In 2019, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio scored progressive points by signing into law his “smaller, safer, fairer jail system,” pledging to invest $8.7 billion to build four borough jails that would house no more than 4,000 inmates total, and to close Rikers Island by 2026.
None of those three numbers — $8.7 billion, 4,000 inmates or 2026 – was true.
Mayor Adams should scale down this program before it consumes the city’s scarce resources and sucks up even more money needed for fixing bridges, schools and parks.
The “borough-based jails” program that Adams inherited in 2022 never made sense.
The problems that plague Rikers — falling-apart buildings, inmates isolated from visitors and lawyers — can be corrected in place.
The city can build new buildings there, and can provide frequent and free bus transportation (and even a ferry) for visitors.
Continue reading the entire piece here at the New York Post
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.
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