New Close Rikers czar Dana Kaplan has same goal

Mayor Zohran Mamdani officially named Dana Kaplan the inaugural Close Rikers czar on April 28. Kaplan is a criminal justice reformer who has spent roughly the past decade championing the long-troubled Rikers Island jail complex’s closure and remains an original mind behind the city’s borough-based jail plan. Now that the mayor has officially named her Close Rikers czar, she will lend her expertise to his administration as it seeks to shut down the facility, which opened in 1932.

“My job is to move heaven and earth to close Rikers Island as quickly as possible,” said Kaplan in a phone interview. “What that entails is coordinating across all of the agencies and partners to reduce the jail population, advance these borough-based facilities, ensure a safe transition, and not lose sight of improving conditions on Rikers Island right now.”

The role stems from a passed City Council bill sponsored by Councilmember Sandy Nurse to establish “a coordinator of the transition to borough-based jails and a department of correction coordinator for borough-based jail transition.” Kaplan’s appointment fulfills this legal requirement.

“I passed Local Law 140 to ensure the city fulfills its legal and moral obligation to close Rikers Island,” said Nurse. “The previous administration willfully ignored that law and real people suffered because of it. Mayor Mamdani’s swift appointment of Dana Kaplan to the Close Rikers coordinator both fulfills the law and is an encouraging sign that this administration understands the urgency. I look forward to working with her to finally close Rikers Island.”

Just little over a year remains for the city to meet the legal deadline to shutter Rikers Island, but the closure plan depends on constructing four borough-based jails to hold the remaining people in custody and those facilities’ projected completion dates range from 2029 to the early 2030s. Another mandate calls for the city to repurpose the East River island, just north of LaGuardia Airport, for renewable efforts after closure.

Beyond almost certainly missing the August 2027 deadline, the city also faces the need to reduce the Rikers population by more than 2,000 people-in-custody before the new sites open. However, currently, only 4,160 beds are planned in total among the four borough-based facilities to account for space needed for programming and medical care. According to the Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, more than 6,500 people were held on average in New York City jails last month, most of them on Rikers Island.

Kaplan has long tackled these concerns dating back to the De Blasio administration, where she worked at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, including as deputy director of the Close Rikers and Justice Initiatives. She later served as a senior advisor for the Independent Rikers Commission, a City Council-appointed task force chaired by former New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman to chart Rikers’ closure.

“Dana Kaplan has the vision and expertise to help us close Rikers Island, reduce the jail population, and open a borough-based jail system that is smaller, safer, and more humane,” said Mamdani in a statement. “She will lead coordination across agencies to deliver a system that respects the dignity of people in custody and the people who work in these facilities.”

Department of Correction (DOC) commissioner Stanley Richards is a familiar face for Kaplan — the two worked together on closing Rikers Island long before Mamdani appointed them this year. Richards, who previously headed re-entry service provider the Fortune Society, acknowledged their history in his statement and welcomed a “strong partnership.”

Kaplan also foresees working with the federally appointed Remediation Manager Nicholas Deml, who boasts sweeping authority over the DOC and is broadly tasked with improving city jail conditions. His appointment does not specifically align with the closure plan and could technically remain after Rikers shuts down.

Kaplan’s new role will involve engaging with a grand assortment of other stakeholders, particularly on the construction and design side for the borough-based jails.

“There are so many different agencies that are a part of this,” said Kaplan. “Of course, the Department of Design and Construction, the Department of Corrections and Correctional Health Services are all important partners in building the new facilities and designing the operation. I would add in there also the community providers that run programs on Rikers Island and are part of the plan in terms of now creating new program space for them within the facilities to reduce the jail population.

“I will be working with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, as well as our partners in the courts, the district attorney’s offices, the public defenders’ offices, [and] the different programs that are part of ensuring an effective continuum for pretrial release and mental health support at the community level.”

Former Mayor Eric Adams vaguely floated a “plan B” for the closure plan in his first year, although he never committed to an alternative strategy to fix city jails, even with federal oversight pressuring him from a previous settlement. Deaths mounted on Rikers Island, with at least 47 people dying in or immediately after DOC custody during his tenure. Ultimately, a federal judge ruled for a receivership-like takeover and handed the reigns to Deml.

Enlisting Kaplan reaffirms Mamdani’s commitment to the borough-based jail plan, which remains polarizing across the political spectrum. While his former opponent Andrew Cuomo suggested keeping Rikers Island open during last year’s mayoral election, some fellow leftists, like those from the Angela Davis-affiliated Critical Resistance movement, also oppose the new facilities under more abolitionist grounds. Local opposition also sprung up against the construction in neighborhoods like Chinatown in Manhattan.

Kaplan spoke about also ensuring the borough-based jails were “good neighbors” and addressing quality-of-life considerations. Most of the construction sites are located nearby or directly next to municipal courthouses to cut down on transporting people from Rikers Island to their court appearances. Just one MTA bus line, the Q100, currently takes visitors directly to the jail complex.

Meanwhile, proponents see the borough-based jail plan as the best shot to close down the uniquely deadly Rikers Island and reduce the city’s carceral footprint. The new facilities are designed to provide people in custody, most of whom are awaiting trial, safer and more humane conditions, which include better healthcare, re-entry programming, and support services.

Advocates for the Campaign to Close Rikers have long seen Kaplan as a key ally and welcomed her appointment. “In this moment, the urgency of appointing the Close Rikers Czar cannot be overstated,” they said in a statement. “This is another critical step forward in the effort to shutter the jails on Rikers for good, and we applaud the Mayor for moving this appointment forward. It is essential to have a person at City Hall who will bring the whole-of-government approach to closing Rikers.”

The post New Close Rikers czar Dana Kaplan has same goal appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.