{"id":1760383,"date":"2022-12-03T06:14:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-03T11:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1760383"},"modified":"2022-12-03T06:18:46","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T11:18:46","slug":"plan-to-shutter-rikers-island-jails-likely-to-endanger-new-yorkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/plan-to-shutter-rikers-island-jails-likely-to-endanger-new-yorkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan to Shutter Rikers Island Jails Likely to Endanger New Yorkers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fplan-to-shutter-rikers-island-jails-likely-to-endanger-new-yorkers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1760383&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>New York\u2019s quest to replace the troubled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-rikers-island\">Rikers Island<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-jail\">jail<\/a> complex with smaller facilities across the five boroughs could lead to either hazardous overcrowding or the release of dangerous detainees, according to a Dec. 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/why-borough-based-jails-are-too-small-to-keep-nyc-safe\">report<\/a> from the conservative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-manhattan-institute\">Manhattan Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In a Nov. 30 interview with The Epoch Times, the report\u2019s author, Manhattan Institute fellow Charles Fain Lehman, said New York City has been reducing its jail population for years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve run out of low-hanging fruit. Now they need to start releasing serious offenders if they want to keep cutting the population,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>New York City is already experiencing significant increases in serious offenses. As of August 2022, major crimes were up 36 percent year over year, as reported by the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/08\/08\/major-crime-continues-to-surge-in-nyc-up-36-this-year-new-police-data\/\">New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Felonies on the city\u2019s subways through October increased 40 percent over last year, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/11\/27\/felonies-up-40-this-year-on-nyc-subway-new-stats-show\/\">same source<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rikers Island is located in the middle of the East River, between Queens and the Bronx.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2758351\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy wp-image-2758351 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Rikers-Island-prison-2-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2758351 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Rikers-Island-prison-2-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/noscript> Rikers Island jail complex stands under a blanket of snow next to La Guardia Airport in the Bronx borough of New York City on Jan. 5, 2018. (John Moore\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The first jail on Rikers opened during the early 1930s. Today, the complex has a capacity of 15,000. It mainly houses individuals detained before trial. A much smaller number of convicted criminals serve short sentences on Rikers.<\/p>\n<p>Reformers have worried about the poor conditions at Rikers for decades. The latest attempts to shut it down began with the Lippman Commission, led by former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.<\/p>\n<p>The Lippman Commission\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.morejustnyc.org\/about-us\">current members<\/a> include the president of the Ford Foundation, the former chief operating officer of the Rockefeller Foundation, and the former director for U.S. Programs of the Open Society Foundations, which is chaired by billionaire George Soros.<\/p>\n<p>The commission initially recommended Rikers be replaced with five jails\u2014one for each of the city\u2019s five boroughs\u2014capable of housing up to 5,500 people, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5b6de4731aef1de914f43628\/t\/5b96c6f81ae6cf5e9c5f186d\/1536607993842\/Lippman%2BCommission%2BReport%2BFINAL%2BSingles.pdf\">with each facility proportional in size to the number of people held from that borough<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That 5,500 figure wasn\u2019t long for this world.<\/p>\n<p>As Lehman explained in his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattan-institute.org\/why-borough-based-jails-are-too-small-to-keep-nyc-safe\">report<\/a>, officials worked to reduce the prospective height and size of the facilities that would be housed in their boroughs. The city council eventually greenlit a plan to build facilities big enough for an average daily population of 3,300 throughout the system as a whole.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4430146\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy wp-image-4430146 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-1237708174-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4430146 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-1237708174-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript> A general view shows the Rikers Island jail complex in the East River of New York, from Queens, on Jan. 13, 2022. (Ed Jones\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt is impossible to review this story and not conclude that the 3,300 number was reached for political reasons, not because it aligned with plausible projections of how much jail capacity is needed to keep New Yorkers safe,\u201d Lehman wrote in his report.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5b6de4731aef1de914f43628\/t\/60f5c1af1a4e121640f8564f\/1626718640158\/Roadmap_for_Reducing_Jail_NYC.pdf\">2021 report<\/a> from the Lippman Commission aimed even higher, or lower.<\/p>\n<p>It estimated the jail population could range to as few as 2,700 individuals with additional reforms to reduce incarceration\u2014including \u201ca strong presumption against incarceration\u201d for transgender, gender non-conforming, and female people.<\/p>\n<p>Lehman recognizes that Rikers has many problems\u2014for example, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ny1.com\/nyc\/all-boroughs\/news\/2022\/08\/15\/new-data-highlights-overdose-crisis-at-rikers\">high rate of drug overdoses<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy view is that as it is currently operating, Rikers is not healthy,\u201d he said in his Nov. 30 interview.<\/p>\n<p>However, he pointed out other factors he sees as contributing to the complex\u2019s dysfunction. For example, its prison guard union will not disappear once detainees are relocated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe position of the people who want to close Rikers, in my view, is that there\u2019s something spiritually deficient about Rikers Island,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the Lippman Commission\u2019s Oct. 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/5b6de4731aef1de914f43628\/t\/635aca855d4769714639828a\/1666894470433\/Halfway+to+History+-+Five+Year+Status+Report+re+Closing+RIkers.pdf\">report<\/a> describes Rikers as \u201cdecrepit, dangerous, [and] irredeemable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lehman, by contrast, thinks it\u2019s possible the city would be better off spending money to refurbish Rikers than building multiple jails.