Rikers Island, America’s most notorious prison, is set to close
Hi again, welcome back to Plain English, the best podcast for learning English. I’m Jeff and JR is the producer. This is episode 205 and you can find the full transcript of this program at PlainEnglish.com/205.
Coming up today: The infamous New York City jail at Rikers Island is set to close in 2026. The jail hosts about 7,000 inmates per night, but is a symbol of abuse and neglect; the city is right to close it. But the plans to replace it with four smaller jails may not be sufficient. We will talk about the English expression “uphill battle” and JR has a song of the week.
Quick bonus lesson for you before we start—I thought you might want to know the difference between “jail” and “prison.” In the United States, we typically have different types of facilities for different purposes. Jail is the place you go when you get arrested. You might have to spend a night in jail as you wait for a hearing; in some cases, you need to stay in jail while your trial is going on. If you are convicted and sentenced to just a few weeks, you probably serve your time in a jail.
A prison, by contrast, is where you go to serve your sentence if it’s longer than just a few days or a few weeks. If you are convicted of a crime and need to serve a five-year sentence, for example, you go to prison. A prison is designed to house inmates for longer periods of time, whereas jails are designed to handle a high volume of people frequently coming in and going out.
One of our listeners, Chris, suggested in the comments section of our web site that I talk about Piper, Alex, and Gloria from “Orange Is The New Black.” In that show, Litchfield is a federal prison—it’s where people go after they are convicted of federal crimes to serve their extended sentences.
Now in English, we often use the word “jail” informally to mean either jail or prison. “He spent five years in jail”—you might hear someone say that. What they really mean is that they spent five years in prison, but we don’t tend to make that distinction in informal speech. We tend to just say “jail” as a catch-all.
So now you are prepared for this episode about one of America’s second-largest jail.
New York City Council votes to close jail at Rikers Island
The New York City Council has voted to close America’s most notorious jail, Rikers Island. If you’ve ever watched an American crime show like Law and Order, you’ve probably heard the word “Rikers” used as shorthand for jail. With dozens of buildings spread across a sprawling 400-acre site on an island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx, Rikers hosts most of New York City’s short-term prisoners—those serving short sentences and those awaiting trial. On any given night, 7,000 people are involuntary guests at the city’s largest jail.
When it opened in 1930s, it was heralded as “the most perfect prison system in the world” and a model for humane incarceration. Today, it is notorious for abuse, neglect, violence, and mismanagement. By 2026, it will close its doors for the last time, its prisoners relocated to four new local jails
The reasons for the closure are many. First, Rikers is bordering on inhumane. Jail is not a fun place to be, and it’s not meant to be. But Rikers is unusual for the stunning abuse, neglect, and violence that take place inside its walls. Closing the jail and relocating all the corrections officers and prisoners won’t solve this by itself, but it would help, simply by breaking up the culture and splitting the jail population into four smaller locations. Second, Rikers doesn’t serve its purpose very well. Jail, as I mentioned before, is a place you go for a short stay: it helps to be near the courthouse where your trial is taking place, near your family, and near your lawyer’s office.
Rikers is not near anything. It’s on an island by itself, accessible by only a single bus and a single bridge. Prisoners going to trial have long bus rides, which can be delayed in traffic; it’s common for prisoners to miss their court dates because their bus was late, prolonging their stay in jail even longer. Families labor to visit loved ones, and lawyers have long commutes to visit their clients.
Finally, the idea of incarceration has changed over the years, and the buildings that house inmates should also change. The new jails will have facilities better able to cope with addiction, mental health issues, and re-integration programs. They will have fewer solitary confinement cells. A City Councilwoman said that Rikers doesn’t have cells: it has cages.
I’m sure at some point it made sense to keep all the prisoners in America’s biggest city in just one location—but it doesn’t make sense now. Closing Rikers is a good idea. But it’s not going to be easy. For one thing, the four new jails will only house about 3,000 inmates—far fewer than the 10,000-bed Rikers Island. The city would have to reduce its jail population by about half in just six years.
The city says this is possible. For one thing, New York’s crime rate has been steadily falling for decades and the mayor believes that trend will continue. For another, New York is planning to lock up fewer inmates. No longer are people put in jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The city is also planning to institute more programs on re-integration, addiction counseling, and mental health, in an effort to reduce the number of people in the system.
Cash bail is being eliminated in New York. I don’t know how it works in other countries, but in America, when you are arrested, a judge determines if you are allowed to go free while you wait for your trial. For many arrestees, their options are to post bail—essentially pay a deposit of money to the government—or wait for their trial in jail. The cash bail system is designed to prevent defendants from running away and skipping their trials. However, it leads to very unequal outcomes. Wealthier defendants can go free, while poorer defendants often wait for their trials in jail—and suffer the consequences. Eliminating the system of cash bail will, the city hopes, reduce their jail population.
Still, it’s a bit of a risk. The new programs designed to reduce the jail population sound good in theory, but haven’t been tested on such a large scale. And even if the city does manage to reduce its jail population by the amount necessary, it wouldn’t have any flexibility to respond to an increase in crime, if one comes in the future. The city faces an uphill battle: you can imagine that the residents of those neighborhoods are coming out in force to oppose new jail construction in their backyards.
Law and Order: SVU is one of my favorite shows and Rikers Island features prominently in that show. I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best shows out there, but if I’ve had a long day or I’m not feeling well, and I just want to lay on the couch and relax, SVU is the show I turn to.
I’d like to say hi to a few listeners today. Levi from São Paulo is in IT and listens to improve at his job. Also Delmis from Nicaragua is listening to get better at work, too.
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