In four other places in the city, more humane facilities are needed to lock people up. The city council has earmarked $8 billion for the plan.
The complex has a total of nine prisons. There are currently 7,000 people incarcerated there. Two decades ago, there were 20,000. “Rikers Island is a symbol of cruelty and inhumanity and it is time for us to shut down Rikers Island once and for all,” City Council chairman Corey Johnson said ahead of the vote.
Rikers Island owes its bad name mainly to a period in the 1980s when the prison became overcrowded with many crack addicts and dealers who were sent to prison. This resulted in a day-long revolt in the detention center. It was not until the 1990s that the number of prisoners in a cell dropped from about thirty to around ten.
Known prisoners
Well-known prisoners were often given their own cell, because otherwise they would be attacked by the other residents. Artists Tupac Shakur, DMX and Lil’ Wayne and John Lennon’s killer, Mark Chapman, were held in the complex for some time. Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn also stayed there for a few days.
–
