Goals of this Riker's Island Plan:
Smaller: Population Decrease by 25% to 7,000 in the next five years (Our goal is to reduce the average daily jail population. The City will work with every part of the criminal justice system to implement strategies that allow for this to happen.) There will be smaller jails across NYC, more near to courthouses. De Blasio's office will-
- Make it easier to pay bail
- Reduce jail sentences
- Expand pre-trial diversion to allow more defendants to wait for trial in the community instead of in jail Replace short jail sentences with programs that reduce recidivism
- Reduce the number of people with behavioral health needs in city jails
- Reduce the number of state parole violators in city jails
- Reduce the number of women in city jails
- Speed up case processing times
Fairer: The inmates will be treated fairer than before (Our goal is to improve the culture inside city jails by increasing support and opportunity for corrections officers and everyone in the City’s custody. The City has already invested over $90 million in professional development for corrections officers and in educational, vocational and recreational programming for incarcerated people to help reduce future returns to jail. To further improve the culture inside city jails, the City will)
Safer: Inmates will be saferer then the previous (Our goal is to ensure that those who work there and those who are confined in city jails have safe and humane facilities as quickly as possible. We will be improving the conditions of our jails majorly)
- Safer conditions
- No more corrupt guards/ better security
- Top technological advances
- Continue to make long-needed physical improvements to all city jails on-and off-Rikers Island using the more than $1 billion in funding that the Administration has already added to its capital plan over the last three years. Triple the number of dedicated housing units designed for individuals with serious mental illness, which have been shown to reduce violence.
- Improve officer safety by building a new training academy to ensure all corrections officers receive the best possible training.
- Enhance safety by implementing full camera coverage in all city jails by the end of 2017.
In the end, this plan will improve the well-being of the inmates in Rikers Island, as well as improve the state of New York City's society.
Heres some more info:
“The de Blasio administration’s plan to build four community-based jails took a significant step forward today with the City Planning Commission certifying the plans, representing the beginning of the seven-month public review process.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/inside-mayor-bill-de-blasio-plan-to-close-rikers-island
Rikers Island is a failing jail in New York City both inside and outside of the cells. Rikers Island is on a landfill, (a place to dispose of refuse and other waste material by burying it and covering it over with soil, especially as a method of filling in or extending usable land). Furthermore, the jail cells are filthy, with many rats running everywhere in such a tightly enclosed space. Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to fix these once unsolved problems by splitting the inmates on Rikers into individual jails located all around the city.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/nyc-seeks-to-move-mentally-ill-inmates-to-hospitals.html
“The de Blasio administration intends to develop facilities outside of Rikers Island and the city’s other jails that offer specialty care for inmates with mental-health issues, drug-related problems and complex medical needs, THE CITY has learned.”
The conditions of Rikers Island have been getting worse, with raw sewage overflowing, and other traumatic events that seem to occur quite frequently. Homer Venters explains the debilitating experiences that he faced in his book, Life and Death in Rikers Island.
“When the jail on Rikers Island finally closes, New York City needs to make sure the land there serves New Yorkers, instead of harming them. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Rikers Island to clear multiple roadblocks so New York City can fight climate change in a meaningful way. The right investment will allow us to build a solar farm, a wastewater treatment plant, and perhaps a sustainable green space there – even in the next few years. Doing so eliminates the need for the power plants and other aging facilities that have only widened the opportunity gap in places such as the Queensbridge Houses, Sunset Park and the South Bronx. New York City has been powered off the backs of these communities for too long, as many in power ignored the physical and social effects on these people.”
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/do-jails-kill-people
“There may be no worse place to live in New York City than on Rikers Island, and it is an even worse place to die—locked inside of a jail, forcibly separated from family and friends. Most people whose lives end on Rikers die of natural causes, but there is no doubt that some deaths there have been caused by the culture and conditions of Rikers itself.”
“The city plans on building the jails so it can close Rikers Island, a site that has been plagued with allegations of violence and human rights abuses...The detention center proposed for Kew Gardens would be approximately 30 stories high, consisting of 1.9 million square feet. The site would also include an infirmary that would serve inmates across the city.”
