De Blasio wants to close Rikers Island within a decade

March 31, 2017 By Colleen Long Associated Press

In a 2014, file photo, the Rikers Island jail complex stands in New York with the Manhattan skyline in the background. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday, March 31, 2017, that he's developing a plan to shut down the massive jail within 10 years. AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File

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New York City’s mayor says he wants to close the troubled Rikers Island jail complex.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that he’s developing a plan to shut down the massive jail within 10 years.

It would be replaced with several smaller jails based in the city’s boroughs.

To make it work, the mayor said the jail population would have to be cut roughly in half.

A commission headed by the state’s former chief judge has been considering options for Rikers as part of a broad examination of the city’s criminal justice system.

That commission was formed in the wake of a string of brutality cases that exposed poor supervision, questionable medical care and corruption.

In the past, de Blasio had said that replacing the jail would be too expensive.