The four new borough jails that will replace Rikers Island will cost as much as $1.8 billion each, city officials have revealed.
Rikers now houses about 5,700 incarcerated people. Each of the jails will have 886 beds. The city will need to reduce the jail population by more than 2,000 by 2027, when the jails are expected to open.
The Borough-Based Jails program calls for new facilities in the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. Among its goals is placing incarcerated people closer to their communities when Rikers is finally closed.
Mott Haven Herald reporter David Westenhaver spoke about the details of the city’s jail plans on BronxNet‘s Bronx Buzz program.
