THE BLUEPRINT TO CLOSE RIKERS: NEXT STEPS
October 2026
Rikers is the opposite of safety — for incarcerated people, for staff, and for our communities. The jails are dangerous, decrepit, and cost almost $500,000 per incarcerated person per year. They hold more people with a serious mental illness than any psychiatric hospital in the country. People come out worse off and lack re-entry support. The result: 37% of people are back within a year. It’s 50% for people with mental illness. A safer, more effective borough-based system, closer to courthouses, services, and families will save taxpayers over $2 billion per year – and produce better outcomes.
For the first time in memory, we have a constellation of government leaders who recognize this and support closing Rikers. We have to seize this moment and accomplish all we can while that window is open.
The Independent Rikers Commission’s Blueprint to Close Rikers lays out the path forward. Our research, policy, subject matter & implementation expertise are helping make progress.
The faster we implement change, the safer NYC will be, and the more the jail population will drop. That means: bolstering treatment for people with serious mental illness, speeding up criminal cases, increasing support for crime victims, cutting reoffending, providing safe, humane facilities, and advancing Renewable Rikers. That’s how we build a system New Yorkers can be proud of.
Improve Outcomes and End the Artificial Inflation of the Jail Population. Rikers holds more people than necessary to ensure public safety. That’s due mainly to case delays and a failure to properly address serious mental illness, addiction, and reoffending.
Speed up criminal cases: 86% of people at Rikers are pretrial. On average, they’ve been jailed for 9 months and counting. Victims wait along with them for answers and accountability. If cases moved faster, there could be 2,000 fewer people in jail. The NYS Office of Court Administration has stepped up. Now it’s City-funded agencies’ turn: NYPD, the Medical Examiner, District Attorneys, Defenders, & DOC.
Focus on Serious Mental Illness, Addiction, and Reoffending: NYC must provide better treatment in the jails, and immediate connections to housing and treatment when people are released. We miss those opportunities today. Sometimes because of failed bureaucracy (ex: supportive housing or continuing drug treatment), sometimes because of service gaps (ex: inpatient psychiatric beds, residential treatment beds, or mobile mental health treatment teams). The results are predictable and often avoidable. Strong cooperation between NYC & NYS is critical, and has been lacking.
Extend the 2027 Closure Deadline. Rikers will not close by the August 2027 legal deadline, due to the Adams Administration’s lack of urgency & will, and COVID. Any extension must include clear, mandatory benchmarks that ensure swift, consistent progress on all fronts, no matter who is in office.
Focus on Conditions and Operations at Rikers. Reform should start by creating a model jail at Rikers, then rapidly expanding out. All necessary support should be provided to the strong leadership in place.
Build the Pipeline of Staff Needed for the Future. NYC and NYS should work together to grow the pipeline of health care and correctional workers necessary for a continuum of care and security. Everything should be on the table, from educational, economic, and career mobility benefits, to new training programs & schools in neighborhoods hardest hit by crime.
Invest Deeply in the Neighborhoods Housing New Borough Jails. The communities around the new borough jails are bearing a serious construction burden for the sake of us all. NYC should invest deeply in these four communities’ vitality, boosting businesses, housing, and green spaces. NYC must also meet all promises made in the 2019 Points of Agreement.
Advance the Future of Rikers Island: Renewable Rikers. Transforming Rikers into a hub for hard-to-site, yet essential environmental infrastructure would relieve neighborhoods from polluting plants, allow those sites to be reimagined, create jobs, save $10 billion in operational and repair costs, and help meet vital climate goals. Master planning and interim projects should start now.
Meet Medicaid Challenges and Opportunities. Federal Medicaid cuts and eligibility restrictions that begin in January 2027 threaten to kick huge numbers of formerly incarcerated people off Medicaid. NYC and NYS should collaborate to mitigate the harm. Meanwhile, NYS is leaving many millions on the table by failing to apply for Medicaid funds to cover treatment during the last 60 days of people’s incarceration and prepare people for re-entry.
Read a summary of the Commission’s Blueprint here. Read the full Blueprint here.
For more information, please contact the Commission’s Executive Director Zachary Katznelson at zachary@morejustnyc.org.
