Rikers Island

Editor's Note

Editor's Note: How many more will die at Rikers?

The city keeps sending people to the infamous jail complex, and people keep dying.

Policy

More people have died in New York City jails than previously known

Since 2014, at least 120 people held in city jails have died while in custody or shortly after being released on medical grounds – but some of those deaths have gone unreported.

Policy

Here's how parents are really treated on Rikers

Unable to exercise their parental rights, incarcerated fathers and mothers can often feel isolated from their children.

Rikers Island

Elected officials sound the alarm on proposed city budget cuts to Rikers

Amid proposed cuts to jail-based programming, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams says the Eric Adams administration is at a crossroads

Rikers Island

Comptroller and public advocate tour Rikers, call on feds to take over Rikers

After touring the jail complex, Brad Lander and Jumaane Williams said the city cannot be trusted to manage Rikers Island.

Opinion

Opinion: We can’t give up on closing Rikers

The city can still close the jail by 2027 if it invests in alternatives to incarceration and supportive housing.

New York City

Urgency to improve Rikers conditions grows as inmate hunger strike enters Day 6

Advocates on Thursday demanded Mayor Eric Adams step in to improve conditions at a rally outside the jail complex.

Rikers Island

Don’t leave people to die from COVID-19 on Rikers Island

The conditions are crowded and unsanitary and the spread inside will eventually get outside.

New York City

Rikers Island should get green infrastructure

When Rikers Island closes, use the land to fight climate change, pollution and environmental injustice.

New York City

Rafael Salamanca on his biggest land use issues

New York City Councilman Rafael Salamanca talks Amazon, homelessness and jails.

MagazineShow All

Rikers Island

Akeem Browder, brother of Kalief, disappointed in de Blasio’s bail response

Akeem Browder, brother of Kalief Browder, criticized Mayor Bill de Blasio’s lukewarm response to a foundation plan to bail out women and minors in New York City.

New York City

The elected officials opposing the four new jails to replace Rikers

New York City has proposed to build four new jails to replace Rikers in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

New York City

Rikers inmates debate policies including pretrial detention

Rikers Island inmates debate program might help incarcerated people re-enter society.

New York City

Lippman Commission calls for expanding supervised release

Bail reform stalled in the state Legislature this year despite a push from the grassroots to the governor, but the Lippman criminal justice commission is releasing a report saying that New York City doesn’t have to wait until next year to keep more New Yorkers out of jail.

New York City

Why New York should eliminate cash bail for smaller crimes

Race, wealth and geography should not determine whether someone is free or locked up.