- \n
- Instead of tearing down Rikers, Cuomo wants to rebuild it one facility at a time, maintaining operations throughout construction. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- He argues the four\u2011jail plan has ballooned in cost, missed deadlines, and placed undue burden on neighborhoods. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cuomo would convert the four sites originally meant for the new jails into housing or commercial developments \u2014 an attempt to reimagine the use of those city lands. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- He compares his vision to prior infrastructure projects, saying Rikers should be rebuilt \u201cthe right way\u201d rather than rushed into a flawed closure plan. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
What He\u2019s Reversing From Earlier Plans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- The 2019 city law mandates that Rikers must be closed and replaced by four smaller jails, each located in a different borough. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The current replacement plan has been severely delayed, with only one of the new jails (in Brooklyn) under construction. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Critics \u2014 including former Rikers Commission chair Jonathan Lippman \u2014 have consistently warned that Rikers\u2019 conditions are intolerable, citing over 70 deaths since 2020 and structural decay. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Criticism & Risks of Cuomo\u2019s Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Opponents argue that rebuilding Rikers perpetuates a facility with a long history of abuse, violence, and federal oversight. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Others say the rebuild concept is fiscally unrealistic \u2014 structural challenges of building on the island, while holding operations, could raise costs further. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Detractors see Cuomo\u2019s flip as a political maneuver to gain support among voters skeptical of the closure plan\u2019s feasibility. \u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- City law requires Rikers to close by 2027. Reversing that plan could conflict with binding legal mandates unless they are amended. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
What Will Determine the Outcome<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Whether Cuomo\u2019s plan can win support from City Council, state legislators, and legal bodies tasked with overseeing the Rikers shutdown.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The financial feasibility of rebuilding while maintaining operations and mitigating cost overruns.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The reactions of reform advocates, victims\u2019 families, and those pushing for decarceration and humane jail alternatives.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- How the public responds: whether residents see rebuilding as a step backward or a pragmatic solution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former governor and current New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has stirred controversy by calling for a rebuild of the Rikers Island jail complex \u2014 rejecting the city\u2019s existing plan to shut it down and replace it with four borough-based jails by 2027. Cuomo says the closure plan is behind schedule, over budget, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2359,2358,2354,2351,2356,2365,2355,2362,2148,2363,2357,2364,1984,2366,2350,2352,2353,2360,2361],"class_list":["post-2990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-justice","tag-affordable-housing","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-borough-jails","tag-carceral-reform","tag-close-rikers","tag-criminal-justice","tag-cuomo","tag-jail-reform","tag-justice-system","tag-law-order","tag-mayoral-campaign","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc-politics","tag-political-reversal","tag-prison-infrastructure","tag-rebuild-rikers","tag-rikers","tag-rikers-closure-plan","tag-rikers-island"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2995,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions\/2995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verifiedviral.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}