After an 85-year run as one of the United states most notoriously awful correctional facilities, Riker’s Island jail is officially retiring to the big pokey in the sky. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that the jail, infamously known for stories about inmate abuse, murder, and deplorable conditions, will gradually shut down and the final shuttering will happen a few years down the line.
After years of defending the jail and numerous attempts at cleaning its reputation, Mayor de Blasio finally threw in the towel and announced the facilities impending closing at a press conference on Friday:
“New York City will close the Rikers Island jail facility,” Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Friday. “It will take many years. It will take many tough decisions along the way. But it will happen. New York City has always been better than Rikers Island. I am proud to chart a course for our city that lives up to this reality. “
Rikers Island has been the primary incarceration facility for the city of New York for decades, and over that time has racked up a laundry list of incidents and embarrassments. From beating inmates for their failed suicide attempts to inmate riots over grilled cheese sandwiches, the prison has continually been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Rikers will gradually reposition the roughly 9,000 inmates that currently call the facility home.
Glen Martin, a former inmate at Rikers, has spent years trying to get New York City to close the jail. Martin co-founded the CloseRikers campaign many are crediting for putting enough pressure on the city to finally close Riker’s doors. Martin expressed his pleasure over Friday’s news in a statement:
“Today we made a step in the right direction toward safety and justice of all New Yorkers, especially those who have been harmed by Rikers Island,” Martin said in the statement. “For too long, New Yorkers – especially poor people of color – have languished in this grist mill, where human rights abuses are routine. Countless failed attempts at incremental reform have proven that the only viable solution is to close Rikers . . . As someone who served time at Rikers and who has a brother suffering there now, today’s news is especially meaningful to me.”
(Via Vox)