There is no point in replacing Rikers with prisons in the various boroughs unless virtually all the current guards are fired and replaced.
Some good old fashioned union busting must be a key part of the solution.
66
The worse and more prevalent the horrors of this island jail complex are broadcast to NYers of all stripes the less likely anyone of the five boroughs will countenance a new jail “coming soon to a neighborhood near you”. Prisons are ostensibly remote and formidable for the purposes of security however they also reflect the thought pattern of “out of sight; out of mind”. Think Alcatraz, Devil’s Island in French Guiana, Robben Island in South Africa, Russian-Soviet gulags in Siberia, even Australia as a penal colony. The ugly interactions among prisoners and guards is not a matter of geography and architecture. It is a manifest reflection of our social mores. Why does one think Guantanamo detainees are not in U.S. ? Incarceration is a messy affair where few look benevolent ever.
28
I see comments from readers who say they suspect the motives of politicians around the Rikers issue.
To help sort things out, I now present the late Senator Everett Dirkson's three immutable laws for the successful politician:
1. Get elected.
2. Get re-elected.
3. Don't get mad, get even.
Now that you have read this, how can you possibly think our elected officials don't put the needs of The People first?
Glad I could help...
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
25
"Why Is Rikers Island Still Open?"
Because the City has not yet sold it off to developers for a gated island community securely housing the richest New Yorkers?
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
59
Stop the crime in the streets. That will help
28
Riders island jail is still open because of the US prison - industrial complex.
Think of all the lawyers, judges, cops, prison guards court personnel living off the thousands of dollars per prisoner spent in incarcerating under trials at Rikers?
It is a jobs program for the legal and law enforcement communities.
Sad but true.
35
Rather than a conversation about changing Rikers, how about a serious national conversation about how people end up there to begin with and how to change that.
It’s not rocket science, you strip people of jobs and hope their dignity is soon to follow resulting in bad behavior and prison.
Why not recreate jobs for marginally educated people rather than prisons, we had those jobs fifty years ago and lots fewer folks in prison.
My feeling is the wrong people are in prison: people that destroy jobs for pure profit should be in prison, particularly highly educated people who cut swaths through entire areas of our economy to line their pockets.
I lived in San Francisco in the fifties when blue collar jobs were plentiful, we had little crime and no homeless: South San Francisco was the “Industrial City”, lots of steel, aluminum, even clothing being made in America.
You could go into any area of the city and not worry, today there are stores being robbed in broad daylight, employees to afraid to react and rightfully so, why give up your life for CEOS and shareholders, they’re stealing them slowly as it is.
President Biden’s infrastructure bill is a small step in the right direction, create jobs that benefit society at large, just make sure that private equity and private enterprise don’t hijack the process along the way; pulling out of endless wars was an even better idea of how to put the puzzle pieces in place insuring the possibility of a better America for all its citizens.
57
What’s worse is many judges are incompetent. They send possibly innocent people to Rikers knowing they will be attacked. The guards are overworked and some are corrupt. Going on for decades. NYC has known about problems at Rikers for decades. The best solution is to legalize drugs so that anyone with a drug addiction woukd go to a hospital drug center get their drug treatment and overnight the sale of drugs would decline significantly. In addition get rid of cash out of society and only allow debit and credit cards and how exactly would drugs be sold. Addicted to heroin simply walk into a hospital and get treatment. How many robberies committed by heroin addicts would end . With my idea crime would crash.
38
@Ralph Petrillo: You are definitely on to something. Any law professor will confirm that the lower court judges in NY are the stupidest people in the system. Spend some time in a court room yourself and all doubt concerning this will melt away.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
27
Bail reform has opened the door to most criminals who, before Far Leftism took over state government, would've been locked up. Therefore, the people incarcerated now are the worst of the worst. People so horrible that even the bleeding hearts can't make a coherent case for their release. So, these people are now trashing the jail, living in terrible conditions, and a few have died. But they are still in jail and can't get out. I'm pretty much ok with this.
23
The solution for poor management at Rikers is to do an overhaul of Rikers.
Not to victimize people in NYC by packing Rikers criminals into neighborhood jails.
35
Poor little inmates. Almost all of them, if they made to Rikers, are guilty of the underlying charges. If you don't want to do the time, they shouldn't do the crime. In fact, with the way crime is going now, plus bail reform, Rikers is under-populated insofar as protecting the general population from surging crime. And as far as parole violators go, clearly these are habitual criminals. They committed crimes, they were sentenced, they got out early, and while out on parole they did it again.
