Rikers Island Jail: Overcrowding, Crime, and Bail Reform

Rikers Island jail faces overcrowding as it's set to close, with new facilities delayed. Bail reform and prisoner releases correlated with a crime surge, including murders and shootings. Most detainees are charged with felonies.

Rikers Closure and Prison Bed Shortage

And while Rikers currently houses 7,100 prisoners, the area prisons will have a total amount of only 4,100 beds– suggesting that hundreds of serious offenders will be on the roads, just for lack of jail space.

In 2020, when New York City released 2,000 prisoners from city jails under bond reform, and after that 2,000 more terrible prisoners when COVID struck, criminal activity rose nearly 40%, and shootings doubled. By 2022, murders were up by 33%.

Crime Increase After Prisoner Release

In Wednesday’s argument, the 3 prospects were inquired about the city’s Rikers Island jail complicated, which by regulation is readied to enclose 2027– despite the fact that the initial of the brand-new region prisons indicated to replace it won’t be total up until 2029 at finest.

Under our new bail legislations, only the most awful accused bad guys can be held at Rikers: people billed with murder or a violent felony, or who dedicated a criminal activity while out on one more pending situation, or that endangered a witness or broke an order of protection.

Felony Charges on Rikers Detainees

Virtually every one of the pretrial detainees now housed on Rikers, 96% of them, are charged with felonies– with 47% of them billed with fierce felonies, consisting of murder. Just 222 of the 7,100 are billed with offenses.