{"id":15027,"date":"2026-04-07T19:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/15027\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:05:10","slug":"mamdanis-first-100-days-mayor-opens-bellevue-medical-outpost-for-rikers-detainees-saying-its-a-step-toward-closing-the-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/15027\/","title":{"rendered":"MAMDANI\u2019S FIRST 100 DAYS: Mayor opens Bellevue medical outpost for Rikers detainees, saying it\u2019s a step toward closing the jail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, April 7, marks the 97th day of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around his first 100 days in office<\/a>. We are closely tracking his progress on fulfilling campaign promises, appointing key leaders to government posts, and managing the city\u2019s finances. Here\u2019s a summary of what the mayor did yesterday and today.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> unveiled on Tuesday morning a long-delayed, 104-bed medical unit at Manhattan\u2019s Bellevue Hospital for people in custody with serious health needs, casting the facility as an early step toward closing Rikers Island even as the city remains far from meeting its legal deadline to shut the troubled jail complex.<\/p>\n

Standing in the foyer of NYC Health + Hospitals\/Bellevue, Mamdani framed the new outposted therapeutic housing unit as a break from the conditions on Rikers, where he said detainees with serious health and mental health needs have too often gone without timely care.<\/p>\n

\u201cRikers, as we know, is broken,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cToday, we are charting a different course, one that diverts from the path of neglect and begins the process of closing Rikers Island once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani said the Bellevue facility has 104 beds and will serve \u201cpeople in custody with acute medical conditions and serious mental illness.\u201d He said patients would begin moving in on Wednesday and argued that the new setup would sharply cut the delays in getting care off the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatients will begin moving in tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cRather than wait critical hours and travel off-site to get the treatment they need, specialty services will be just an elevator ride away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor said roughly 100 incarcerated people would begin moving into the Bellevue unit on Wednesday, a shift he said would allow the city to close the North Infirmary Command on Rikers and transfer it to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services in June. He later told reporters that about two-thirds of the people previously held in NIC had been housed there for overflow, not because they needed that level of care.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mamdani says patients will begin moving into the city\u2019s new outposted therapeutic housing unit on WednesdayPhoto by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

THE CITY<\/a> previously reported that the long-delayed unit\u2019s projected cost had ballooned from $130 million to $241 million and that the project, first unveiled in 2019, was originally slated to open in 2022.<\/p>\n

At a March Board of Correction meeting, DOC officials said construction and IT work at Bellevue were nearly complete, but declined to give an opening date, saying staffing remained the \u201cprimary hurdle.\u201d Assistant Commissioner Alex Maldonado said the site would require additional uniformed staff because it would operate as a separate facility, not just another infirmary floor inside an existing jail. Pressed by board members about the delay, she said DOC wanted a staffing plan that \u201cdoesn\u2019t borrow from Peter to pay Paul\u201d and added, \u201cMy team wants nothing more than to open as soon as possible. We are working diligently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the staffing concerns that had reportedly held up the opening on Tuesday, Mamdani said the city had faced concerns about filling roughly 130 to 140 positions at the Bellevue site, but that officials had received more than 400 applications from correction officers. He pointed to that interest as further evidence that the new unit would improve conditions not only for detainees but also for officers working in the jail system.<\/p>\n

Mamdani says Rikers closure deadline \u2018practically impossible\u2019 to meet<\/p>\n

The opening comes as Rikers remains under intense scrutiny over jail conditions and deaths in custody. A total of 6,716 people are incarcerated there as of April 6, according to the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Two people in custody have died on Rikers since Mamdani took office. Under former Mayor Eric Adams, 48 people died in New York City jails or immediately upon release from Department of Correction custody, per the Vera Institute.<\/p>\n

Mamdani said reducing the jail population would require both physical changes and policy changes, including faster case processing, diversion programs and other measures. He noted that \u201cthe vast majority of New Yorkers who are held on Rikers Island are being held pre-trial\u201d and said some have been stuck there \u201cnot just for months, but sometimes for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement also came as Rikers remains under federal court oversight. In January, Chief U.S. District Judge Laura Swain appointed Nicholas Deml, the former commissioner of the Vermont Department of Correction, as remediation manager. Deml appeared at Tuesday\u2019s event but declined to comment on the receivership, saying, \u201cunder the court order, we\u2019re not permitted to communicate with the press,\u201d before calling the Bellevue unit \u201creally an impressive facility upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani also acknowledged how far the city remains from the original timetable for shutting Rikers. He said the previous administration\u2019s inaction has made the 2027 deadline \u201cpractically impossible\u201d to meet. \u201cIt is going to take us quite a bit of time to ensure that we can put our city back on the path that the city council voted for in 2019,\u201d he said, adding that the effort would require \u201ca whole of government approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Councilmembers Yusef Salaam and Selvena Brooks-Powers tour the city\u2019s new outposted therapeutic housing unit at Bellevue Hospital.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell \"\"Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams called the opening \u201ca long overdue step toward aligning our justice system with basic human dignity.\u201d He said people on Rikers with serious health conditions have had to endure \u201chours-long transfers just to access routine care\u201d and said moving care directly into a hospital setting would reduce harm and improve outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bringing care directly to New York City Health and Hospitals like Bellevue, we are reducing harm, improving health outcomes, and treating people as patients first, not just as people in custody,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Correction Commissioner Stanley Richards likewise presented the facility as part of a larger effort to move beyond Rikers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we cut this ribbon and open these doors,\u201d Richards said. \u201cWe are not just unveiling a new facility, we are offering a glimpse into the future, a future beyond Rikers Island, a future shaped by dignity, care and support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Patsy Yang, the senior vice president for Correctional Health Services, said the project grew out of a problem that became clear after Correctional Health Services moved under Health + Hospitals in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our most medically involved patients were actually declining what, in some cases, was potentially life-saving treatment solely because that round-trip journey between Rikers and Bellevue was just so arduous that it could not be endured,\u201d Yang said. \u201cWe knew we had to find a way to increase access to the high-quality care that health and hospitals, such as CHS with Bellevue, provide and offer to our patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the outposted units were intended to bring people closer to care in a more respectful setting and suggested their novelty was part of why they took so long to open. \u201cThese outposted units. They are a first. They are unique, which is maybe why they partially took so long to do,\u201d Yang said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Patsy Yang speaks at Bellevue Hospital about the need to bring incarcerated patients closer to specialty care during a press conference announcing the city\u2019s first outposted therapeutic housing unit. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