Yes, there are a miniscule number of people at Rikers, and other prisons, who are charged with crimes who may not actually be guilty. In regard to these people the judges, the DAs and the defense attorneys will need to do better jobs, especially in cases where the defendants have no priors. In the meantime protecting the general population is the priority.
40
The real problem here in NYC isn't that we have a poor court system, police department, jail system. The problem at the heart of all this is we have too many citizens who have no respect for the rule of law or their fellow citizens.
As our systems have been getting overwhelmed by these people our solution has been to reduce sentence's, reduce or eliminate bail and let criminals out of jail early. Sure fix Rikers, get people before a judge quicker however the city has to show it's a law and order place not the wild west like it is today. I think Adams is on the right path.
33
Poor little inmates who just couldn't stay out of trouble while endangering the rest of us.
Almost all of them, if they made to Rikers, are guilty of the underlying charges. The cops and the DAs get no kick out of proferring false charges.
If you don't want to do the time, don't do the crime.
In fact, with the way crime is going now, plus bail reform and early releases, Rikers is under-populated insofar as protecting the general population from surging crime goes.
And as far as parole violators who are incarcerated there go, clearly these are habitual criminals. They committed crimes, they were sentenced, the system had mercy, they got out early on parole, and while out on parole they did it again.
Yes, there are a miniscule number of people at Rikers, and other prisons, who are charged with crimes who may not actually be guilty. In regard to these people the judges, the DAs and the defense attorneys will need to do better jobs, especially in cases where the defendants have no priors, to weed them out. In the meantime protecting the general population is the priority. Rikers, New York's Alcatraz! Keep it going just do it better.
18
NY has a governor, a state legislature and NYC has a mayor. Fewer press releases and statements on the topic and more action please.
8
Perhaps I’m missing something. Looking at the photos, it appears that Rikers Island is a much more complex and developed institution than I had realized. Its obviously poorly run. However, I’m not understanding why the complex needs to be shut down. If poorly run and maintained, why can’t these issues be corrected? Perhaps some renovations and a massive reorganization could correct these deficiencies? To shut this facility down, on the surface seems to be an incredible waste of an existing resource. Perhaps there’s more at play than Im aware of, but I keep wondering whether well place developers have their eyes on this real estate.
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@Warren - theyre starving Rikers of funds and resources - thats the problem. Developers DO have their eyes on the prize here. And govt officials want to break up the jail system the way they broke up the school system. Its easier to steal funding that way and harder to hold anyone accountable. Think of all the abuse that will happen quietly and out of sigiht when we have a hundred little jails instead of Rikers.
34
@anae I can't imagine why developers would be in interested in this little island, with, from what I understand, one road/bridge in and out. For anyone to want to live here, say in some new 'luxury' developments, they'd have to recreate another mini Roosevelt Island, complete with dining, a supermarket, etc. Otherwise, the island would be too far from everything. Anything on the Astoria side of that bridge, it's a no-man's land area with LGA, houses, factories, desolate streets with drag racing at night, etc.
12
@Warren
The facilities themselves are also in shambles.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/opinion/rikers-island-de-blasio-close.html
There is also very limited access on and off the island making it difficult and undesirable for support systems (attorneys, visitors, press) to be present at the jail--this is one of the main arguments for the smaller, community-based replacements. Not only renovated facilities, but in public view and connected to society.
10
I simply do not understand how people think that closing Rikers Island is anything but a stunt.
If I am a prison officer who brutalizes inmates on Rikers, will having me work at a jail in Queens suddenly make me a model employee?
If I am incarcerated on Rikers and I rape fellow inmates who are weaker than I am, will I stop doing that if I am incarcerated in Brooklyn?
There are certainly problems with the facilities on Rikers, but the challenges facing the Department of Correction are not due to roof leaks and faulty plumbing.
We should do everything we can to reduce the number of inmates being held pending trial while maintaining safety, but spending billions to change the scenery is just another instance of our Mayor kicking the can down the rood so he can declare victory and ignore reality.
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@diverx99 and one can't help but wonder if our Mayor stands to gain personally if he successfully throws away billions toward relocating criminals through the boroughs.
19
1. Rebuild as a new therapeutic campus on Rikers Island - with humane/excellent space; excellent medical/mental health/substance abuse services; expanded recreation and green space; and vocational and educational.
Like a college campus.
