Frustration over Rikers Island closure delays boil over in hearing

Lawmakers and criminal justice experts excoriated Mayor Eric Adams and his administration on Wednesday for their handling of a stalled plan to close Rikers Island.

“Now is the time for strong leadership by all present and future office holders in this city to close Rikers as soon as humanly possible,” former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who chairs a commission to shut down the complex, said at a City Council hearing dominated by criticism of Adams and his team.

Councilmembers voted in 2019 to shutter the jail complex and replace it with smaller facilities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens by 2027.

But the city is behind schedule as arrests rise and the Rikers Island population swells. Five people have died in city custody or just after their release so far this year.

Representatives from the mayor’s administration defended their actions, saying that city agencies have been “working tirelessly” to close Rikers quickly, efficiently and thoughtfully.

“When we started this initiative together several years ago, we knew that it was going to be hard work,” said Deanna Logan, director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. “We sit here before you today to tell you that each and every one of us collectively is doing that hard work.”

But the hourslong hearing grew tense at times, as councilmembers criticized the administration’s plans to slash millions of dollars in funding for programming to divert people from jails or help them re-enter society after they’ve been incarcerated — a decision Logan attributed to citywide budget cuts.

Councilmember Lincoln Restler said he was “incredibly disappointed” with issues that have arisen from the construction of Brooklyn’s borough-based jail, including loud, late-night construction.

The mayor’s office said it was working to address noise concerns while also “moving full steam ahead with the construction.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, lawmakers discussed several bills aimed at speeding up the transition to borough-based jails, including one that would require the Department of Correction to study its early release program and find ways to allow more people to complete their sentences at home.

More than 7,200 people are incarcerated in city jails, according to the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College. But the borough-based facilities are only supposed to hold 4,500 people.

Lippman said he thinks the city can reduce its jail population in part by speeding up court cases. He urged the Adams administration to appoint a “czar” whose sole job would be to keep the city on track with its plan to stop sending people to Rikers Island.

He also said someone should be assigned to changing the culture within city jails, so the new facilities that replace Rikers are safer and more rehabilitative.

“Because if we just put Rikers in each of the four local jails with the same culture, we’re not accomplishing anything,” Lippman said.

Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for the mayor, said the mayor’s office is still reviewing the Council’s bills but doesn’t agree with the proposal to create a new role for the plan to close Rikers. She said staff members at several agencies are already working on the issue and that a new role would be “redundant.”

But Adams has not committed to shutting down Rikers Island by 2027. And last month, a report authored by Lippman and other members of the Independent Rikers Commission, found that the city will not meet the deadline.

“Rikers is behind schedule in terms of closing because of a lack of urgency and a lack of will,” Lippman said at the Council hearing. “It’s as simple as that.”