NEW YORK — New York City is approaching its legally mandated deadline to close the jails on Rikers Island, with one year remaining before the Aug. 31, 2027, deadline. The Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice is using the anniversary of its organization to call attention to the city’s progress toward closing the jail complex and reducing the number of people held there.
On March 31, 2017, then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gave in to pressure from the community and advocacy organizations such as Katal and made it official city policy to close the Rikers Island jail complex.
New York City law requires Rikers Island to stop being used by the Department of Correction, or DOC, to house incarcerated people by Aug. 31, 2027. The law also provides for the transfer of the island to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services as the city moves toward closing these facilities.
On Oct. 17, 2019, the City Council approved the plan to remove the jails and open “four borough-based jails in all the boroughs (except Staten Island).”
The legal timeline for this was originally set for 2026 but has since been moved to Aug. 31, 2027.
However, from 2022 to 2025, the Eric Adams administration seemed to have “outright abandoned” the closure of the Rikers facility. This has caused a setback in the planning process, and it now rests on Mayor Mamdani’s shoulders.
The Mamdani administration, however, has seemingly not taken any action to put New York back on track to close the Rikers complex, causing “construction delays for the borough-based jails [to] go well beyond 2032 — five years after the required deadline.”
The Katal Center, an organization that works on criminal justice issues, has advocated for closing Rikers Island and reducing reliance on incarceration, with one such reason being the high number of people found dead in DOC custody.
The organization has also argued that the city should reduce the population while investing in alternatives to incarceration and community-based services.
The countdown comes as the number of people held in New York City’s jails remains higher than the capacity envisioned for the future jail system.
A 2025 research and policy brief produced by the Katal Center and the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College reported that “since 2020, the jail population reversed course — increasing by over 80% to nearly 7,000 as of November 2025.”
The report said the future borough-based jail system, combined with more than 300 secure hospital beds for people with serious medical or mental health conditions, would have a citywide capacity of approximately 4,200 people on a given day.
The same report identified a “ballooning sub-population in need of mental health treatment,” showcasing the significant issue of mental health among those held in city jails. It described Rikers as a major mental health facility and examined diversion strategies that could reduce the number of people entering or remaining in jail while providing alternatives for people with mental health needs.
The city’s closure plan has also involved transferring portions of Rikers Island from the Department of Correction to the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Under the city’s plan, those transfers are scheduled to continue until Aug. 31, 2027, when the island is required to be fully transferred and no longer used by the Department of Correction to house incarcerated people.
As the deadline approaches, it represents both the legal endpoint for incarceration on Rikers Island and a deadline for the city to complete its broader transition away from the jail complex.
With only one year remaining, the Katal Center is drawing attention to the deadline and its call for changes to the city’s approach to incarceration. The organization has continued to advocate for reducing the jail population and expanding community-based alternatives as the city moves toward closing Rikers.
The deadline, as indicated, is set for Aug. 31, 2027, when Rikers Island is required to cease being used by the Department of Correction to house incarcerated people.
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