<\/p>\n<h2>\u20183,300 Simply Is Not Enough\u2019<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2547780\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy wp-image-2547780 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-661774526-1200x848-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"452\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2547780 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-661774526-1200x848-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"452\" \/><\/noscript> People walk by a sign at the entrance to Rikers Island in New York City on March 31, 2017. (Spencer Platt\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lehman concluded that New York City would have a very difficult time reducing its average daily jail population to just 3,300.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA sober analysis of the facts requires us to admit that 3,300 simply is not enough,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Lehman delved into the academic literature on how pre-trial detention impacts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-crime\">crime<\/a>. His review suggested that, while jailing individuals does incapacitate them, that effect may be canceled out by jails\u2019 \u201ccriminogenic\u201d effect\u2014in other words, the ways it may incline individuals to commit future crimes, possibly through the influence of other inmates who show them the ropes.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, according to Lehman, much of the existing research has focused on how pre-trial detention affects marginal cases. Detainees accused of far more serious offenses\u2014those judges consider most likely to commit more crimes before trial\u2014have not been such a focus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt doesn\u2019t necessarily generalize to the serial violent felon,\u201d he told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2156776\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy wp-image-2156776 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/NYPD-Shooting-Benjamin-Chasteen-8451-20160915-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2156776 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/NYPD-Shooting-Benjamin-Chasteen-8451-20160915-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript> New York Police Officers are on the scene where a man was shot by the police after attacking them with a meat cleaver near the Manhattan Mall on Sept. 15, 2016. (Benjamin Chasteen\/Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Why does that matter? Lehman thinks New York\u2019s vision would require at least some of those individuals to be released, likely to the detriment of public safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYears of criminal justice reform have freed or diverted essentially all the easy-to-release cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of those remaining on Rikers are serious flight risks, dangerous, or both,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<h2>Sending Detainees to the Suburbs<\/h2>\n<p>Lehman\u2019s report outlined what he sees as plausible options for the city to house detainees, should it close Rikers and discover that its five new borough-based jails lack sufficient capacity.<\/p>\n<p>One would be to purchase and reopen shuttered jails\u2014for example, the Staten Island facility now used to film \u201cOrange is the New Black.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRepurchasing the site and restoring it as a jail would likely carry a hefty price tag, but it would return much-needed jail space to Staten Island, which currently has no jail,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Another would be to board out more detainees to less crowded facilities in nearby counties, like Westchester County or Long Island\u2019s Nassau County.<\/p>\n<p>Lehman thinks the risk of a mass jailbreak in such scenarios is rather low. Yet, boarding out detainees would make them relatively inaccessible to their own communities\u2014a major rationale for closing Rikers Island and opening borough-based jails in the first place.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1406696\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy wp-image-1406696 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Escaped-Prisoners-_Druk-1200x770-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"411\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1406696 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Escaped-Prisoners-_Druk-1200x770-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"411\" \/><\/noscript> New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officers rush off a school bus in Mountain View, N.Y., on June 23, 2015, while searching for two prison escapees from Clinton Correctional Facility. (Jason Hunter\/The Watertown Daily Times via AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Accessibility is not without its drawbacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProximity to your family has mixed costs and benefits,\u201d Lehman told The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe benefit is that it\u2019s therapeutic, if there\u2019s something good about seeing your loved ones. A cost is that proximity to your old neighborhood means proximity to your old friends, and your old friends are the ones who probably [led] you to commit crimes in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3411150\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy wp-image-3411150 size-medium_vertical\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-632309708-232x350-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"232\" height=\"350\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3411150 size-medium_vertical\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-632309708-232x350-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"232\" height=\"350\" \/><\/noscript> Angela Davis speaks onstage during the Women\u2019s March on Washington, in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2017. Davis, a former member of the Communist Party USA, is one of the country\u2019s most prominent prison abolitionists. (Theo Wargo\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He thinks elements of his analysis could apply to places other than New York. Under the influence of left-wing city council members, mayors, district attorneys, judges, and other public officials, many big cities in the United States have in recent years pursued \u201cdecarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lehman likewise voiced skepticism about the idea of massively reducing or eliminating the country\u2019s prison population, an open aim of the increasingly widespread \u201cprison abolition\u201d movement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reality is, America\u2019s a violent country, and we have lots of violent offenders. Most of those people should be in prison,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><span>The Epoch Times contacted Lippman as well as numerous researchers who were cited in Lehman\u2019s report. None of them responded by press time.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-nathan-worcester\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_NathanWorcester-1-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Nathan Worcester\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York\u2019s quest to replace the troubled Rikers Island jail complex with smaller facilities across the five boroughs could lead to either hazardous overcrowding or the release of dangerous detainees,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1760386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1760383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1760383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1760383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1760386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1760383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1760383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1760383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}