2. Offer free shuttle bus service for visiting relatives.
3. Acknowledge the difficulty/danger/stress of the Correction Officer job; support COs and improve CO job etc. Nothing will change if staff are stressed/scared.
The 4 borough jail plan is absurd - trying to cram facilities into new expensive high-rise buildings which will have no green space, no flexibility etc.
Plus the borough plan means people go to borough in which they are arrested, not where they live. And SI would have none anyway.
29
@ALS Good ideas! Add in subsidized housing (with park & river views) for city workers: police, social workers, teachers, bus drivers. Make it like Roosevelt Island. Sell/lease the spots with the best views to the real estate developers, take the money and build a better jail and mental treatment hospitals
2
@ALS The point of the borough jails is to damage the neighborhoods in which the jails will be located. Blocks crammed with the families of Riker's visitors are not desirable places to maintain a business.
Staten Island is not receiving a borough jail because SI generates a tiny number of criminals, mostly from neighborhoods north of Forest Avenue, so building a borough jail would be a waste of city dollars.
6
@ALS This would be affordable for the city if homeowners taxes were even throughout all boroughs.
Right now, 3 boroughs are bearing most of the city's property taxes.
Sorry, Mayor DeBlasio. Tme for your own borough, Brooklyn, and also Manhattan zillionaires to start paying your share.
10
Politicians find it quick, easy and convenient to blame people and condemn an entire institution, as that has emotional appeal (fear and outrage) and makes it look like they are actually doing something. Anger gets votes, and they can shift the blame. Close it and the problems 'appear' to go away. They are not so good at comprehensively assessing a problem, and adequately funding effective solutions, like improving infrastructure and hiring additional high quality employees.
14
Yes, the conditions in Rikers is horrible. I work as a psych Registered Nurse in Bellevue and I see that most rikers inmates have severe mental illness, circulating between prisons, psych wards, shelters and medical wards. Each day at Bellevue Hospital costs the taxpayers thousands of dollars and yet we as taxpayers have not done enough to provide mental health services in a meaningful way. The problem will not end until we invest in education, healthcare and social support systems. And yet, sadly, we will always need jails because there will always be criminals. But as New Yorkers, it is not acceptable unless it’s humane and therapeutic. Otherwise what’s the point of locking someone up if we are not improving their lives so they can return to society. We are better than that.
33
@Selcuk Well I guess the real question then becomes, is someone a 'criminal' just because they have a diagnoseable mental illness that may cause them to act out, harm themselves and/or others, or make them simply unable to follow police commands?
We shouldn't be using jails to house the mentally ill. I don't know what the answer is for all the mentally ill out there, roaming our streets, but I know that doing Nothing, or throwing them into Prison, is also Not the answer.
14
At one point, we have to judge people by their behavior.
I no longer care that the grown-up child who assaults his mother has emotional problems, or that the hulking homeless man who pushes an Asian woman into the subway tracks had a sad childhood, or that fatherless gangstas who accidentally shoot children who get in the way of flying bullets are looking for family, and that's why they join gangs.
Or, for that matter, that the angry husband and father of three who murders his family was just laid off from his job, and despondent.
I don't care. We know people by their actions.
35
I would suggest that the problems of Rikers Island are many. And the article highlights none of them.
And the article suggests that that Rikers Island is one ail, but in fact it is a complex of ten different jails.
There is a suggestion that borough jails would have more "light and air." There is plenty of both on Rikers Island. But they are, after all, jails rather than play yards. and the ten ails are spread over 400 acres.
And, in fact, there is a history of local jails in New York City. The story about "The Tombs" as the Manhattan House of Detention is known, are legion. The problems with Rikers Island is not the location but the administration.
The very first issue is that there is no accountability from the commissioner down to the lowest guard. In the NYPD, if a precinct commander does a poor job, his/her career is over. If over the civil service rank of captain, a demotion quickly follows. The Internal Affairs units, while far from perfect, root out corruption and bad behavior. There is no such thing at Corrections.
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@Eugene
On he other hand, there are far, far, too many reports of criminal activity by inmates against guards. What has the district attorney in and for the county of The Bronx done about these crimes? Perhaps all would be better served if the island were moved to Queens. The mayor has the power to set borough / county boundaries. Would Melinda Katz welcome the change? Probably not. Would she do a better job? Without a doubt the entire Bronx court system is a joke, so there would be some improvement.
