US: Can New York shut down its most notorious jail?

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to close Rikers Island, the city’s infamous jail. Critics worry it won’t happen. But he just gave them reason to hope.

After New York Mayor Bill de Blasio promised last March to close one of America’s most notorious jails, watchdogs grew concerned that the plan wasn’t moving quickly enough, with few tangible signs that the city was committed to abandoning an 82-year-old monument to mass incarceration, cruelty and corruption.

That changed a bit this week, however, when the de Blasio administration announced that it would shutter one of 10 lockup facilities on Rikers Island this summer, a move made possible by a dramatic drop in the city’s jail population ─ which in turn has been driven by a historic reduction in crime.

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