Unions Call Plan to Close Rikers, 'Laughable'

The head of the powerful correction officers union is slamming a 10-year plan to close the jails on Rikers Island and replace them with smaller borough-based jails. 

"We're now presented with 145 pages that resemble more of a choose-your-own-adventure book," said Elias Husamudeen, President of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association. "Depending on whether you're a real estate investor, an engineer at La Guardia or a criminal."

Ideas about what to do with the island run the gamut.  Building housing or a new airport runway have been floated as possibilities.

The mayor, who now supports closing Rikers, said the transfer of inmates to borough-based jails can only work if the jail population gets cut in half. Husamudeen said that can't happen without compromising public safety. He accused de Blasio of embracing the long-term plan in order to distract people from the spike in violence at Rikers happening right now.

"This report is giving them the political cover they crave, while failing to give correction officers the resources that we need to keep jails safe for everybody now," he said. 

But correction officers have long been under scrutiny. On Monday, a report from a federal monitor found that guards continue to retaliate against inmates by punching them in the head and face and then attempting to cover up the violent altercations.  

Union leaders argue that policies like ending solitary confinement for younger inmates have left Correction Officers with no effective way to punish inmates who continue their bad behavior undeterred.  

The plan to close Rikers also calls for cutting jobs at the jails by two-thirds. 

"We might as well eliminate two-thirds of our police precincts," said Husamudeen. "Or close two-thirds of the courts. 

There are currently just over 9,000 inmates held on Rikers Island.  Advocates want the jails closed because they say it's the only way to root out the corruption and violence that persists.

But Mary Lynne Werlwas, director of the Prisoner's Rights Project, said that closing the jails is not the complete answer. 

"If these problems are not addressed now and this culture of impunity for misconduct isn't addressed now, I have serious concerns about whether that culture won't just go wherever the same people go, " she said.