New York Closes Rikers Infirmary as Broader Jail Shutdown Plan Stalls
by Jo Ellen Knott
The administration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) announced the permanent closure of the North Infirmary Command (NIC) on Rikers Island on June 29, 2026. The Department of Correction handed the building over to city managers, who plan to turn the old prison grounds into a green space focused on renewable energy.
The closure of the NIC, which recently housed 223 prisoners requiring hospital-level care, was made possible by shifting detainees with complex medical needs to a newly opened, 104-bed therapeutic housing unit at Bellevue Hospital. Officials intend to recreate this model with additional secure hospital units at Woodhull and North Central Bronx.
While city officials hailed the closure as a milestone for human dignity, the broader plan to shutter the remaining, violence-plagued lockups in the Rikers Island complex by the statutory August 2027 deadline faces challenging delays. By law, Rikers must be replaced by four smaller, borough-based jails, as PLN reported. However, the transition is expected to face major logistical problems
First, the new borough facilities will not be completed in time. Second, Rikers’ current population of roughly 6,500 prisoners vastly exceeds the combined 4,100-bed capacity of the planned replacements. Even Mayor Mamdani admitted that meeting the 2027 deadline is almost impossible because the city ignored rules and requirements for years. [See: PLN, Mar. 2026, p.54.] This means New York’s plan to close all its jails is stalled indefinitely, despite this smaller closure.
Dana Kaplan, a veteran criminal justice reformer who was tapped to oversee the transition to borough-based jails, says shuttering Rikers is “a long-term plan, and it’s not happening tomorrow, unfortunately.”
Source: CBS News
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