Rikers Island

The plan to close Rikers Island and replace it with four smaller borough-based jails is now in the hands of the New York City Council.

Commissioners walked out of a meeting on closing Rikers Island and replacing it with four new jails across the city after repeated disruptions.

Residents in Kew Gardens protested outside Borough Hall on Sunday to express their frustration over plans to build a new jail in the neighborhood.

New York prosecutors have asked federal prison officials to transfer Paul Manafort to New York City so he can be arraigned on state fraud charges. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman is currently serving a 7 1/2-year sentence for bank fraud and other offenses at a prison in Pennsylvania.

New York City unveiled an ambitious plan on Wednesday to replace the notorious Rikers Island jail complex with four smaller lockups located in densely populated neighborhoods, including turning an Art Deco government building that went up in lower Manhattan in 1930 into a tower for up to 1,500 inmates.

The union that represents jail guards in New York City says something must be done about attacks on guards or the city will have blood on its hands. The Correction Officers' Benevolent Association is calling out the mayor for "doing nothing" to prevent attacks.

On the same day the New York State Department of Corrections released a report that found violent incidents at Rikers Island increased in the last year and warning it might close the jail before New York City does, the mayor held a news conference to announce the lowest inmate population at Rikers in five years, the lowest jail population the city's seen in 35 years, and the lowest incarceration rate of any major city in America.

Four Rikers Island inmates accused of brutally attacking a New York City correction officer pleaded not guilty in court Monday. The attack took place on Saturday evening in the George Motchan Detention Center in the sprawling jail complex. The officer suffered a fractured spine and swelling on his brain. Officer Jean Souffrant, 39, was in the ICU of a hospital after the attack that was caught on camera.

Rikers Island is one of the most notorious jail complexes in America. Now it is one step closer to shutting down. New York City's Department of Correction is set to close the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island. The GMDC currently houses about 600 inmates and detainees.

How can a debate be used as a tool to help inmates rehabilitate and be more productive citizens when they reach back to the outside? An experiment happening at Rikers Island, New York City's massive jail complex in the East River is hoping to answer that.

"Peculiar Patriot" is filled with humor. But truth be told, it is just the chosen entry point to make people not directly impacted more likely to learn about the prison industrial complex. The play is the work of Liza Jessie Peterson, who took on the challenge of teaching poetry and creative writing to a group of young men locked up in Rikers Island in 1998.

In 2016, police attested nearly 10,000 people in Manhattan for jumping the turnstile or failing to pay their subway fare, officially called theft of service. In fact, it was the most common charge in Manhattan Criminal Court. But beginning in September, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr.'s office will no longer prosecute those who evade their fares unless the individual poses a demonstrated threat to public safety.

Rows on rows of razor barbed wire around the GMDC building on Rikers Island say "jail" bigger than any sign. Fox 5 got an exclusive look inside the jail that is the temporary home to about 400 men, ages 18 to 21. They've all been arrested but the vast majority of them have not yet had their day in court. For some detainees, time served on Rikers is their initiation into the prison pipeline. For a growing number of others, it is a wakeup call before it is too late. Inside this high-security facility over the last two years, the Department of Correction has been arming inmates with a variety of career skills so they won't succumb to the negative influence of the streets once they get out. So far, about 1,500 former inmates left Rikers with job training.

Joseph Ponte resigned as New York City's correction commissioner after a scathing report by the Department of Investigation found that he and 20 other senior-level employees regularly abused take-home vehicle privileges. The DOI report found Ponte used his city-issued SUV for 90 days' worth of out-of-state trips, mostly to his home in Maine.

The Department of Investigation issued a scathing 17-page report that found Joseph Ponte and 20 other senior-level employees at the Correction Department regularly abused take-home vehicle privileges, costing city taxpayers thousands of dollars.