New NYC Jail Plans Clear City Council Committee

NEW YORK — New York City's plan to replace Rikers Island with four new jails cleared a key committee vote Wednesday that sends it to the full City Council.

The council's Land Use Committee approved Mayor Bill de Blasio's proposal to build one new lockup in each borough but Staten Island by 2026. The jails will eventually house about 3,300 people, roughly half the city's current jail population, officials say.

The vote came as the de Blasio administration made a full-court press to win approval for the plan by marshaling public support and offering concessions such as height reductions and funding for criminal-justice programs.

Most of the land-use applications connected to the jails were approved 12-4, but two passed 11-5. Some supportive lawmakers said the city's plan, while imperfect, offered the best chance of ending the horrors that have long plagued Rikers' notorious facilities.

"If we do nothing, we allow this abusive incarceration system to remain in place for the next decade, or two, or three," said Council Member Vanessa Gibson, a Bronx Democrat. "Who has the kind of time to waste when lives are at stake?"

The council is scheduled to take a final vote Thursday on the $8.7 billion plan, along with a resolution that officials say will eventually ban jails from ever operating on Rikers again.

In the likely event that it's approved, the proposal will come with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the de Blasio administration for "criminal-justice-related programming and community-based investments," Council Member Adrienne Adams said Wednesday.

Adams said at the committee meeting that the investments would total $469 million, but the council later revised the figure to $391 million. That includes $125.7 million in previously budgeted funds, $142.5 million in new expenses and $122.3 million in capital projects, according to a council spokesperson.

"We are not only building more humane jail facilities, but we are also going to invest in programs and policies that prevent incarceration, provide alternatives to detention and help people who are detained find their footing again," said Adams, a Queens Democrat who chairs the Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions.

The hefty figure marked the de Blasio administration's latest apparent effort to sweeten a plan that has drawn vocal criticism from elected officials, community leaders and prison-abolition activists.

City officials announced Tuesday that the new lockups — which have been touted as smaller and safer — will be an average of 95 feet shorter than previously proposed. Each jail will have 886 beds and will range in total size from 806,000 to about 1.15 million square feet, according to the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice.

The reductions came alongside de Blasio's pledge to spend an additional $19 million on programs meant to connect incarcerated people with jobs.

The jails face continued opposition from some council members who argue closing Rikers will not erase the racism that undergirds the broader criminal justice system. They are joined by prison-abolitionists who say the city can shutter the complex without building new detention centers.

Council Member Ruben Diaz Sr., a conservative Bronx Democrat, criticized the city for jamming four large construction projects into a single land-use application.

"That has never been done. That is shutting out the communities," Diaz said before voting no on the proposal.