Advocates Push for Rikers Closure After 15th Inmate Dies
Critics argue that an urgent decarceration strategy is needed that doesn’t just shuffle incarcerated people around to borough jails.
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The 15th incarcerated person who was housed at the Rikers Island jail died Dec. 10, 2021, at a hospital after experiencing a “medical issue,” prompting advocates to push yet again for officials to decarcerate Rikers Island as a way to scale back the concerning death toll, reports the Amsterdam News. While the corrections department is focused on improving hellish conditions that were worsened by the COVID-19 crisis, reducing violence, speeding up intake, and getting staff vaccinated to meet the city’s mandates, critics argue that an urgent decarceration strategy is needed that doesn’t just shuffle incarcerated people around to borough jails. Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal justice campaigns at Color Of Change, said that whenever possible district attorneys should be diverting people from jail and seeking out alternatives to incarceration. “Earlier in the pandemic there was an effort to bring down the jail population to increase safety and that has really evaporated,” said Roberts. “One of the solutions to protecting people from the unsafe conditions in the jail is to stop sending so many people there.”
