FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Contact: Yonah Zeitz, yonah@katalcenter.org • 347-201-2769
Follow on X @KatalCenter | #ShutRikers | #CutShutInvestNY
As Criminal Justice Committee Meets Today, Community Groups Call on the Council to Hold Adams Accountable for Shutting Rikers and Addressing Dangerous Conditions
Federal Court on the Verge of Appointing an Independent Receiver to Take Over Rikers, Yet City Council has Not Weighed In
New York, NY: Today, the City Council Committee on Criminal Justice held a joint hearing with the Contracts Committee on jail contracts related to commissary, phone calls, and construction. As Mayor Adams delays and outright ignores the legal and process benchmarks required for closing Rikers, the City Council has yet to take any meaningful steps to hold him accountable to the closure plan.
In 2019, the city council passed a package of bills that would shutter the jail complex by 2026 – later changed to 2027. News broke earlier this month that the construction timelines for the borough-based jails have been delayed to 2032 – five years after the 2027 Rikers closure deadline. Under the Adams administration, the Rikers Island jail complex has been mired in worsening, overlapping crises. As violence spikes and dysfunction reign at the Department of Correction, at least 33 people have died in NYC jails under Mayor Adams.
The conditions at Rikers have gotten so bad that a federal court is on the verge of appointing a federal receiver to take over the jail complex. In November 2024, Judge Swain said she was “inclined” to appoint an independent receiver, citing the “grave and immediate threats of danger” incarcerated people face. Last Friday, the Adams administration attempted to undermine this process by requesting the Court appoint the current DOC Commissioner, Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, as a “Compliance Director.”
Community groups call on the City Council to hold the mayor accountable for closing Rikers and to join the call for support in appointing an independent receiver at Rikers – through the passage of City Council Resolution 183.
Statements from community, advocacy, and faith-based groups:
Statement from Melanie Dominguez, New York Director of Organizing, Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. “New Yorkers, including our members who have been incarcerated at Rikers and who have family members of people currently incarcerated there, are deeply concerned about the crisis unfolding in city jails. Since Mayor Adams took office, he has ignored the law as it relates to closing Rikers; instead, he has worked overtime to fill the jail with more Black and brown people and keep it open. The jail population is increasing substantially, and at least 33 people have died in the city’s jail system since Adams became mayor in 2022. The City Council can no longer stand idly by as the mayor abandons the plan to close Rikers and works to subject more New Yorkers to the horrors of Rikers.
Until Rikers is shut down, the federal courts must appoint an independent receiver to take over city jails and improve conditions for both the people incarcerated there and those who work there. The City Council must swiftly pass Resolution 183, which calls for the appointment of an independent receiver. With this recent attempt by the Adams administration to undermine this process and maintain the status quo, this is a concrete step this council can take right now to address the crisis at Rikers.”
King Downing, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Healing Justice Program NY/NJ, said: “There’s an old African saying – ‘In the court of chickens, the roach never gets justice.’ The endless delays and backpedaling in this process are inexcusable in a city that spins pennies on communities for every dollar spent on jails and police. We will stop these jail delays – and we call on the Council and others to join us.”
Sharon McLennon Wier, Ph.D., MSEd., CRC, LMHC, Executive Director of CIDNY, said: “The Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY) supports that people with disabilities who are residents at Rikers Island should receive their disability-related accommodations. The residents of Rikers Island are currently living in deplorable conditions that must be addressed. Having community advocates along side a federal receivership officer can ensure a better quality of life for these residents.”
Anthony Feliciano, VP of Community Mobilization, Housing Works, said: “The crisis at Rikers Island is a failure of our city. Violence, systemic racism, and neglect continue to devastate Black and Latinx communities, who make up the overwhelming majority of those jailed. Since Mayor Adams took office, 33 lives have been lost in our city’s jails—this is unacceptable. Rikers must be shut down. Until that happens, the federal courts must appoint a receiver to intervene and prevent further tragedy. We urge the New York City Council to act now and pass Resolution 183 to address this crisis before more lives are lost.”
Michael McQuillan, from the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue’s Social Justice Committee, said: “How many human beings unconstitutionally held in horrific lethal conditions inside Rikers Island jails must die before Council Members pass Resolution 183 for a Federal Receiver to transcend Mayor Adams’ abject defiance of its six year old closure law? ‘I just came out of Rikers,’ Jimmy’s plaintive voice divulged when he crossed my path in Brooklyn. He added that ‘They beat me’ as I by reflex gave him money for a meal I knew was less than he deserved. His teary pleading eyes burned holes in my heart. I pass that searing sense to you, our would-be leaders. The time to act is now.”
Background: #ShutRikers is a campaign of the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. Katal and our allies are working 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.
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