the feds after Trump sent in the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to quell anti-immigration enforcement protests this week. Mamdani, the surging Democratic socialist candidate, proposed $224 million in legal defense funding, abortion hubs and more as part of his 'Trump proof' sanctuary city plans. Fighting the Trump administration will require 'fiscal independence' from the feds, he said at a press conference — claiming that his $10 billion tax increase plan will help pave the way. The Queens assemblyman previously said he would pay for his freebie-filled agenda with a flat 2% tax increase on New Yorkers making $1 million or more and by raising the corporate tax rate to match New Jersey's 11.5% – a move that experts said could lead to a mass exodus from the Big Apple. The campaign didn't clarify how much of Mamdani's tax plan was already accounted for, nor how much would be reserved to cover his Trump resistance proposal and any lost federal funding. Cuomo, meanwhile, released his own plan to thwart any future federal crackdowns in New York City. The proposal includes calls for legal monitors to ensure the NYPD complies with sanctuary laws, outfitting potential protests with first aid stations and coordinating with local groups to keep demonstrations peaceful. Cuomo's campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the estimated cost of his proposals. 'It is essential that we learn from the events unfolding in Los Angeles and prepare now, so New York City does not repeat the same mistakes,' the former governor said in a statement. Mamdani, when announcing his own proposals, also took the opportunity to swipe at frontrunner Cuomo, saying that he would bend the knee to Trump on immigration. 'We need someone who's going to fight against Donald Trump. Cuomo would welcome Trump's troops into our city with open arms if it meant another check in his pocket to fund his campaign,' Mamdani said. 'What we are seeing in Los Angeles is something that we have to be clear eyed about. It is authoritarianism. It is an example of what the Trump administration is already doing across this country, and hopes to bring to cities from coast to coast,' he said. Cuomo rep Rich Azzopardi shot back that the ex-gov has a 'documented' past of bucking the Republican president. 'Only one candidate in this race has a documented history of standing up to Trump and preventing him from sending troops to New York and it sure isn't the Silver Spoon socialist performance artist who only passed three bills during his time as a legislator and then stopped showing up to work,' he said.
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Michael Goodwin: Dems agree NYC is too expensive — and voters can't afford them being in charge
If there is a single point of agreement among all the Democrats running for mayor, it's that New York is too damn expensive. They uniformly call it an 'affordability crisis' and pledge to do something about it if elected. They are largely correct — the cost of living in New York has become absurdly high. Advertisement Although part of the trend grew out of the inflation sparked by massive spending by federal, state and local governments during the COVID era, there is also a long history of Gotham being one of most expensive places in the nation to live. A study shows that, in comparison to the national average, food prices in the five boroughs are about 22% higher, while housing is 278% more expensive. Making ends meet The United Way finds that basic costs for city households have risen twice as fast as the median income and estimates that about half of them need help from the government, friends or family just to make ends meet. Advertisement As Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani recently told The New York Times, 'There are far too many New Yorkers who do not know if they will be able to call themselves that next year, who do not know if they will be able to afford their rent, or their child care, their groceries, or even their MetroCard.' True to his socialist affiliations, Mamdani is promising the longest list of freebies, but his rivals have all joined the spree. Even Andrew Cuomo, often regarded as the most centrist of the bunch and the leader according to polls, is no shrinking violet in the giveaway games. The candidates' promises to address the problem sound very nice — until you realize that nearly everything they are offering would ultimately drive the sky-high cost of living even higher. Advertisement Already that burden is one of the top reasons why New York City and state lead America in losing residents to lower-cost jurisdictions. Congestion pricing is the latest example of how and why the cost of living here keeps rising. If the candidates all want to raise prices even higher, they should support a joint slogan: 'Dear Voters, If you're not broke yet, just wait.' The problem is that government compassion doesn't come cheap. Advertisement In fact, it's outrageously expensive. That's certainly true in the case at hand. The candidates' 'solutions' are just promises to give away more stuff to more people, such as free bus service, free child care, free this and free that. It's all wrapped in the language of compassion for the poor and working class. But what the lefty Dems leave out of the conversation is an honest explanation about where the money would come from to pay for all their added goodies, and what the impact would be of an expanded redistribution scheme to deliver them. Don't be fooled by the lack of details. That's intentional because the numbers would be frightening. Take away to give away But hiding the truth doesn't change the fact that because City Hall can't print money, it will first have to take more from residents and businesses if it is going to give away more. Advertisement Consider the obvious impact on businesses. If they are taxed more, most will make up for it by raising prices on their customers, cut the pay of their workers or reduce the number of workers. When a business goes broke, the city gets no taxes and the workers have no income. Because higher taxes always impose a trickle-down cost on some people, a similar outcome is true if the government raises income taxes on individuals, sales taxes or property taxes. Advertisement Somebody somewhere along the line is going to feel the pinch of every added dollar the city takes to give away to someone it declares more deserving. For those forced to pay more, the 'solution' to the problem means their cost of living is