Decrepit, dysfunctional and violent. 

Those are some of the conclusions of a highly anticipated report from the Independent Rikers Commission — a panel appointed by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams in October 2023 charged with determining how the city should move forward with closing the deeply troubled jail facility.

A city law requires the closure of the complex by August 2027. 

But construction and planning on four new jails to replace it are far behind schedule, with completion dates going into 2032. 

The 114-page report found the complex dilapidated and dangerous, a harm to public safety and it must close. 

The report suggests a number of initiatives and programs to reduce the population and speed up the construction of the borough-based jails.

Among them, the appointment of two people to lead the effort full time.

While saying the city cannot meet the 2027 goal, the report does not suggest a new date. 

“What we’ve done in our first blueprint and in this blueprint is to call on our city leaders to move with urgency,” Stanley Richards of the Independent Rikers Commission said. “What we know is when we have our elected leaders all pulling in the same direction using every lever of [the] city government to make something happen, it can happen.”

The commission confronts one of the biggest challenges facing Rikers — the climbing population of detainees with serious mental illnesses.

It finds detainees deemed incompetent to stand trial languish for months, waiting for a psychiatric treatment bed.

So the commission suggests adding 500 new beds in a secure facility, ideally a state one. The governor’s office said it was reviewing the proposal.  

“I don’t think we can take a look at moving the date forward or adjusting the date at all. What we’re looking for is the administration to put forth the resources that were noted so aptly in the report. We’re taking the report very very seriously and we hope the mayoral administration will be collaborative in working with the results of that report,” Speaker Adams said. 

Ultimately, the council and the mayor will have to negotiate how to move forward. For months, as recently as Tuesday, the mayor has said the 2027 goal is unrealistic. 

“So we’re going to spend almost $16 billion to build four jails that will not house the current population we have. That makes no sense. You can’t have just idealism as policies,” Mayor Eric Adams said.

In a statement to NY1, the mayor did not weigh in on the specifics of the commission’s proposals. Instead, he suggested using emergency capital funds now for Rikers to ensure adequate services are provided.