Goals
The bare minimum to start addressing Rikers Island’s horrific legacy…
is to ensure, as the jails there are closed, that the island’s future uses benefit and respond to the wishes of the people and communities that have been harmed through its long, painful history. After hundreds of conversations with people who’ve been incarcerated on Rikers and had loved ones there, a consensus emerged: use the island for green infrastructure through the Renewable Rikers Plan.
Few things could make the end of the Rikers Island penal colony more definitive than actually transferring the land for a positive use. It will likely take generations to repair the harm Rikers has done to Black, Brown, and poor New Yorkers, but we need to start somewhere, and we will not get another chance to use 400 acres for the benefit of communities that have borne the brunt of mass criminalization, environmental burdens, and disinvestment.
By transferring Rikers Island from the control of the Department of Correction to other agencies for green infrastructure uses as outlined in
three City Council bills,
New York City can further solidify the end of the Rikers Island jail complex. Developing renewable energy, food scrap,and yard waste composting and wastewater treatment infrastructure on Rikers Island will enable New York City to close noxious peaker power plants and aging wastewater treatment facilities that have disproportionately burdened communities of color.
Photo by Queens Daily Eagle