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Last week, I toured the jail complex at Rikers Island with colleagues in response to the alarming escalation of what we can only describe as a humanitarian crisis.
Jails and prisons are always grim, and Rikers especially so, but what’s happening right now is a genuine emergency.
Read my reflections on my visit here. [[link removed]]
Right now, the combination of corrections officers not showing up for work, others working double and even triple shifts, and the increased numbers of people incarcerated has led to a dangerous situation for everyone. People aren’t getting medical treatment or fed on time, staff are stretched thin, and people are getting desperate. Four have died in just the last few weeks, including one person from COVID this week after waiting for medical attention in intake for 10 days.
Yet when the Mayor was asked last week, he downplayed the emergency, saying it was not a humanitarian crisis.
John, I’ve seen it with my own eyes, the situation at Rikers is a humanitarian crisis.
Tell Mayor de Blasio he needs to take immediate steps to decarcerate and treat the situation like the emergency it is. [[link removed]'s%20happening%20at%20Rikers%20is%20a%20humanitarian%20crisis.%20We%20need%20you%20to%20act%20with%20urgency%20to%20save%20lives.%20Release%20city-sentenced%20individuals%20into%20community%20supervision,%20urge%20DAs%20not%20to%20set%20cash%20bail,%20and%20provide%20emergency%20assistance%20to%20keep%20people %20safe.]
I was one of the first elected officials to support the movement to close Rikers, and I still believe that decarceration, closing Rikers permanently, and investing in alternatives to incarceration are critical.
But our short term focus must be removing our fellow New Yorkers (folks held on bail, people waiting for their hearing, and those guarding them) from this emergency situation. Governor Hochul has just signed the Less is More Act and is releasing 191 people who are eligible, but that is not enough.
Taking the situation at Rikers as seriously as the current emergency requires means releasing city-sentenced individuals into community supervision via the 6-A Early Release Program, pressuring New York’s District Attorneys to stop asking for cash bail, and providing emergency assistance to alleviate the current crisis.
We know a safer, more just, New York is possible. We cannot sit idly by as fellow New Yorkers suffer abuse and neglect.
In Solidarity,
Brad
Brad Lander is a proven progressive leader in the City Council. Now he’s running for New York City Comptroller to help our city recover from the pandemic and rebuild a more equitable economy.
As Comptroller, Brad will hold the city government accountable to its promises to New Yorkers and secure a more sustainable future.
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