Mayor Bill de Blasio has declared that within the next decade, the jail complex at Rikers Island would be shut down. Many more go unreported. Others question the use of city funds. The City Council approved plans on Thursday to close Rikers, a jail complex with nearly 10,000 beds, by 2026. It will take you to Hazen Street and 19th Avenue in Queens, which is the entrance to Rikers Island. Supposedly named after Abraham Rycken, who bought 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). When the City Council approved the 2020-2021 city budget last week, it solidified a plan first put forth by the mayor at the height of the COVID-19 crisis to move the funding timeline for the jails project back by a fiscal year. One individual reported that each inmate got two free calls per week. In 2014, an Associated Press investigation detailed the death of a homeless ex-marine who essentially baked to death in a hot cell. According to Malissa Allen, a mental health counsellor who has treated inmates at the infirmary where he will be staying, there are bunk rooms with up to 40 patients, which have hospital machines to monitor vital signs. The lingering threat of a "spell in the box" – or solitary confinement – hangs over all the inmates. Rikers Island is a 413.17-acre (167.20-hectare) island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that is home to New York City's main jailcomplex. The Q101 originates in Manhattan, at East 59th Street and Second Avenue. It's thought to be named after Abraham Rycken, a Dutch settler whose family purchased the island in 1664, and were said to be involved in the fugitive slave trade during the first half of the 19th century. Rikers Island has housed jail inmates since the 1930s and has long been known for brutality. It was home to a military training ground during the Civil War, before becoming a storage space for rubbish in 1922, when it developed its first nickname, the “valley of the ashes" thanks to the smoke from all the coal debris, that lit up the night sky. An officer found 27-year-old Christopher Cruz unresponsive in … “For decades, this city and this country’s answer to every societal problem was to throw people in jail,” Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, said on Wednesday. Others, including the prison abolitionist group No New Jails NYC, believe the funds should not go to building new jails at all and instead should be diverted to neighborhood services. Rikers Island, one of the country’s most notorious correctional facilities, is closing.The City Council approved plans on Thursday to close Rikers, a jail complex with nearly 10,000 beds, by 2026. [Daily News], Dance it out to a lineup of DJs at “Papi Juice Vol. Officials say New York’s declining crime rate makes the downsizing from about 7,000 inmates now at Rikers possible. New York City lawmakers voted on Thursday to close the notorious jail … From celebrating love found later in life to remembering a beloved doorman, the Modern Love column (and podcast and newsletter and anthology) is taking its treasured love stories to the screen. What we’re watching: Sam Roberts and Christine Quinn, the former City Council speaker, discuss Mayor de Blasio’s agenda for the next two years on “The New York Times Close Up With Sam Roberts.” The show airs tonight at 8 p.m., on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. [CUNY TV], City officials want a task force created to examine the surge in suicide attempt rates among black teens. It’s not clear what type of  accommodation Weinstein can expect. 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