Nonprofits Help Shift Mayor De Blasio's Opinion On Closing Rikers, Commission Leaders Say
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s opinion about whether to shut down the Rikers Island jail complex has shifted significantly in less than a year – thanks in part to the efforts of nonprofits serving on the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, and the persistence of its chairman, former state Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.
Lippman characterized the mayor’s original position on closing Rikers as being “equivocal” at best in late 2016 when he was asked by New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to chair the commission – and at first thought it an “unenviable request.”
“There was no great public clamor to close Rikers Island,” Lippman said about the jail complex, which houses primarily low-income people of color who are unable to pay bail as they await their trial date. The attitude was more along the lines of “out of sight, out of mind,” Lippman said. He eventually signed on because the opportunity to make a mark on such a significant challenge was difficult to resist.