The guards (Correction Officers) receive the same pay as police officers - $85,000 after five years. If they don't want to work, they should be fired. On he other hand, if they have legitimate complaints they must be addressed or management should be fired. And that means management up to and including the mayor who is removeable by the governor
14
On he other hand, there are far, far, too many reports of criminal activity by inmates against guards. What has the district attorney in and for the county of The Bronx done about these crimes? Perhaps all would be better served if the island were moved to Queens. The mayor has the power to set borough / county boundaries. Would Melinda Katz welcome the change? Probably not. Would she do a better job? Without a doubt the entire Bronx court system is a joke, so there would be some improvement.
The guards (Correction Officers) receive the same pay as police officers - $85,000 after five years. If they don't want to work, they should be fired. On he other hand, if they have legitimate complaints they must be addressed or management should be fired. And that means management up to and including the mayor who is removeable by the governor.
9
The problem is not the buildings that comprise the jail system on Rikers Island. It’s the corrupt and bankrupt culture of the NYC Department of Corrections. Shiny new exceptionally over budget jails wanting to be built by the DeBlasio administration in the boroughs of NYC, will move the problems closer to us, by no means fix them. The Dept of Corrections and its personnel need to be fixed.
38
Until Rikers is closed, a faster solution is to transfer out ALL the officers currently running the island and bring new perhaps federal officers. NOT Contractors.
7
Right out of college I worked in adult, custodial corrections as a correctional officer. I lasted 18 months. Absolutely horrible environment for staff and inmates alike. You never get used to the noise. No one talks in a normal tone. Everyone, trying to be heard, simply yells. Then there are the odors. Food, body odor and sewage. Then there is the constant dread. People can "blow" at any time, fights are routine, and staff were constantly intervening and trying to control the situation. Assaults between correctional staff and inmates were commonplace. Then there were the illnesses. Colds, flu and staph infections were common. The jail was just a petri dish for communicable diseases. So, I quit. Riker's sounds exactly the same... I shudder.
34
So, to summarize, nothing is being done, and won't be done for decades.
6
I understand why some liberal activists scream the need for prison reform such as closing Rikers due to problems, but I fully believe there is a correlation between being "soft" on crime and an increasing crime rate. I'm a Democrat, and I hold this to be true. Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he was deemed soft on crime because he signed into law prison reform in Massachusetts as governor. Convicts should serve their debt to society, but being in prison will not be all rainbows and lollipops by design. You're in prison because you did something illegal. You should not expect the same treatment as non-convicts who did not commit a crime. The spiking murder rates of 2020 only show the much more pressing need for more justice to combat crime than worrying if a convicted murderer is being treated right in prison.
24
It needs to be fixed, not closed. It’s not the building; it’s the people that run it.
67
You're in prison because you committed a crime. I'm a Democrat, and I abhor the idea of being "soft" on crime and prison reform. Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he was deemed soft on crime through signing into law prison reform in Massachusetts as governor. I understand what is happening at Rikers is terrible, but you're in Rikers because you committed a crime. It's not going to be rainbows and lollipops by design. I fully believe being soft on crime directly correlates to a rising crime rate. Even NYT reported a spike in murders in 2020. I care much more about justice for crime victims than seeing a convicted murderer be comfortable in prison. If you wanted to avoid Rikers, don't commit the crime. It's that simple.
11
@Qwerty
Rikers Island is not a prison, but a jail. A place where people accused of a crime her held awaiting trial.
10
I can see Rikers Island from my NY home. In our City we pride ourselves on diversity and inclusion in the midst of so much humanity. That this travesty is happening right HERE, right NOW is inexcusable.
Shut it down now.
1
Would you like a jail next door to your home? I didn't think so.
9
Rikers is the perfect place for a jail. The only reason its failing is because the mayor desperately wants it to fail and because real estate developers can make $$$ in the land grab to come. If the mayor and governor were interested in justice, they would fund the courts so no one would rot in jail awaiting trial, and so the truly violent would be locked in prisons equipped for them.
51
A country's soul is most visible in its' prisons and jails.
4
when you have a chance, ask Mr. Lippman about my bail decision in People v Oliver and ask him what really happened.
1
Is the problem really with Rikers and its architectural design, or is it more likely with the people who run it and the system that keeps people in jail for minor violations?
Tear down Rikers and build community jails, heck, even make them beautiful buildings - but if they're run in the same way that the Blackwell Island jail and Rikers were run, then the same problems will persist.
18
Each borough needs to have their own jails located near court houses. Is it feasible, maybe. Hope so.
