The City Council is considering spending $1.1 million on a measure aimed at speeding up the closing of Rikers Island — a bid Mayor Eric Adams’ office slammed as a “redundant, bureaucratic measure.”
The new bill, introduced Wednesday by Committee on Criminal Justice Chair Sandy Nurse, would create an “Office of Coordinator for Rikers Island Closure” whose staff would report directly to the mayor.
It would also establish a coordinator role to oversee the transition from the troubled jail system to new borough-based lockups.
“As we continue to witness people in custody suffer and die, the moral imperative to close Rikers Island remains as urgent as ever,” said Nurse, who is also the co-chair of the council’s Progressive Caucus, noting at least five inmates have died at the jail so far this year.
The legislation was proposed after an independent commission determined last month that the city would not be able to meet its legally mandated deadline to close Rikers by 2027.
Judge Jonathan Lippman, who chairs the Independent Rikers Commission that released the 100-page report, said no one in city government is coordinating the massive interagency operation.
“There’s been no point person. It’s a revolving door at Rikers,” Lippman testified at a council Committee on Criminal Justice hearing Wednesday.
“It needs a Czar, someone who does nothing for 24 hours a day other than think about closing Rikers,” he said.
The council passed a law in 2019 setting the closure deadline for the infamous lockup — which has for years faced criticisms over unsafe conditions and overcrowding — based on a controversial plan that would build four borough-based jails.
Mayor Eric Adams has argued that the deadline can’t be met, and asked the council to amend the law.
“While we have always supported the closure of Rikers, we have been clear that we can’t be so idealistic that we’re not realistic about the true impacts a 2027 closure could have on our city’s public safety,” Adams said when the commission report was released in March.
A City Hall spokesperson said Wednesday the new proposed bill would be a “redundant, bureaucratic measure.”
The Adams administration already has staff members at various city agencies and multiple deputy mayors’ teams focused on closing Rikers and opening the borough-based jails, the spokesperson said.
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams – no relation to the mayor – admitted this month the jail won’t be able to close by 2027.
But Adams, who took over as council speaker in 2022, hasn’t taken steps to amend the law governing the deadline.
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