New York City
Policy
Rikers commission aims to seize momentum with video campaign
The commission assembled to keep New York City on track to close Rikers Island is releasing a series of videos aimed at spurring progress forward.
Interviews & Profiles
Personality
City’s first ‘close Rikers czar’ starts this month
Dana Kaplan will work to get the complex replaced with four borough-based jails.
Criminal Justice
Policy
At Bellevue Hospital, Mamdani takes a step toward closing Rikers
The mayor touted the opening of a 104-bed therapeutic unit for incarcerated people to replace a Rikers Island infirmary.
Rikers Island
Policy
With new leadership, advocates are daring to hope for change at Rikers
Mamdani’s Department of Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards and federal Remediation Manager Nicholas Deml will work side by side. Their task – fixing a notoriously dysfunctional jail system – is daunting.
Interviews & Profiles
Personality
Stanley Richards wants Rikers closed. In the meantime, he works there.
The new correction commissioner is committed to borough-based jails, ending solitary confinement and collaborating with federal supervisors.
Rikers Island
Updated
Politics
A timeline on the closure of Rikers Island
Nicholas Deml will oversee New York City jails as remediation manager
Rikers Island
Policy
Mamdani moves to limit solitary confinement on Rikers
The New York City mayor’s order to bring jails into compliance with BOC rules signals a new approach to one of the city’s thorniest issues.
Immigration
Politics
NYC Council speaker gets ready for potential legal action over ICE on Rikers
The council voted Thursday to empower Speaker Adrienne Adams to sue Mayor Eric Adams and the Trump administration.
Opinion
Opinion
Opinion: We must address the mental health care needs of people leaving Rikers
The current system is deeply broken, and we are failing our city by failing to provide pathways to effective treatment post-incarceration.
Opinion
Opinion
Opinion: The Rikers federal monitor’s failures and the flawed Nunez consent decree
In contrast to previous consent decrees that were more narrowly tailored and helped reform Rikers Island jails, the Nunez Consent Decree tries to address systemic issues without a clear roadmap.
Opinion
Opinion
Opinion: A Rikers receiver must have the power to close it
Closing Rikers will provide a natural endpoint for the receivership and an opportunity for the city to take back control of its jails.
Opinion
Opinion
Opinion: Despite undeniable obstacles, Rikers Island can still be closed
Public officials have it within their power to take necessary steps toward permanently closing the atrocious jails on Rikers.
Opinion
Opinion
Commentary: Yet another hearing about sexual violence on Rikers Island
This time the City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee chair Sandy Nurse voiced her frustration at the Department of Correction’s continuing failure to provide transparency.
Nonprofits
NYN Media
Opinion: Rikers must end the inhumane treatment of New Yorkers with mental illness
Recent reports of the use of prolonged confinement and inadequate healthcare warrant an investigation by the Board of Correction.
Adams probes
Politics
Direction of Rikers receivership could soon change if Eric Adams is out and Jumaane Williams takes over
Should the mayor no longer be in office before Nov. 12, the public advocate would be in charge and answering a judge’s order to outline what a receiver’s role will look like.
Rikers Island
Opinion
Opinion: Is it possible to get the effort to close Rikers Island back on track?
The troubled jail’s closure has been cast adrift in a sea of half truths, bad ideas and polarized debate.
Criminal Justice
Politics
Rikers replacement jails won't be ready by 2027 deadline, City Hall budget director says
“We know it’s not going to happen by 2027,” Budget Director Jacques Jiha said of the plan to close Rikers Island, during a discussion of the city’s capital budget.
Nonprofits
NYN Media
Living a testament to humane, criminal justice reform efforts
An interview with Stanley Richards, a formerly incarcerated man of color now leading the Fortune Society.
New York City
Personality
Family of man incarcerated at Rikers who died after botched heart surgery wins $6.1 million jury award
Juan Francisco Hidalgo Flores died at a prison ward at Bellevue Hospital.
Opinion
Opinion