October 18, 2019

Rikers Island: The Closing of the Notorious Jail, Explained

By Aaron Randle

It's Friday. Break free into the weekend.

Weather: Mostly sunny and cool today, with a high in the upper 50s and a stiff breeze at times. Lots of sun on Saturday, giving way to some clouds on Sunday; highs both days in the low 60s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Monday (Shemini Atzeret).

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Rikers Island, one of the country's most notorious correctional facilities, is closing. The City Council approved plans on Thursday to close Rikers, a jail complex with nearly 10,000 beds, by 2026.

The closing marks the latest step in a national movement to improve jail systems and to reverse years of mass incarceration that supporters of the plans say disproportionately affected black and Hispanic people, my colleague Matthew Haag reports.

"For decades, this city and this country's answer to every societal problem was to throw people in jail," Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, said on Wednesday. "Nothing symbolizes those failed policies in this city more than Rikers Island."

What's the plan?

The Rikers complex, which sits in the East River near La Guardia Airport, will be replaced by four smaller jails, one each in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.

Collectively, the jails will hold about 3,300 prisoners daily. Officials say New York's declining crime rate makes the downsizing from about 7,000 inmates now at Rikers possible. At a peak during the crack epidemic of the 1990s, city jails had nearly 23,000 daily inmates.

What critics are saying

Critics worry about what would happen if the city cannot reduce the number of inmates by more than half from today. "I don't trust the numbers," said Elias Husamudeen, president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association. "What are you going to do if you end up with 5,000 people?"

Others question the use of city funds. The total project is expected to cost $8 billion. Some believe that it would have been much less expensive to simply make repairs to the current facility.

Others, including the prison abolitionist group No New Jails NYC, believe the funds should not go to building new jails at all and instead should be diverted to neighborhood services.

Spearheading criminal justice reform

Closing Rikers, supporters say, is a momentous step forward for New York.

Officials say the new jails will be safer, smaller and more humane. They will also offer job training, mental health services and educational opportunities for inmates. The new network of detention centers would establish the city as a jail-reform leader.

Mayor de Blasio called the project "a historic opportunity to change course and recognize the dignity of the individuals and communities that have had their humanity overlooked for far too long."

FROM THE TIMES

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Ocasio-Cortez Will Be Very Tough to Beat. Why Are 11 People Trying?

The first-term congresswoman has attracted a flood of Republican and Democratic challengers. Money is flowing in all directions.

by vivian wang

He Defied a Code. His Neighbors Turned Him In for Murder, Police Say.

A 20-year-old is charged in a shooting that left a rival dead and 11 wounded at a neighborhood reunion in Brooklyn, the police say.

by ashley southall

Want more news? Check out our full coverage.

The Mini Crossword: Here is today's puzzle.

What we're reading

What we're watching: Sam Roberts and Christine Quinn, the former City Council speaker, discuss Mayor de Blasio's agenda for the next two years on "The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts." The show airs tonight at 8 p.m., on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. [CUNY TV]

City officials want a task force created to examine the surge in suicide attempt rates among black teens. [Daily News]

Coming up this weekend

Friday

Dance it out to a lineup of DJs at "Papi Juice Vol. 50: Papi Dreams" at Elsewhere in Brooklyn. 11 p.m. [$20]

Join the author of "Who Put This Song On?" for a conversation at Books Are Magic in Brooklyn. 7:30 p.m. [Free]

Saturday

Usher in the fall season with pumpkin decorating, obstacle courses and the L train brass band at the Harvest Festival on the Pier 6 lawns in Brooklyn. 11 a.m.-2 p.m. [Free]

Listen to 24 sets from more than 70 musicians over 24 hours at the Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn. 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 p.m. Sunday. [$60]

Sunday

Bring your pup to the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade at the East River Park Amphitheater in Manhattan. Noon. [Free]

Head to Pumpkin Point (a.k.a. Nolan Park) for a patch featuring crafts and over 5,000 pumpkins on Governors Island in Manhattan. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. [Free]

— Melissa Guerrero and Julia Carmel

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times's culture pages.

And finally: Modern Love, the series

The Times's Melissa Guerrero writes:

From celebrating love found later in life to remembering a beloved doorman, the Modern Love column (and podcast and newsletter and anthology) is taking its treasured love stories to the screen.

The New York Times column turned TV series premieres today on Amazon Prime Video. The eight-episode series is inspired by eight stories out of 700-plus essays published over the years.

The process of narrowing it down was layered and tedious, but Daniel Jones, the editor of the column and a consulting producer for the series, knows this process of elimination well. He's been doing it for over a decade.

"I'm just really glad that it has expanded into these other ways of presenting stories," Mr. Jones said. "There are ways that I had started to feel burned out, too, and this has just made it so interesting in so many different ways."

The series boasts a noteworthy lineup — like Dev Patel, Tina Fey, John Slattery and Anne Hathaway — as people juggling complicated circumstances of love in all its different forms.

"I think it's been a good reminder to me that life is limited and the relationships in your life are the most important," said Miya Lee, the projects assistant who helps produce the Modern Love and Tiny Love Stories columns. "Being exposed to thousands and thousands of stories makes you realize that everyone does have a story."

Metropolitan Diary: Cinnamon

Dear Diary:

I used to run into Cinnamon every morning as I walked through Central Park on my way to my job in Midtown.

"This way, Cinnamon," her owner would call out. What a nice name for a dog, I thought

One morning, I overheard a woman who was reaching out to pet Cinnamon asking the dog's owner if she was friendly.

"She is," he said, starting to walk off. "I'm not."

I chuckled as Cinnamon hurried after him. The woman stood there open-mouthed. When I got my new Pomeranian, a tiny ball of orange fur, I knew right away what I was going to name her.

The next time I saw Cinnamon and her owner, I waved. He squinted. I told him I had named my puppy Cinnamon. He broke into a smile.

"Great name," he said, giving me a thumbs-up.

As I hurried off to work I could hear him repeating: "Such a great name, such a great name."

— Masaki Sasaki

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