Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. We are gathered here today to mark a major milestone on the path to closing Rikers. We stand here together at New York City Health + Hospitals Bellevue, opening an outposted therapeutic housing unit for incarcerated individuals - the first facility of its kind. I am deeply grateful to the many advocates and activists who have fought tirelessly to advance a more just and compassionate approach to carceral care. And I want to thank the district attorneys, public defenders and judges who are doing the work to speed case processing and reduce our jail population.
I am also proud to be joined here by our public advocate, Jumaane Williams, by our Manhattan borough president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, our Councilman Yusef Salaam, our Councilwoman Gale Brewer, and our Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers, as well as a number of leaders from our city administration. For decades, the daily conditions at Rikers have been calamitous and unsafe. Rikers, as we know, is broken. Two weeks ago, two men suffered medical emergencies and died while in DOC custody. These are not isolated incidents. More than 100 people have died on Rikers since 2015. The facilities at Rikers have long languished in disrepair, creating the conditions for violence and putting those with health conditions at serious risk.
So often, the detainees who enter Rikers, 84 percent of whom are being held pretrial, leave damaged by their time on the island, traumatized, destabilized and at greater risk for recidivism. I want to thank the corrections officers who show up to work every single day, despite being surrounded by these very same conditions. For decades, our city's approach to mental health has leaned heavily on criminalization. For many in the throes of crisis, Rikers has been their holding cell.
As such, it has become a de facto mental health facility, now standing as the second largest in the country, forcing staff and corrections officers to shoulder a burden they were never supposed to bear. And Rikers' remote location only deepens this dysfunction. For those suffering from an acute health or mental health condition, it can take 12 to 14 months just to get a single appointment. And those receiving care on the island are treated not in an outfitted care facility, but rather in a bus depot. This system fails incarcerated individuals in need of help in two distinct ways.
First, they do not receive the care they need for acute conditions. Second, it deters patients from seeking critical and sometimes life-saving treatment in the first place. These conditions are deeply counterproductive. And time after time, they have turned preventable situations into full-scale crises. It does not have to be this way. We can build a system that actually works for everyone. Those who are incarcerated, those who are serving in their jobs as corrections officers and our city as a whole.
In 2019, the City Council voted to close Rikers and replace it with borough-based jails and therapeutic housing units. Yet the previous administration delayed the construction of borough-based jails and dragged their feet on the opening of therapeutic health facilities like this one. While the construction of this outposted therapeutic unit here at Bellevue was completed in 2025, its doors have stayed closed for 15 months. Today, we are charting a different course. One that diverts from the path of neglect and begins the process of closing Rikers Island once and for all.
This therapeutic housing unit is home to 104 beds and will deliver high-quality care for people in custody with acute medical conditions and serious mental illness. Patients will begin moving in tomorrow. Rather than waiting critical hours and traveling off-site to get the treatment they need, specialty services will be just an elevator ride away. Rather than enduring the crumbling conditions that have defined Rikers for so long, they will receive care in a space designed for rehabilitation. Like the borough-based jails currently under construction, this therapeutic unit has been designed to improve the well-being of those experiencing crisis.
This means brand-new physical therapy and occupational therapy equipment, natural light, voluntary respite rooms and a vast recreational space. This unit meets DOC protection standards so we can ensure the health and safety of both those in custody and corrections officers. This is only the beginning of our efforts. We are bringing this same model to facilities in Brooklyn and the Bronx, projected to be completed by 2029, bringing our total number of therapeutic beds to 340. As we advance this work, we do so with a clear goal. A city where every New Yorker is safe. Where we deliver clear and tangible improvements to long-broken systems. Where we fulfill long-standing commitments to reform. One where we work every day to ensure that care under our city reflects the dignity that every New Yorker deserves.
Now before I pass it along, I do want to just say thank you to everyone who is here. The incredible work you do for this city on a daily basis. The fact [is] that so often that work is not recognized, it is not acknowledged, [and] it is not understood for the scale of the impact that it has. And I cannot thank you enough for what you do for everyone who calls this city home. And I cannot thank those around me enough who have been on the front lines of fighting for this project amidst the most inexplicable and repeated delays, day after day, month after month, year after year.
