New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will begin the 10-year process of closing the Rikers Island jail complex.
At a press conference on Friday, March 31, he explained that over time, the city’s inmate population would need to be brought down to 5,000, and that the city would need to build smaller jails in each borough.
A 27-member commission spent more than a year formulating a feasible plan—one which is expected to cost $10.6 billion over its 10-year lifespan.
Just a year ago, de Blasio dismissed the idea of closing Rikers as a “noble idea,” which couldn’t really work.
The 9-percent drop in crime over the past three years will help reduce New York’s inmate population to manageable levels, assuming the drop continues.
Mayor de Blasio said “Job One” was ensuring that crime rates continued to fall.
The prison complex currently holds some 10,000 inmates.
Reports of violence and abuse at the aging facility led to a push to close it.
