Rikers Island Closing: NYC Mayor Vows To Shut Down Notorious Prison

Rikers Island has become almost legendary – in the worst way possible – for its reputation as one of the hardest prisons in the land. For that reason, amongst others, there’s been pressure to shut down the notorious jail for years.

Now, for the first time ever, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is firmly on board with this plan, saying in a news conference, “New York City will close the Rikers Island jail facility. It will happen.”

This is a complete 180 from the mayor. As mentioned, there’s been pressure to shut down the island’s prison for years – even from the Governor himself – but de Blasio was pessimistic about that happening. Just last year he called the idea of closing Rikers a “noble idea,” but cited the costs and logistics of the plan as unconquerable.

Now he’s obviously changed his mind. While the hard numbers haven’t changed – the plan is expected to take around 10 years and cost upwards of 10 billion dollars – de Blasio came out strong supporting the shuttering of Rikers, saying, “New York City has always been better than Rikers Island. I am proud to chart a course for our city that lives up to this reality.

“There is no doubt that the road to Rikers Island’s closure will be long and arduous. It will require that local officials and stakeholders stand up and support facilities that meet our moral obligation to thousands of New Yorkers whose lives we will never turn our backs on."

The plan at this point, it seems, is to build new facilities in each of NYC’s burrows and redistribute the prison population accordingly. One looming question, however is what’s to be done with the infamous island after it’s not housing criminals anymore.

But city planners have a lot of years to figure how to make all this work. What’s important now is that plans are finally in action to change NYC for the better.