**PRESS RELEASE**
November 19, 2025
Contact: gabriel sayegh, gabriel@katalcenter.org | (646) 335 2264
Sarah Monaghan, smonaghan@jjay.cuny.edu | (929) 452 6436
NEW REPORT: 60% of the Population at Rikers Is In Need of Mental Health Treatment & Their Length of Stay Is Growing Far Longer Than Other Detained People
As Jail Population Continues to Grow, Report Finds An Alarming Gap in Treatment and Care; Closing Rikers Requires Addressing These Gaps & Reducing Jail Population
Report Outlines A Continuum of Safe and Effective Community-Based Jail Diversion Strategies to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Health Issues Incarcerated at Rikers
New York, NY – Today, the Data Collaboration for Justice at John Jay College and the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice released a new report titled: Rikers Island and Mental Health: Pathways Toward Community-Based Diversion and Jail Population Reduction. The report presents updated data about the mental health needs of people held in NYC jails, reveals stories of people directly impacted by the horrors of Rikers Island, and identifies 15 comprehensive recommendations for safe and effective jail diversion strategies.
In 2019, the New York City Council approved a plan to close the jails on Rikers Island; City law requires closure by 2027. One of the essential components was reducing the City’s daily jail population. Yet since the spring of 2020, the jail population has grown to nearly 7,000—alongside a ballooning sub-population with demonstrable mental health needs. Along with the rising jail population, the conditions of Rikers remain dangerous and deplorable for incarcerated people and correctional staff, alike. Since Mayor Eric Adams took office in 2022, at least 45 people have died in city jails. Conditions have become so severe that in May 2025, a U.S. District Court Judge issued a decision to take Rikers Island out of the City’s control and appoint an independent “remediation manager” to address widespread constitutional violations.
The Adams administration has missed numerous legal and process benchmarks required to close Rikers, making the 2027 deadline increasingly unfeasible,. This means the next mayoral administration taking office in January 2026 will inherit delays, and need to work quickly to quell the ongoing crises on Rikers Island and make meaningful strides towards its closure. With the aim of reducing the number of people on Rikers in need of mental health treatment and advancing the city’s commitment to shut down Rikers, this report offers a range of recommendations for the next mayor and city council. It also provides legislative recommendations for the upcoming 2026 legislative session in Albany.
The report includes the latest data on mental health in NYC jails, including mental health prevalence, medical conditions, missed medical appointments, gender and racial disparities, disproportionate gender impact, disproportionate lengths of jail stay, and more. The report also offers four powerful and heartwrenching case studies that highlight the trauma, dehumanization, and lack of treatment that people with mental health diagnoses face while incarcerated at Rikers.
The report concludes with 15 recommendations broken down into the following five categories:
- City-Led Continuum of Expanded Diversion Options
- Alternatives for People at All Stages of Mental Competency Proceedings
- Greater Access to Mental Health Courts
- Effective Linkages from Courts and Jails to Community-Based Treatment
- Hospital-Based Secure Therapeutic Beds in Lieu of Rikers
Statements from authors, impacted people, and community groups:
“Jailing large numbers of people with serious mental health needs is neither humane nor reflective of a data-driven approach to public safety,” said Michael Rempel, Executive Director of the Data Collaborative for Justice, and report co-author. “While most of our proposals can’t be implemented overnight, they can be important pieces of a methodical agenda to slash unnecessary incarceration step by step—paving the way to finally close the atrocious jails on Rikers. To increase the chances of a real impact, we tried in our report both to highlight much-needed treatment investments and to outline concrete ways of successfully re-routing people from the courts and jails where they are now to new community services the City should create.”
“For too long, our city has criminalized and incarcerated people with mental health issues at Rikers Island instead of providing them with dignified treatment and support in the community,” said Yonah Zeitz, advocacy director of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, and report co-author. “Our members, many of whom were incarcerated at Rikers or who currently have loved ones on the island, come from Black, Brown, and low-income communities that have faced the brunt of this harmful and ineffective policy. Under Mayor Adams, this crisis has only worsened. Over the last four years, the jail population has drastically increased — particularly for those with mental health needs — and Adams has outright abandoned the plan to close Rikers.
While this callousness has caused real harm and death, we know it doesn’t have to be this way. This report offers clear and concrete steps for the incoming administration to provide appropriate care for people with mental health needs, decarcerate city jails, and get the city back on track to shut Rikers. We look forward to working with elected officials at the city and state levels, community partners, mental health practitioners, and others to actualize these fifteen recommendations and reduce the city’s reliance on incarceration and shut Rikers once and for all.”
Tracy Barber, member of Treatment Not Jails, excerpt from Case Study: “Once I got to Rikers, my mental and physical health started declining rapidly. I was put into the mental health observation unit; however, I was denied access to the medication that had been most effective in stabilizing me. As my health continued to worsen, they put me into building 9, and I was put on suicide watch. I was locked in a cell all day and night; it was incredibly isolating and dehumanizing. As my health worsened, I developed intense paranoia and religious psychosis. I started hearing voices for the first time in my life. It reached a point where I was even afraid to leave the cell and the unit. I stopped eating and lost a lot of weight. The food for vegetarians at Rikers is absolutely horrid. This was the most terrifying and awful thing I have ever experienced… I hope in the future other people are able to get access to treatment programs right after they are arrested instead of having to go through the hardships and suffering while incarcerated at Rikers.”
