First Rikers Island Jail Facility to Close

 

By Gloria Pazmino

The de Blasio administration announced Tuesday that it will begin the process to close one of Rikers Island’s facilities by the summer of this year, marking the first major step toward the full closure of the troubled city jail.

Closure of the George Motchan Detention Center, which currently houses 600 men, comes days after the city announced the inmate population at Rikers has fallen below 9,000 for the month of December — a record low number since the 1980s.

As of Jan. 1 of this year, the Department of Correction’s jail population stood at 8,705.

“Every day we are making New York City’s jail system smaller and safer,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “This announcement is an important step in our plan to close Rikers Island and create more community-based facilities to better serve people in custody and our hard-working correctional staff.”

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Source: Politico (via Empire Report New York)