SCOTT SIMON, HOST: The infamous prison on Rikers Island may be closed within 10 years. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a press conference yesterday it will take many tough decisions along the way, but it will happen. Rikers is a complex of 10 jails on an island that sits between the Bronx and Queens. It began to open in 1935, and you cannot see a New York police drama without hearing Rikers used as a threat and often an epithet.</s>SCOTT SIMON, HOST: The jail holds about 10,000 inmates. Most are awaiting trial or serving sentences of less than a year, and there have been numerous court cases and investigations into inmates being abused and brutalized. Mayor de Blasio has endorsed a plan to build a system of smaller jails in New York's boroughs. That plan is estimated to cost at least $10 billion and may have to overcome opposition from neighborhoods that do not want a prison nearby.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says he plans to close the Rikers Island jail over the next decade. It houses about 10,000 inmates, mostly waiting for trial.