Charles Gibson, member of Project Connect at the Church of Gethsemane, excerpt from Case Study: “I spent three months incarcerated at Rikers. On a daily basis, I saw violence, assaults, and dangerous situations play out again and again. It was very traumatic. The access to programming is limited, and there is not much rec. time, which ends up creating conflict among the guys locked up. It is truly a horrible place to experience. I typically don’t take certain medications for my mental health because of the side effects, however, when incarcerated at Rikers, I end up taking the medicine because the numbness helps me cope with the intense environment, and it kills time. The endless waiting is horrible. This isn’t how it should be. I should never have been sent to Rikers to begin with.”
Danielle Shanks, Member of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice, excerpt from Case Study: “Words cannot explain how terrible Rikers Island is—it fails to keep people safe and harms human lives. It is shameful that Rikers is considered the city’s largest mental health facility when it’s a jail complex and does not provide wrap-around services for people like my son who have a severe mental illness… There is a great need to expand and fund mental health courts and diversion programs. It is incredibly unjust that nearly 60% of the incarcerated population in NYC jails has a severe mental illness. Immediate action is needed, and the recommendations from this report are long overdue.”
Ansley, member of Treatment Not Jails, excerpt from Case Study: “When he was arrested, he had his prescription on him that clearly indicated he was on the schizophrenia spectrum. I was shocked to learn that this was completely disregarded. There was no coordination between the NYPD and the court system to get my son the treatment he deserved and urgently needed. My son should have been escorted to psych for an evaluation not Rikers with zero mental evaluation. This would have allowed him to be sent to Bellevue or another hospital. He was clearly in mental health distress and the judge gave him bail and sent him to Rikers. The system failed my son… My heart breaks for all the mothers and families that have to go through similar situations. No family should have to go through this. It’s worse than having a loved one in the ICU. I hope action is taken to close Rikers and ensure people dealing with mental health issues get the treatment they deserve and are never sent to that island of torture and inhumanity.”
Stan Germán, Executive Director of New York County Defender Services, said: “Rikers has become a revolving door of harm for people with mental health needs. It is an institution that deepens illness, destabilizes people, and strips them of their chance at recovery. In addition to the urgent need to close Rikers, we must also look toward meaningful solutions. As this new report recommends, the Treatment Court Expansion Act provides a critical path forward by expanding and streamlining access to treatment courts, ensuring more people can access the mental health services they need in their communities. New York must finally break its reliance on a jail system that punishes illness and invest in evidence-backed care.”
Minister Chibueze Okorie, Director of Project Connect at the Church of Gethsemane, said: “Project Connect is a successful 37-year-old program of Church of Gethsemane that connects men and women who are incarcerated and formerly incarcerated to a faith community from outside the prison system. Some individuals in Project Connect with mental health issues are released without adequate resources for housing and treatment. Communities are affected because the stigma attached to their incarceration makes it especially difficult for their re-entry into communities, with not enough treatment plans available upon their release. Many who came to Project Connect were released with no support for further mental health evaluations or support.
People who are diagnosed with mental health issues should be receiving adequate treatment and better care, and not continuing to be incarcerated at Rikers. It is more expensive to incarcerate people with mental health issues than to provide treatment and specialized care. Community-based supportive housing programs are more effective than incarceration, and thereby provide intensive care and other services to them. That is why we support the recommendations of this report and hope to see the city implement them.”
Maggie Mortali, CEO at National Alliance on Mental Illness of New York City (NAMI-NYC), said: “We continue to see people with significant mental health needs pushed into a jail system that was never designed to provide care. Our city has the opportunity to shift to proven community-based supports that reduce trauma and strengthen public health. We must invest in treatment, housing, and diversion programs that meet people’s needs before and after contact with the legal system. NAMI-NYC stands with advocates and families calling for immediate action, and for solutions rooted in dignity and care,” said NAMI-NYC CEO Maggie Mortali.”
Sharon McLennon Wier Ph.D., MSEd., CRC, LMHC, Executive Director, Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY), said: “The Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY) supports the need for people with medical and mental health disabilities incarcerated at Rikers Island to receive disability-related accommodations. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a person having a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits major life activities are entitled to reasonable accommodations to address his or her disability. Individuals with disabilities who are housed at Rikers Island are entitled to these accommodations as well. The report demonstrates that people with disabilities housed at Rikers Island are not receiving their basic needs/access to medications, medical appointments, and services to address their specific disability needs. These actions must be immediately rectified because disability-related rights are human rights regardless of your address/zip code.”
Background:
The Data Collaborative for Justice (DCJ) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice conducts research on important questions about the criminal legal system and its role in creating safe, just, and equitable communities. Our projects encompass law enforcement, pretrial justice, case processing, sentencing, mass incarceration, and racial and ethnic disparities across the justice continuum. DCJ seeks to collaborate with a wide range of organizations and to facilitate an evidence-informed dialogue that can put us on a path towards a criminal legal system we all deserve. More information about the Data Collaborative for Justice’s work is available at: www.datacollaborativeforjustice.org.
The Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice develops intergenerational leadership and organizing capacity to build community-based power and win systemic change for equity, health, and justice. Our members are directly impacted by mass incarceration, including their families and loved ones. We lead the #ShutRikers campaign, which works to cut the correctional populations and the budgets used for caging people; shut down Rikers Island; and invest in real public safety: housing, health care, education, and jobs. More information about the Katal Center’s work is available at: www.katalcenter.org
###