Worries about closing Rikers grow as timeline for replacement jails is delayed

Elected officials are demanding answers after new city documents revealed that construction of at least two of the jails that will replace Rikers Island won’t be finished until about four years after Rikers must close.

“The notice with this proposed, extremely extensive construction timeline is just yet another situation where it feels like the mayor is just kicking the can down the road, which is unacceptable,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse, who chairs the Council’s criminal justice committee, at a Wednesday press conference. “And the failure to close Rikers and to safely draw down the population is going to lead to more death — that is for sure.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said that the Rikers closure plan created under the prior mayoral administration raised questions about keeping New Yorkers safe, so the plan is being reviewed. But the mayor is committed to following the law and moving detainees to borough-based jails, the spokesperson added.

The Rikers Island jails are legally mandated to close by 2027. Last year, it was reported that one of the replacement jails in Brooklyn wasn’t slated to be finished until 2029. Now, a notice posted in the City Record this week ahead of a May 16 hearing shows that the Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp. is in line for a nearly $4 billion contract to construct the Queens jail and the Transformative Reform Group is slated to get an approximately $3 billion contract. Both contract terms end in 2031.

The extended timeline also comes as Rikers' population is now around 6,000. Altogether, the four replacement jails will only house 4,160 people — and that’s after the city controversially increased their capacity by cutting space for those with mental illness and drug addictions.

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams also said she was concerned by the new timeline, and added that Mayor Adams must fund alternatives to incarceration that can reduce Rikers' population, such as mental health support programs.

Correction: The headline on this story has been updated to reflect that 2 jails planned to replace Rikers have been delayed. Their completion date is still unknown.