Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Council leaders say they’ve reached an agreement to close the notorious Rikers Island jail complex and house inmates in smaller jails around the city.
De Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson, a fellow Democrat, announced the deal Wednesday, just hours after a state watchdog commission said Rikers was one of the five worst local jails in the state.
The mayor said the agreement is a “huge step forward” in closing Rikers, where violence, mismanagement and corruption have come under scrutiny.
The plan calls for incarcerating inmates at existing jails in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens and at a new facility in the Bronx.
De Blasio says such a plan will create a “safer and fairer” borough-based jail system.
(AP)
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De Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson, a fellow Democrat, announced the deal Wednesday, just hours after a state watchdog commission said Rikers was one of the five worst local jails in the state.
first , maybe if the state took there prisoners like there supposed to do , we would not have all the overcrowding and violence at rikers.
second , i don’t want a jail; in my backyard.