De Blasio Tours NYC’s Rikers Jail After 12 Die Amid Staff Shortage
- Responding to push by critics to visit the troubled city jail
- Calls to close it down before 2027, as is currently planned
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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio toured the city’s Rikers Island jail Monday, responding to weeks of pressure from prisoner-advocacy groups urging him to visit the problem-plagued facility.
The visit, the mayor’s first since 2017, comes a week after two incarcerated individuals died in custody at the jail, marking 12 deaths connected to the facility this year. The fatalities, coming after years of reports describing inhumane conditions, have reignited calls to close the jail sooner than the mayor’s 2027 time line.