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Former Chief Judge Lippman joins Cardinal Dolan in call to close Rikers as violence rises at the jail

September 19, 2019 Rob Abruzzese
Former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman stood with major religious leaders when he publicly renewed his call to close Rikers Island on Thursday, just two days after the Mayor’s Office issued a report on increasing violence at the jail. Eagle photos by Rob Abruzzese
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Just two days after the Mayor’s Office released a report that showed violence at Rikers Island is on the rise, former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman gathered with religious leaders in front of the Supreme Court in Manhattan to renew his call to close the infamous jailhouse.

“Rikers is a stain on the soul of New York City,” said Lippman, who is the chair of the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform.

“It is, by any standard, an accelerator of human misery. Whether you are there for three days, three weeks, three months or three years, you come out of it far, far worse than when you went in,” Judge Lippman continued. “Every day, to this day, more people are brutalized and dehumanized at Rikers Island. It is the epitome of what we call the mass-incarceration model.”

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he felt like Ronald Reagan must have felt like when he called for the destruction of the Berlin wall and said that Rikers Island should be closed “in the name of our God.”

The former chief judge was joined by religious leaders such as New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Rev. A. R. Bernard, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik and other members of the Commission of Religious Leaders. Their message was clear — they view it as a moral imperative to close Rikers as quickly as possible.

“We, the ministers, happen to be passionate about closing Rikers Island and the continued reform of our justice system,” Dolan said. “You know why? Because, simply put, we have to. We gotta. God has told us, he’s told us Jews, us Christians, members of Islam, to bring compassion, mercy and justice to those incarcerated.”

According to the Mayor’s Management Report that was issued on Tuesday, violence at Rikers Island is up across the board — inmate attacks on other inmates, assaults on staff and use of force by guards have all increased in city jails.

Former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman.

According to the statistics in the report, there were 69.5 incidents of violence between inmates per every 1,000 people in the jail population during the 2019 Fiscal Year, which is up from just 55.8 incidents per 1,000 inmates in 2018. In addition, the report said that inmate assaults on staff had increased to 12.6 per every 1,000 inmates in 2019, from 9.2 in 2018. Finally, according to the report, there were 6,670 incidents of use of force by correction officers in FY 2019 compared to 5,175 incidents in FY 2018.

“At a time when the discussion around Rikers is so centered on building height, zoning and traffic, it is more important than ever that we return back to the original purpose of this proposal: to put an end to the accelerator of human misery that is Rikers Island,” Judge Lippman said. “For decades, we have done nothing as thousands of New Yorkers — most of whom are black or brown — have cycled through a place that is a symbol of violence, corruption and inhumanity.”

The current plan is to close Rikers Island by replacing it with four smaller, borough-based facilities, one in each borough except Staten Island, by 2027. Rikers itself would stay open until those jails are built. In Brooklyn, the plan is to replace the jail that is already located on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill with one roughly twice its size.

After local hearings, hearings held by the borough presidents in each borough and a hearing held by the City Council, the next step is a mid-October vote by the Council. It is the final step in the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, known as ULURP, and it is a binding decision.

Judge Lippman said that it is fine to continue to argue over the size and location of the borough-based jails, but that it is imperative that the City Council vote to approve the plan to close Rikers. He didn’t seem even to consider the idea of closing Rikers without replacing it with four smaller jails.

“We can argue about the height of the building, the site, the design, whatever one wants to, but we must keep our eye on the goal, which is to close Rikers Island,” Judge Lippman said. “There is no path to doing that other than through modern, safer, smaller local jails.”


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