1
@Eric most court hearings should continue to be held remotely - this was established during the pandemic, and saves so much time and man-power.
8
@Eric
And how will that be better?
7
Why is Rikers still open because there are bad people in this world who violate the rules of society and cause damage to their fellow humans sorry can’t have sympathy for criminals maybe we should make prison even worse so it can be a deterrent to those thinking of committing crimes
9
@EAH Wait until you are arrested for a crime that you did not commit and are sent to jail, not prison, jail. Remember that you will be getting what you "deserve".
11
The system does what it was designed to do - control Black and brown people. Riker's is still open is because the conditions impact marginalized people who simply do not matter. Apologies from politicians are easier and cheaper than a paradigm change.
7
"The delaying opposition appeared on two fronts, one led by NIMBY-ists and the other by advocates on the left who have sought to abolish jails altogether. "--none of those leftists live in the crime-ridden neighborhoods where nonincarcerated criminals would remain free to prey.
10
Sundry crooks and politicians need a sweet place to stay.
2
To answer your headline because you need jails to house dangerous people.
It is like Willie Sutton saying he robs banks because that is where the money is.
You don't throw out the baby with the bath water as the old saying goes.
Fix up Rikers. Get rid of the people in charge and make changes.
62
Because if the mayor closed the jail and that resulted in a thousand people going free and 999 of them led model lives and 1 committed a crime against a white woman, the mayor would face nonstop Willie Horton style attack ads if he ever ran for office again.
3
Residential jails not including wealthy UES, UWS, Brooklyn Heights hypocritical, elitist.
4
The answer to your question is that ithere are a lot of bad people there who would harm law abiding citizens if let out.
11
Is it a wonder why NY folks are appalled at Guantanamo Bay when they cannot get their own backyard in order?
3
"Why Is Rikers Island Still Open?"
My previous comment was not published, so let me try again using gentler language:
Rikers is still open because we still have a large number of young men whose good manners have not been honed to a degree suitable for them to live among more civilized people, and because these more civilized people understand what mini-Rikers will do to their already teetering neighborhoods.
51
Rikers is worse than Guantanamo and only getting worse.
Sadly, crime too is getting worse in my former hometown.
Why hasn’t Rikers been close already, ……..Di Blasio
If that jail was in Mississippi or even in Poland or China the Times would be full of scathing opinions by its columnists. Krugman, Dowd, Bruni, et. al. where are you?
7
this is an excellent question., so Mayor Bill, why?
And furthermore, what is enthralled to +owned by the NYPD/his donors/NJ resident cum NYC's next mayor, Eric Adams going to DO about it?
I could care less what he says.
2
How can we get the TikTok detectives on this? Any white girl out there willing to go missing for a few hours at Rikers? No?? Only then will the media give this crisis the attention it deserves.
10
If people knew what was really happening during COVID in BOP facilities across the country, they would be appalled. Basically every prisoner, irregardless of their crime is in lockdown. In single (solitary) cells for months on end or doubles or triples. They get out every two to three days for a range of 15 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on the situation with staffing. In this time they line for showers and are sometimes locked in the shower to keep them from mixing. They have no access whatsoever to all the lauded programming that is supposed to be part of their recovery. They often don’t have access to phones or prison email. They aren’t given access to the commissary to get ibuprofen for headaches or buy a new toothbrush but once a week and then wait for another week for their purchases to be delivered to their cells. This is happening all over the country in every prison. US Marshalls continue to move prisoners around the country and every time a prisoner is moved they go through transit hell. It is a disaster. Prisoners are not serving under the conditions to which they have been sentenced. They do not have access to their lawyers or families as all visits have been stopped. This has been going on for months. Prisoners are languishing, suffering from severe isolation and depression in Federal Prisons.
6
This stuff makes me sick. How can we claim to live in the best city on Earth and yet we treat people with such indignity, with such animus? Tell me where else in the world do we lock teenagers in solitary confinement, lock people up for years without a trial? Where the conditions are so disgusting, filled with feces and bugs and sickness, you would rather hang yourself or sign your life away in a plea agreement. And this is all before people are proven guilty. It does not make sense and is frankly unconstitutional. Why are we spending over $100,000 dollars a year to house an inmate for a bond that is less than $10,000? Why are we not using new tracking technology to monitor suspects pre-trial? The only answers I have is at best, we just don't care; we can sweep it under the rug and just forget about it. At worst, we live in a system that propagates this violence and not only wants it but depends on these cycles of incarceration, trauma and subjugation.
