‘Close Rikers’ plan remains a menace to NYC’s – Latest News
Protests in Chinatown towards town’s drive to construct a “jailscraper” there are A recent warning that this “replace Rikers” scheme is an totally misbegotten boondoggle.
The bid to construct 4 new borough-based jails after which close Rikers Island is years not on time, with prices ballooning by the billions.
The Chinatown project sits atop the outdated Collect Pond; construction will require huge pumping and drainage, at risk of sinking the encompassing ground and endangering different buildings.
More important, this entire scheme is nuts: The issues at Rikers stem from mismanagement and forgone upkeep — not from the situation, which the truth is is good, since no civilian needs a jail within the ‘hood.
Yes, the present jails on Rikers are crumbling, however the island has loads of space to construct new jails on web site, if that’s cheaper than repairs and modernization.
Building jails within the boroughs is a stealth bid to put a onerous, too-low cap on how many people town can keep locked up, no matter how unhealthy crime will get.
More From Post Editorial Board
The deliberate four-borough jails will maintain at absolute most a complete of 4,200 inmates; over 6,500 at the moment are in detention citywide, and that’s traditionally low.
The progressives are aiming to make New York City a place the place it’s virtually inconceivable to get arrested, as a result of there received’t be anyplace to put you.
Get opinions and commentary from our columnists
Subscribe to our day by day Post Opinion publication!
Thanks for signing up!
“Replace Rikers” is of a piece with the no-bail law, the de-facto decriminalization of shoplifting, the battle on stop-and-frisk and public-housing “vertical patrols” and the non-prosecution of fare beating.
It’s obscene to let present jails rot whereas town burns $16 billion — a sum sure to grow — on “replacements” that may’t do the job, which makes it unlawful to really shut Rikers down.
The sooner town’s leaders admit the madness of this plan, the earlier they’ll flip to actually giving Gotham fashionable jails — on Rikers Island, which is solely irreplaceable when it come to public security.
