What To Do About Closing Rikers

By Elizabeth Glazer and Michael Jacobson

In our first special report, public safety veterans Elizabeth Glazer and Michael Jacobson provide a detailed, data-grounded roadmap to close Rikers Island that would simultaneously:

Increase safety inside and outside the city’s jails;

Cut operating costs and invest more in communities;

Shrink the jail population to approximately 2,200; and

Limit the criminal justice system’s footprint.

In the face of the humanitarian crises on Rikers, now in public view everyday, we show how paying attention and reducing the population can provide both immediate relief and a long-term solution.

New York: The City, 2022.