Statement on NYC Plan to Open Community-Based Jails
The de Blasio administration has announced a plan for opening community-based jails, as a step toward eventually closing the jail complex on Rikers Island. Here is my official statement on the matter:
The mayor’s recently announced plan to build new, community-based jails is an important step in the ongoing effort to close the jail complex on Rikers Island, and to move the city toward a more effective and humane criminal justice system.
While there is real momentum on this issue, the hard reality is that we won’t be able to close Rikers without fundamentally changing the way we deal with mental health consumers, who make up almost 40% of the jail population. Successful models for diverting people with mental health concerns from the criminal justice system exist in other communities and need to brought to New York City.
We applaud this important step by the mayor, and we will keep up the pressure to change the culture of our criminal justice system at all levels. New Yorkers should one day be able to look to this moment as the time we learned from our mistakes and forged a safer, more humane path forward.
More Info
- Closing Rikers Island: Details unveiled for 'modern community-based' jails
AM-NY article 8/16/18
Wednesday, 31 October 2018