Five years after his last visit, Mayor Bill de Blasio finally set foot on Rikers Island on Monday, Sept. 27 — touring the troubled correctional facility amid a public outcry over inhumane conditions for inmates and corrections officers alike.
While providing generalities about his previous promises to address the situation in the short-term, de Blasio said that Rikers Island has always made him “upset” over its deplorable conditions — but touted that finally moving forward with closing the jail by 2026 was the be-all, end-all solution to the crisis.
