On January 2nd, City and Department of Correction officials announced the closure of the George Motchan Detention Center by the summer of 2018, which will mark the first of nine Rikers Island prisons to shut down.
On February 14, 2018, Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson announced an agreement to move forward with closing Rikers Island and creating a smaller, safer and fairer borough-based jail system. Together with the Council Members representing these areas, the Mayor and Speaker have agreed to a single public review process for four proposed sites in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens. These sites together will provide off-Island space for 5,000 detainees, and will include the three existing DOC facilities in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, as well as a new site in the Bronx located at 320 Concord Avenue in Mott Haven.“This agreement marks a huge step forward on our path to closing Rikers Island,” said Mayor de Blasio. “In partnership with the City Council, we can now move ahead with creating a borough-based jail system that’s smaller, safer and fairer. I want to thank these representatives, who share our vision of a more rehabilitative and humane criminal justice system that brings staff and detainees closer to their communities.”