JustLeadershipUSA — Campaign to Close Rikers

[Criminal Justice Reform] JustLeadershipUSA staff reviewed this page prior to publication. Criminal justice reform is one of the Open Philanthropy Project’s focus areas within U.S. Policy. JustLeadershipUSA, a national advocacy organization formed in 2014 to advocate for reforms to reduce incarceration, with a focus on training and lifting up the voices and leadership of formerly incarcerated people as advocates, has proposed a major campaign to create public demand and secure political commitment to close the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City. We believe that this campaign is well-positioned to take advantage of a unique opportunity within criminal justice reform, with the potential to positively impact criminal justice reform nationally in addition to its direct benefits in New York City. Chloe Cockburn, our Program Officer for Criminal Justice Reform (“Chloe” throughout this page), believes that the campaign’s leadership team, as well as the specific opportunity that Rikers represents, make this a particularly promising campaign. Based on these considerations, the Open Philanthropy Project has decided to recommend a $900,000 grant to JustLeadershipUSA to support its #CLOSErikers campaign. The cause This grant falls within criminal justice reform, one of our focus areas. The average daily jail population in the U.S. is about 731,000 (compared to about 1.3 million in state prisons and 200,000 in federal prisons), and about 12 million unique individuals are jailed each year.1 The issue of over-jailing in America, especially of the poor, is summarized well by a report from the Vera Institute of Justice.2 We believe jails may be a relatively tractable target for advocacy (compared to other potential targets within criminal justice reform) for several reasons: Because most people in jail have not yet been convicted of a crime (unlike people in prison), it may be easier from a communications perspective to advocate for reducing jail populations than prison populations. Because most people remain in jail for only a short time, policy changes could lead to population reductions fairly quickly (in contrast to prisons, where sentencing reforms might not result in significant population reduction for several years). Our understanding is that people exiting jail may have an easier reentry experience into society than people exiting prison, since they have typically been away from home for a shorter time. Some policy reforms have the potential to significantly impact jail populations if implemented across the country. However, because jail policy is usually determined at the local level, advocacy for broad-based policy change can be challenging. (Most states, with a few exceptions, do not have central, state-level oversight of jails.) We see targeting a single, high-profile jail for closure as a potential way to address this decentralization challenge. A successful campaign to close a high-profile jail would likely draw significant attention to the issue of over-jailing, and has the potential to shift the Overton Window in a way that increases the chances of similar reforms being implemented around the country. The campaign This grant proposes to target Rikers Island jail complex in New York City for closure. Rikers, the second largest jail in the country, has received media attention over the past few years due to especially harsh conditions and numerous abuses.3 Our understanding is that there is a pending Department of Justice investigation into abuses at Rikers, as well as various ongoing lawsuits. In part, we believe, due to this increased attention, calls to reform Rikers have begun to shift toward a demand to close the facility altogether. Over the last six months in particular, we have seen support for closing Rikers in some influential circles.