Advocates with the Campaign to Close Rikers welcomed the opening as a step forward while pressing the administration to go further. In a statement, the group said, \u201cThis long-overdue step marks real progress after years of inaction,\u201d and called for continued efforts to reduce incarceration, close and transition facilities on Rikers Island, and \u201cfully uphold the human rights of people in DOC custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Appointment: Mamdani taps Biden alum to lead city\u2019s child welfare agency<\/p>\n

At the same press conference Tuesday, Mayor Mamdani praised his pick to lead the city\u2019s Administration for Children\u2019s Services, calling Rebecca Jones Gaston \u201ca very exciting appointment\u201d as she prepares to take over an agency facing pressure on child care access, foster care and juvenile detention, according to preliminary budget testimony delivered last month by interim Commissioner Melissa Hester.<\/p>\n

Asked what his child welfare philosophy would be now that he had chosen a new ACS commissioner, whether he planned to restructure the agency and where his administration would draw the line between removing children from their homes and keeping families together, Mamdani largely emphasized Jones Gaston\u2019s background and experience rather than laying out a detailed policy overhaul.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019ll begin with the appointment, which frankly, is a very exciting appointment in Rebecca Jones Gaston, who will be the new commissioner of ACS,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cShe is someone who brings with her local experience, state experience and national experience. She has dedicated her career, frankly, to building smarter and stronger systems that keep children safe and families together.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released earlier Tuesday, City Hall said Jones Gaston most recently served as commissioner of the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2022 to 2025, under President Joe Biden. Before that, she led child welfare systems in Maryland and Oregon. The administration said she brings nearly three decades of experience in child welfare and family support systems.<\/p>\n

The agency she is set to inherit is facing several major operational and budgetary pressures. In her March 16 preliminary budget testimony to the City Council, Hester said current funding would allow ACS to continue its existing child care policy for most low-income families already receiving vouchers, but \u201cwouldn\u2019t immediately allow\u201d the agency to begin offering care to children on the voucher waitlist.<\/p>\n

Hester\u2019s testimony also said the city\u2019s FY27 preliminary budget includes $1.1 million for 10 new staff to help safeguard the more than $1 billion in federal and state aid flowing through the child care assistance program.<\/p>\n

Hester also told the Council that the number of children in foster care continued to fall. At the end of 2025, she said, there were 6,292 children in foster care, down from nearly 6,400 at the end of 2024 and more than 7,500 five years earlier. Her testimony said nearly half of all foster children are currently living with relatives or close family friends, and that the city plans to spend $263 million in FY27 and $313 million annually starting in FY28 to cover state-mandated foster care, adoption and KinGAP rates that the state did not fully fund.<\/p>\n

On juvenile justice, Hester said ACS is currently caring for more than 340 young people in its two secure detention facilities, Crossroads and Horizon, and that over 73% of those youths are in detention on a murder or murder-related charge. The testimony said the FY27 preliminary plan includes $8.1 million in city funds and 40 additional staff to address the needs of young people in detention.<\/p>\n

Jones Gaston, in a statement, said she sees the job as a chance to move \u201cbeyond managing crisis\u201d and instead invest in prevention, trust, and family stability.<\/p>\n

Jones Gaston appears to be Mamdani\u2019s third choice for the job. NBC New York<\/a> reported that City Hall had previously passed over two finalists, Michelle Burrell and Angela Burton, before naming Hester interim commissioner in February.<\/p>\n

-With reporting from Isabella Gallo\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday, April 7, marks the 97th day of Zohran Mamdani\u2019s term as mayor. amNewYork is following Mamdani around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[148],"tags":[12175,559,12176,12177,553],"class_list":["post-15027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zohran-mamdani","tag-bellevue","tag-mamdani","tag-mamdani-first-100-days","tag-rikers","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116364989153548580","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}