Mayor Adams suggested Wednesday that his administration may have to house inmates at a half-finished Brooklyn jail in order to comply with the city’s plan to shutter Rikers Island by 2027.
The Brooklyn jail, set to be built at the site of the old House of Detention on Atlantic Ave., is one of four borough-based facilities that four years from now are supposed to replace the Rikers complexes.
But Adams’ administration issued notice on a construction contract for the Brooklyn jail this week that said it is not expected to be completed until April 2029.
Asked Wednesday morning how his administration will abide by the 2027 deadline given the Brooklyn construction delay, Adams indicated inmates may be housed at the Atlantic Ave. facility even if it’s not done.
“Because something is not completely finished does not mean that you cannot [house] inmates,” Adams told reporters at a press conference in Brooklyn.
Adams did not elaborate on how the city would house inmates in a half-completed facility. A mayoral spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
The mayor also reiterated he believes there are issues with the city’s original plan for closing the troubled Rikers jails.
“The plan was flawed, but we are going to follow the law,” he said. “The law states 2027. That is the law we are going to follow.”
Daniele Gerard, a staff attorney of advocacy group Children’s Rights, said later Wednesday she doesn’t buy the idea that Adams’ administration can’t finish building the Brooklyn jail by 2027.
“The mayor is slow-walking construction in Brooklyn. Let’s remember that the Empire State Building was built in under 14 months. What is the mayor’s excuse?” Gerard told the Daily News.
Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack agreed with Gerard and urged Adams to immediately take “tangible steps” toward winding down operations on Rikers.
“These include permanently closing empty jails on Rikers as mandated by law, starting with the Otis Bantum Correctional Facility,” Mack said.
He also urged “expediting construction of the borough-based replacement jails, and substantially expanding funding for initiatives proven to reduce incarceration and increase community safety.”
Ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio advocated closing Rikers, and in 2019 signed into law a Close Rikers plan passed by the City Council. In addition to closing Rikers by August 2027, the plan mandated the construction of four jails in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan that would accommodate the island’s inmates.
Construction timelines for the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan lockups have not been made available.
A lingering question over the Rikers plan is how the city will accommodate the island’s jail population — which stood at 5,937 as of this week — when the combined capacity of the borough jails would be capped at 3,330.
Of the 5,937 detainees currently on Rikers, 3,958 are being held on violent felonies, while 1,269 are there on nonviolent felonies and 375 on misdemeanors, figures from the Vera Institute show. Nearly all Rikers inmates have not yet been convicted of any crimes, and are detained pretrial.
The push for shuttering Rikers has hit a fever pitch in light of deteriorating conditions on the island. Sixteen people died in the Rikers jails in 2021 and 19 in 2022, with staffing breakdowns a factor in a number of them, as detailed in Board of Correction reports.
While committing to closing Rikers on time, Adams has argued the city may need a “Plan B.” He has not explained what such a plan would look like. Correction Commissioner Louis Molina, meanwhile, has said the Rikers population is likely to continue to grow.
Zachary Katznelson, executive director of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, said the 2027 deadline can’t be treated like “some arbitrary date.”
“It’s part of the law,” he said. “We’re in a race for public safety and should be doing everything we can to expedite the construction of the new jails and the new hospital beds.”
The mayor’s latest comments came a day before advocates and elected officials were expected to hold a rally at City Hall calling on him to move up construction timelines for the borough jails and boost funding for alternative incarceration initiatives.
Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens), who has increasingly clashed with the mayor over the Rikers issue, is expected to attend, according to a Council source.
