NEW YORK, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP/AFP) – Rampant violence, aging
jails: The notorious Rikers Island prison complex could fade into
history after New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, in a political
about-face, backed a plan Friday to close
it.
“We had to do a lot of work to figure out a path that actually could
achieve this goal,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio as he announced the commitment, which he was previously reluctant to make.
“For a long time I have said publicly it was a noble idea but I did
not see how it was attainable under the conditions we were facing,” he said at a news conference.
The Democratic mayor, who is running for re-election this year, said
it became clear that “we that had to adjust the time line if we were going to be honest about it — that a decade was the minimum in which it could be done. That was the breakthrough.”
For years many New York officials and legal experts have been calling
for the closure of the huge complex, which shares its name with the island in the East River where it is located.
The site sits between the city’s boroughs of Queens and the Bronx.
The first jail there dates back to 1935.
Rikers Island is one of the best-known prisons in the United States,
along with Sing Sing in New York state and San Quentin in northern California.