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A rally calling for the closure of Rikers Island in 2023. (Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n\u201cWe need a mayor who knows that in a city committed to seeing all of us thrive, there is no place for Rikers Island.\u201d<\/p>\n
A rally calling for the closure of Rikers Island in 2023. (Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear that New Yorkers want safety, and it will be important in this year\u2019s mayoral election. But how can we tell which candidates are serious about safety, and which ones care more about stoking our fears than investing in what works?<\/p>\n To start with, any candidate who is not committed to closing Rikers is not serious about safety. Rikers Island is a violence incubator that detains legally innocent people largely on the basis of wealth. If that sounds exaggerated, consider that Anthony Martin Jr., a correction officer,\u00a0is at liberty<\/a>\u00a0while he faces charges of raping a woman in Queens (he is\u00a0also named in civil lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0by two incarcerated women), but 31-year-old Joshua Valles died after suffering a cracked skull at Rikers while facing non-violent felony charges. Joshua Valles couldn\u2019t pay\u00a0$10,000 for his\u00a0freedom<\/a>, but Anthony Martin paid his bail immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rikers also wastes tremendous resources\u2014over $2.8 billion dollars a year<\/a>\u2014that we desperately need for housing, healthcare, education, and other resources that strengthen our communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe worst of all, Rikers is a place to hide our city\u2019s problems rather than solving them, with the terrible effect of making these problems worse. When people with mental health needs are sent to Rikers (as\u00a0thousands<\/a>\u00a0are each year), they are disconnected from any community-based care they\u2019re receiving, and subjected to practices like\u00a0\u201cdeadlocking.<\/a>\u201d <\/p>\n The thousands of people admitted to Rikers each year\u00a0who are homeless<\/a>\u00a0can\u00a0lose their spot on the waitlist<\/a>\u00a0for supportive housing. People who have stable housing can lose that too, along with their jobs, during even a short jail stay.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not surprising then that being detained at Rikers actually\u00a0increases<\/a>\u00a0the likelihood that a person will be re-arrested. On average,\u00a033<\/a> percent\u00a0of people released from Rikers return within one year, compared to alternative-to-incarceration programs like Bronx Connect, which sees\u00a097 percent of graduates<\/a>\u00a0with no new felony convictions after three years, or Justice Involved Supportive Housing, which has\u00a0substantially reduced jail and shelter stays<\/a>\u00a0for the lucky few who\u2019ve been able to get one of these units.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Anyone who is serious about safety should be telling voters that they will fund more\u00a0Intensive Mobile Treatment<\/a>\u00a0teams for the hundreds of people who have qualified for them but are waiting for a placement; that they will ensure that everyone who needs supportive housing can get it; and that they will fund and encourage judges to make better use of New York\u2019s\u00a0highly-effective network of alternative to incarceration programs<\/a>\u2014all of which operate at less than one-tenth the per-person cost of Rikers. <\/p>\n Voters should be skeptical of any candidate who won\u2019t fully commit to these proven solutions, but will rail against \u201crecidivism\u201d and pledge to arrest more people who have spiraled into crisis while waiting to access services.<\/p>\n While Rikers should have closed long ago, avoidable delays have put the borough-based jails to replace it far behind schedule. Still, there are actions the next mayor can, and must, take to shorten this timeline. The\u00a0Independent Rikers Commission<\/a>\u00a0identified ways to speed up jail construction by at least a year, and candidates should commit to doing so.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Infrastructure, however, is just one part of the close Rikers plan\u2014shrinking the jail population is the other. Mayoral candidates should be telling us that they will\u00a0bring down the jail population in alignment with the Close Rikers plan by August 31, 2027, regardless of whether the borough jails are finished. Doing that would enable the closure of several Rikers jails, even if some remain open while the borough jails are completed. Having fewer people in Rikers is also the surest and fastest way to prevent it from claiming more of our neighbors\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n Finally, any candidate who says they will stand up to the Trump administration cannot share its disregard for constitutional rights.\u00a0More than 80 percent<\/a>\u00a0of people at Rikers have not been convicted. Describing them as dangerous or guilty of anything before they\u2019ve had their day in court is a page out of Trump\u2019s playbook. <\/p>\n When NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch refers to people as \u201coffenders,\u201d \u201cprisoners,\u201d or \u201cperps\u201d based solely on an arrest, as she did in her\u00a0State of the NYPD address<\/a>, she displays either her lack of understanding of the legal system, or her contempt for the presumption of innocence that is at its foundation. Either one should be a red flag to all New Yorkers, and to any candidate considering keeping her on as commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n The truth is that the dehumanization of people held at Rikers starts far before they cross the \u201cBridge of Pain.\u201d<\/a> It starts in our communities, where we are denied the resources we deserve and then punished in our struggle to survive, and it continues in a court system that comfortably treats us as guilty because it presumes that our lives are of no importance anyways.<\/p>\n We need a mayor who knows that in a city committed to seeing all of us thrive, there is no place for Rikers Island.<\/p>\n Darren Mack is co-director of\u00a0Freedom\u00a0Agenda, and a survivor of Rikers. Melissa Mark-Viverito is the former Speaker of the New York City Council.<\/p>\n \tWe want to hear from you!<\/p>\n Take a short anonymous survey to help us deliver content to empower our community.<\/p>\n![\"Opinion\"](\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/trx_addons\/components\/lazy-load\/images\/placeholder.png\")
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