San Francisco Frontiers - New York's notorious Rikers jail awaits elusive closure

The jail, which opened in 1932 and has counted John Lennon's killer Mark David Chapman, rapper Tupac Shakur, and Sex Pistols musician Sid Vicious among its residents, was due to shutter by 2027.

That was a pledge by former mayor Bill de Blasio, responding to persistent issues ranging from staff shortages, broad drug use and broken cell doors and windows.

He promised to replace Rikers with smaller facilities, but their construction is lagging behind schedule.

Lauren Stossel, a former psychiatrist at the jail who now sits on New York City's independent Board of Correction, has raised several concerns about the jail.

"Conditions generally, I think, are very poor," she told AFP, adding that violence is "rampant."

Rikers, which sits on the East River between the Bronx and Queens boroughs, primarily holds people who are awaiting trial in New York, as was the case for disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who took office this year, has strongly supported closing Rikers but has acknowledged the city will not meet the 2027 deadline.

- 'Hopeful' -

"We are very focused on advancing the closure of Rikers Island on the fastest timeline possible," said Dana Kaplan, who is overseeing the mayor's efforts to shutter the jail.

"This can't just be a project that's about replacing one set of buildings with the other. It really is about a transformational vision of our city's pretrial justice system."

"We see the closure of Rikers Island as part of shutting the door on what has been a stained history in our city of a correctional system that does nothing to serve the people in its custody or the staff that work there every day," Kaplan said.

The first calls to close Rikers date back to the 1960s, driven by dangers for both inmates and correction officers -- three of whom were injured by an inmate in early September.

Politicians and public opinion rallied to the cause in the 2010s partly due to fierce campaigning by families and former inmates.

Darren Mack, who was once held at Rikers and co-founded the Freedom Agenda criminal justice nonprofit, pointed to the "human cost and the financial cost" of the jail.

The Vera Institute of Justice nonprofit, which wants to see Rikers closed, has attributed 48 deaths in New York City jails from 2022 to 2025, while Rikers has an annual operating budget of nearly $3 billion.

Insha Rahman, president of Vera, said both the Covid-19 pandemic and the previous administration of mayor Eric Adams produced delays in shutting down Rikers.

But, she added, "I feel more hopeful today about the progress and the opportunity in front of us than I have at any other moment."

Until the jail can be closed, activists and city officials are calling for basic repairs such as to hundreds of cell doors that are broken.

They also want better social and educational programs, as well as a reduction in the inmate population from over 6,500 to 4,000 -- driven by quicker court proceedings and transferring people to other units.

I.Sanders--SFF