Two weeks after a federal monitor dropped a scathing report on worsening conditions at the Rikers Island jail facility, the New York City Council speaker has revived a commission to help make sure the troubled jailed facility is shut down by August 2027.
Speaker Adrienne Adams said Monday she reappointed the Independent Rikers Commission to get the plan to close Rikers “back on course.”
“It is clear that Rikers is not serving New Yorkers and continues to undermine public safety in our city,” she said.
The revived commission will be chaired by former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and will work with new members from the community, criminal justice system and government to lay out a refreshed blueprint to help ensure the closure of Rikers.
Lippman said in a statement that his priorities include safely reducing the jail population, focusing on people with serious mental illness, giving people access to speedy trials and accelerating the construction of borough-based jails.
“Rikers has to close as soon as possible. The jails there hurt public safety and endanger the lives of everyone inside their walls. They are a stain on the soul of our city,” he said in a statement.
Darren Mack, Freedom Agenda co-director, said its network of advocates for incarcerated people hoped Mayor Eric Adams would work with the commission on its goals.
“Getting Rikers closed by the August 2027 deadline and giving people as many offramps from the horrors there as possible in the meantime is a life-or-death issue,” he said.
Six years ago, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an ambitious plan to close the jails on Rikers Island and replace them with smaller ones across the city. The City Council then sealed the deal, passing two laws requiring the last incarcerated person to leave the island by Aug. 31, 2027.
Around that time, the Independent Rikers Commission was first established by Melissa Mark-Viverito, the former Council speaker.
But as that deadline nears, the mayor…
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