A new report confirms a grim actuality: Regardless of guarantees of change, Rikers Island continues to be affected by hazardous residing circumstances, excessive violence, and poor well being care. Final yr, greater than a dozen folks perished within the jail advanced.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani simply introduced some measures to enhance circumstances at Rikers. And to switch the advanced solely, the town is setting up 5 smaller jails in every borough. However we want a change that goes far past new infrastructure – or we’ll merely repeat the identical errors in tinier buildings.
We’d like a brand new understanding of neighborhood security – one which addresses the foundation causes of crime and promotes humane, rehabilitative therapy for all New Yorkers. In doing so, we’ll create stronger, extra affluent communities in each nook of our metropolis.
On the finish of 2025, practically 300 interfaith leaders, advocates, previously incarcerated folks, and different native leaders met to debate and chart out such a imaginative and prescient. As leaders of Union Theological Seminary in NYC, we have been grateful to take part and uplift the robust religion neighborhood advancing legal authorized reform.
Notably, most of the earliest iterations of incarceration have been pushed by non secular teams and designed with the intention of ethical restore and reformation. The phrase “penitentiary” comes from “penance,” an act of sorrow or remorse for wrongdoing, exhibiting one’s dedication to creating amends.
However at present, jail has turn out to be a solution to punish and demean human beings – particularly human beings who by no means obtained the fundamental assist they wanted to outlive.
Throughout New York Metropolis, there are prolonged ready lists for housing, psychological well being providers, and different fundamental wants. However there’s no ready checklist for jail. Unsurprisingly – and sadly – twenty p.c of individuals detained at Rikers have a recognized severe psychological sickness, and greater than 50 p.c have some psychological well being wants. Many are unhoused, poor, or from historically marginalized communities.
In consequence, folks typically enter Rikers after they’re already struggling to outlive, after which get retraumatized contained in the jail. Rikers magnifies and multiplies the foundation causes of crime – particularly poverty, trauma, and racial discrimination.
We’d like a change – effectively earlier than the brand new amenities open. Happily, we now have momentum on our facet. We now have a mayor who has expressed a dedication to doing issues in another way and making a metropolis the place all folks can thrive. And the town’s religion leaders and legal justice advocates are extra motivated than ever.
First, we have to re-center penitence and rehabilitation in amenities. All amenities needs to be designed to enhance security and strengthen folks’s connections to households and courts. Crucially, amenities should additionally present house for schooling, well being, and therapeutic programming.
At Union Theological Seminary, we’ve seen how highly effective such programming might be. We now home a program created by New York Theological Seminary that gives incarcerated New Yorkers the prospect to obtain a Grasp’s diploma. Since its inception, this system has graduated near 500 college students – most of whom have gone on to turn out to be counselors, mentors, mediators, religion leaders, counselors, neighborhood organizers, and extra.
Our program reveals that when persons are outfitted with the instruments to thrive, they do.
Past higher amenities, we additionally want to handle the foundation causes of crime. Meaning reallocating sources away from corrections to constructing communities – together with psychological well being, schooling, and alternatives for younger folks. Happily, the Unbiased Rikers Fee estimates that the borough-based jails will save the Metropolis $2 billion per yr in working prices – cash that we will then use to spend money on our communities.
In the end, although, we all know that the answer to the problems that drive violence and crime in our metropolis isn’t so-called “better” jails. As religion leaders, we’re devoted to the pursuit of a world that embraces restorative, data-driven responses to hurt and assist of the neighborhood.
Once we provide actual second probabilities and provides folks the instruments we have to succeed, we will additionally construct stronger, safer, and extra loving communities. That’s one thing all New Yorkers can get behind.
Rev. Dr. Serene Jones is president and the Johnston Household Professor for Faith & Democracy at Union Theological Seminary, a globally acknowledged seminary and graduate college of theology the place faith, spirituality and scholarship meet to reimagine the work of justice. Rev. Frederick Davie is senior govt vp for Public Theology and Civic Engagement at Union.
