[From Our Partners] What to Do About Closing Rikers
Co-Authored for Vital City by ISLG Executive Director Michael Jacobson and Vital City Founding Co-Editor Elizabeth Glazer, who has served as the senior public safety advisor to the New York governor and the New York City mayor
Closing Rikers Island is more than a construction project. The result of passionate advocacy from formerly incarcerated people and others, the plan to close Rikers reflects what history and science have taught us: that safety comes when jail is used as a last resort and, when jail must be used, it is a place of safety and dignity for all.
In the past few decades, New York City has implemented successful strategies to increase safety while reducing incarceration. This approach lightened the impact of the criminal justice system on Black and Brown communities, although racial disparities persist. While New York City, like other large cities, suffered a large increase in gun violence over the past year—a rise that deserves focused attention—the data are definitive that this was not driven by people released pretrial. New York City remains the safest large city in America and has the lowest incarceration rate.
This report takes the lessons of the past, the currents of this moment, and the science that underlies it all to propose a way for New York City to close Rikers and realize its ambitions for a safer and fairer city.
Download the executive summary
Vital City is dedicated to advancing actionable ideas from the academy, government and community that will strengthen New York City’s social fabric. Upcoming releases include a series of “What To Do About” reports and interactives this Fall, and the first issue of Vital City this Winter.