going to get even higher. That's why the candidates' plans need to be seen in light of the current budget. As it stands, City Hall will raise and spend a whopping $112.4 billion this year — nearly as much as the entire state of Florida. Advertisement New York state, meanwhile, will raise and spend $255 billion, with much of that money coming to the city. Additional agencies, such as the MTA, have their own budgets, which spend tens of billions more. Clearly the problem isn't a shortage of money to spend. Advertisement The problem is a shortage of responsible spending. Thus raising spending for 'new needs,' as the politicians call their freebies, by hiking taxes and fees at this point is almost certain to create as many problems as it solves. There is still time for the Dems to lay out a plan to actually reduce government costs. The first debate was little more than a bidding game to see who could promise more new giveaways and most vehemently denounce Donald Trump while pledging to 'resist' his presidency. The second and final mayoral debate, required by the NYC Campaign Finance Board, will take place Thursday, with primary day falling on June 24. It's incumbent on the moderators to demand that Mamdani and all the others explain, with specifics, where they would get added funds and who would pay them. Glib lines like taxing the 'top 1%' mean nothing because those families already pay inordinate amounts of the city's personal income tax. According to a city comptroller report, in 2021 the top 1% — about 6,000 families who reported incomes of $1 million or more — paid a whopping 48% of the city's total income tax haul. It's neither fair nor sensible to demand they pay more, when packing up and leaving altogether is proving to be so popular. Leftward lurch Unfortunately, we haven't heard much of a different message from other candidates in the race, including Mayor Adams, who is running as an independent. With GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa widely considered not viable, there is so far no check and balance on the Dems' leftward lurch. The vast majority of their spendthrift City Council candidates and those seeking other offices on the ballot are proving to be automatic supporters of larger and more expensive programs. National conversations about cutting taxes and reducing government waste, fraud and abuse have yet to find meaningful support in New York. That must start to change this week. Libs' stupidity taking a toll There they go again: Another major media outlet is confusing victimhood with the consequences of wrongdoing. The bleeding heart Boston Globe writes, 'Unpaid fees jeopardize thousands of Mass. driver's licenses,' saying, 'Thousands of Massachusetts drivers each year face the possibility of losing their legal authority to drive unless debts unrelated to road safety are paid in full.' Among the debts it cites are tolls the drivers evaded. Here's a crazy idea: The drivers could pay the tolls and keep their licenses. Why is that so hard?
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gov. Hochul's review now pending on Medical Aid in Dying Act
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) – The New York State Senate has passed the Medical Aid in Dying Act for the first time since the legislation was introduced in 2016. The bill allows terminally ill adults with incurable diseases and six months or less to live the ability to make the decision to peacefully end their lives through a prescription. If signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York State will join 11 other U.S. states in legalizing the end-of-life option. News 8 heard from those in support of and against the legislation, as it now goes to the governor's desk for signature. Andrea Calloway serves as executive director for the Sunset House, which is Irondequoit's only comfort care home for terminally ill patients. The Sunset House has been offering end-of-life care, supported by donations, for over 35 years. 'Here at the Sunset House, we allow the resident to be in control of decision making, as long as it's safe. I believe, personally, people should have the right to their own decisions of what will work best for them,' said Calloway. New York State Assemblymember Josh Jensen has opposed the bill from the beginning and led the debate on the state Assembly floor before it passed. 'What was really prevalent in the Assembly debate is it's not a partisan issue and not a conservative issue, it's a question of morality. It's a question of life or death. I think that was shown not just through opposition of people like me, but I think 21 Democratic no votes and six Democratic no votes in the Senate last night. Certainly, there was bipartisan opposition, but not bipartisan support,' said Asm. Jensen. From the perspective of hospice care, Calloway adds it's unclear what the future of this option might look like for providers like the Sunset House, should it become law. 'It's a jigsaw puzzle of a thousand pieces. There's a lot of moving parts here. There's family involved, friends involved, a doctor involved, and the individual person involved. [It's a question of,] 'Do you have everything in order before you make this decision to do this?' There's lots of pieces involved,' said Calloway. Assemblymember Harry Bronson also weighed in, saying the bill offers a 'compassionate choice.' 'While I understand and respect the concerns of those who object, I believe the Medical Aid in Dying Act is fundamentally about offering a compassionate choice to qualified patients who wish to die on their own terms. This legislation represents a careful balance between providing end-of-life autonomy and maintaining essential protections to ensure that this profound decision is made voluntarily by those who are truly facing the end of their lives.' As the legislation goes before Gov. Hochul for review, the president of the New York State Bar Association issued the following statement to encourage her approval: 'Medical Aid in Dying offers both dignity and compassion to those experiencing a terminal illness. It ensures that New Yorkers have a full array of end-of-life options and provides them with the autonomy to make their own choices to avoid needless suffering. We commend the legislature for passing this important bill and will continue to offer our support and advocacy in encouraging the governor to sign it into law.' More information about the Sunset House and ways to support their care can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
