New York City has committed to closing its notorious Rikers Island jail facility by 2027, a seismic shift that would reorient the city's approach to incarceration. The plan envisions a citywide jail population of just over 3,000 people. But the population at Rikers has been growing for months, and Rikers itself is engulfed in crisis amidst a historic spike in deaths. On a roundtable episode of New Thinking: what are the prospects for finally getting Rikers closed?
Supervised Release is as effective as bail at ensuring people make their court appearances, sparing them the documented harms of pretrial detention and allowing them to receive supportive services in their community. This fact sheet of results from the first five years of the program finds its outcomes remain stable, despite its expansion last year to cover a larger, more charge-diverse population.
With the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, courts across the country shifted urgently to remote, rather than in-person, operations. It amounted to an unprecedented large-scale experiment. As courts prepare for a post-pandemic future, we looked in depth at both the harms of remote justice and at which practices might be worth continuing, with the overall goal of promoting fairness and equity.
New York City's promise to shutter its notorious Rikers Island jail complex hinges on reducing the number of people in city jails—the overwhelming majority held awaiting trial. This new report from the Independent Commission that called for Rikers' closure in 2017 and the Center for Court Innovation lays out a series of concrete, data-driven strategies to produce sizable jail reductions while prioritizing public safety.
The Center for Court Innovation welcomes the attention New York leaders are giving Rikers Island in the wake of the inexcusable and preventable deaths that have occurred there this year. Now is the time for swift and decisive action to prevent more harm and commit to the policies that will close the jails on Rikers Island forever.
Our team remains committed to creating a fair, effective, and humane justice system—and with you, our supporters, we can transform justice together. As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, we thank you for helping us come this far. Your support and dedication make us excited for the future of justice.
