Rikers Island is a 413-acre (167.14-hectare) [1] [2] prison island in the East River in the Bronx [3] that contains New York City's largest jail. [4] [5] Named after Abraham Rycken, who took possession of the island in 1664, the island was originally under 100 acres (40 ha) in size, but has since grown to more than 400 acres (160 ha).

Jan 29, 2025 · Rikers Island, island in the East River near the entrance of Bowery Bay, north of La Guardia Airport, New York, New York, U.S. Politically part of the borough of the Bronx (north), Rikers Island is joined to the borough of Queens by a bridge (inaccessible to the public).

Oct 18, 2019 · Rikers Island, a New York jail notorious for the grim stories of cruelty and abuse that emerged from behind its walls, and for its infamous inmates - among them Tupac...

Oct 20, 2019 · This week New York City Council voted to close Rikers Island jail, which has housed high-profile inmates including Tupac Shakur, Sid Vicious, and Mark David Chapman - the man who killed John...

Jan 28, 2025 · The city officially delayed the plan to close Rikers Island and build new jails until 2027. November 2020. New York City Department of Correction officials announced the city would shut down the Manhattan Detention Complex, commonly known as “The Tombs,” in Lower Manhattan and the Otis Bantum Correctional Center on Rikers Island. June 2021

Jan 24, 2025 · By Jacob Kaye. With only two and a half years to go before the legally-binding deadline to close Rikers Island, the city this week moved forward with the final of its four contracts for the construction of the borough-based jails set to replace the notorious jail complex in the coming decade.

We are closing Rikers Island. New York is leading a historic decarceration plan to close Rikers Island and replace it with a smaller network of safer modern jails. Community Board Meetings will be ongoing through design and construction.

Jan 10, 2025 · For nearly 100 years, New York City has been housing its detainees in jail cells on Rikers Island. And for all of that time, the jail complex has been known almost exclusively as a place of violence, chaos and death.