8
@Gabe I can guarantee that the folks sitting in Rikers aren't the Epsteins and Madoffs of the world, and who had big time lawyers, influential friends, rich family members, etc.
7
Rikers still exists because we continue to produce feral young men.
Rehabilitate the buildings there and forget listening to Progressives.
18
I'm sure Rikers Island is a complete and utter hellhole.
But who are we kidding? Anyone who has ever watched a single episode of "Law & Order" has already known this for decades.
To pretend otherwise is disingenuous at best and criminally negligent at worst. Shut it down, NYC.
SHUT. IT. DOWN.
It is incredibly troubling how little attention seems to be paid to this issue by fellow New Yorkers at this time, after months of issues of crisis level conditions continue to be reported.
The passing reference to the “abolition of prisons” movement is an insult to those that are working to abolish these carceral systems of brutality where people are caged, dehumanized, abused, and forgotten. And it is an insult to those subjected to these abuses.
This system is working now - exactly as designed. It is one that envisions caging human beings, ripping them from their communities, brutalizing them while there, and stamping them to ensure their continued return - whether through the probation system, the resulting trauma responses from time endured in prison, difficulty finding employment or housing, or myriad other predicable results.
This system will not respond to reforms. Closing Rikers won’t change the brutality that occurs within it. Smaller community based jails won’t change the carceral system’s fundamental premise that operates on ensuring human beings continue to be caged.
So shrugging off the abolitionist movement is an insult to the very notion of fixing these problems. They will only be fixed when we eliminate the carceral systems of imprisonment, police surveillance, and the prosecutorial legal frameworks that perpetuate it. That is police and prison abolition.
Why we continue to deny this reality is beyond me.
4
@Mia. So where should we be housing alleged/eventually convicted 1st Degree Murderer?
19
@Mia
I’m Charles Mason & I approve your comment.
15
Building mega-jails in the middle of residential communities against the wishes of the people who live there will bring Rikers to those neighborhoods. Rikers is just buildings. What goes on inside those buildings will continue in the four new jails because no other necessary changes will be made.
These skyscraper jails will not accommodate the current number of detainees that has been predicted will increase.
I belong to grassroots organizations that are fighting these jails. Fix Rikers and don’t destroy our communities.
54
Bail reform and anti-incarceration politics are ensuring that jails are populated by offenders charged only with more serious crime.
Parole and probation officers do not issue warrants for one or two instances of noncompliance with court orders. The noncompliance is repeated, or very serious.
Most people incarcerated in jail are not first timers.
Electronic monitoring is not well monitored.
The vaccination rates in jails are low because the prisoners refuse the vaccination programs.
It’s dangerous for police to arrest people for-or-with warrants, because they have an incentive to resist arrest. “I’m not going back to jail.”
Every city needs to fund the jails for the well being and protection of all citizens involved- the correctional systems staff, and the citizens held in custody.
21
I will never understand why otherwise intelligent people think the solution to a broken, underfunded system is to pour some concrete.
Rikers is not a problematic building. It’s a problematic system. People are routinely held there for weeks and months waiting for their day in court. Building new overcrowded understaffed jails won’t change that.
The first line of business, obviously, should be to hire enough judges to effectuate the "speedy trial" guaranteed by the constitution, because justice delayed is justice denied. Then, if Rikers is still overcrowded, reduce the population to designed capacity, either by freeing some inmates or by building more jails.
I also somehow doubt the guards at Rikers are trained to respect the inmates as fellow citizens. The dehumanizing conditions are infectious; they encourage violence on both sides. Would it be so terrible if every inmate were addressed as "sir"? How could such a change not also change the climate within?
Closing Rikers might have cathartic effect, like toppling a statue. But if the goal is humane treat and equal protection under the law, it’s the system that needs changing, not the building.
82
@James K. Lowden
Officers are not only required to address inmates as Sir or Ma’am but also to use the correct gender pronouns for each inmate or face disciplinary charges.
If you don’t know what you’re talking about maybe you should keep quiet.
12
Nicole Gelinas had an excellent article recently in the Post about how well-intentioned but misguided reforms have made Rikers so much worse in the last few years. It includes a lot of crucial information left out of narratives such as this one. Bellafante makes a passing reference to the lunatic "abolish jail" movement, but she really undersells the degree to which they are paralyzing the effort to make sensible changes.
36