{"id":372922,"date":"2025-11-12T02:34:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/372922\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T02:34:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T02:34:16","slug":"nycs-jails-mess-should-prompt-the-feds-to-end-the-close-rikers-farce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/372922\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC’s jails mess should prompt the feds to END the \u2018Close Rikers\u2019 farce"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new watchdog report on Rikers Island details new medical and safety horrors besetting detainees at the sprawling jail complex \u2014 a headache that Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani can\u2019t avoid.<\/p>\n

The Board of Correction analysis looks at five of the 11 inmate fatalities so far this year, and fingers correction officers for ignoring medical emergencies, falsifying records and permitting illicit drugs to circulate freely in the jails. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been over six months since federal Judge Laura Swain cleared the way for an independent federal receiver<\/a> to take control of the city\u2019s troubled jails \u2014 but with no handover yet in sight, Mamdani\u2019s team may have to finish the transition.<\/p>\n

Notice: We called for a federal takeover<\/a> long before Mamdani was even a candidate for mayor; we\u2019re now only more eager for it to happen. <\/p>\n

Nine years of a federal monitor (a team of highly paid \u201cexperts\u201d) kibbitzing as the city kept running the jails only saw Rikers grow more violent; giving an independent manager total control for at least three years is the best hope for real improvement.<\/p>\n

Full control \u2014 independent of City Hall \u2014 leaves no room for interference by politicians or the corrections union.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n

By the way, Judge Swain should now look at ordering a stay of the planned January 2027 closing date for Rikers: Shuttering the central jail with no replacement facilities would surely flood the few remaining jails, turning them into worse horrors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s even if Mamdani tries to simply free most of the 7,000 hard cases now at Rikers, in accordance with his \u201cdecarceral\u201d philosophy.<\/p>\n

Frankly, the feds should probably decree that the city end its \u201cClose Rikers\u201d farce entirely and get going on building new jails on the island. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s the only rational thing to do for the safety of those held at Rikers \u2014 and of the greater citizenry of New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new watchdog report on Rikers Island details new medical and safety horrors besetting detainees at the sprawling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":372923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,22744,4691,5333,27633,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1269,179511,74350,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5301],"class_list":{"0":"post-372922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-department-of-corrections","10":"tag-editorial","11":"tag-jail","12":"tag-manhattan-federal-court","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-opinion","20":"tag-rikers","21":"tag-rikers-island","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa","28":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115534395159478308","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}