NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday that he plans to visit Rikers Island next week as outrage grows over crisis conditions at the troubled jail complex.
De Blasio has been facing mounting pressure from fellow politicians, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Democratic mayoral nominee Eric Adams, to tour the facility, which the mayor has not visited since 2017.
"I understand why people say 'go visit.' I understand very powerfully what the problems are and I'm trying to fix them right now and that is more important to me than anything, but next week I'll go visit," de Blasio said on WNYC's "Brian Lehrer Show." "I think it's time because we've been able to address a number of issues and I want to see if these solutions are working or whatever other things we have to do."
He did not give a specific date.
De Blasio's comments come days after a 12th detainee died at the facility this year.
Rikers has for months been in the grips of a safety crisis spurred by poor management and understaffing as the Department of Correction struggles to get officers with unlimited sick time to report to work.
Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler, Jamaal Bowman and Nydia Velázquez recently toured the facility and described the conditions as “life-threatening and horrific.”
On Friday, at an emergency hearing called by the federal monitor overseeing the jail, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society called the situation "an urgent matter of life and death."
De Blasio last week announced an emergency action plan to address issues at the facility, including hiring more cleaning staff and emergency contractors to fix broken doors, speeding up intake processes to reduce overcrowding, expanding medical evaluation services, staffing NYPD in courtrooms to free up correction officers and punish missing staff with 30-day suspensions without pay.
"What we're seeing now is people are starting to come back to work in much higher numbers, we're also reducing the population immediately working with the state," de Blasio said.
Gov. Kathy Hochul also signed the "Less Is More Act," a major prison reform bill," which has resulted in the release of nearly 200 inmates.