New York’s Radical Mayoral Hopeful Pushes to Close Rikers Island—Even If It Means Releasing Thousands of Criminals Back Into the Streets

In what conservatives are calling a stunning display of radical left-wing insanity, New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani vowed during Wednesday night’s final debate to shut down Rikers Island, the city’s largest and most notorious jail complex, by 2027. His opponents, Curtis Sliwa and Andrew Cuomo, strongly opposed the move, warning it would unleash a wave of chaos on already lawless city streets.

Mamdani, a self-described “progressive reformer,” claimed Rikers is a “stain on New York’s history,” conveniently ignoring the fact that it houses some of the most violent offenders in the state. Cuomo fired back sharply, saying Mamdani’s plan would “release 7,000 criminals into New York City,” a terrifying prospect for residents already living under the shadow of surging crime, rampant drug use, and collapsing public safety.

This push to close Rikers follows a May 2025 federal court ruling that stripped the city of control over the jail, placing it under an independent “remediation manager.” Critics argue that decades of Democratic mismanagement created this crisis in the first place—and now the Left’s solution is to reward failure by shutting the entire facility down.

Mamdani’s rhetoric about “systemic reform” and “community-based solutions” echoes the same failed ideology that turned once-great American cities into crime-infested wastelands. Instead of fixing law enforcement, the Left’s answer is always the same: defund, dismantle, and release.

If Mamdani’s vision wins, New Yorkers won’t just lose Rikers—they’ll lose their safety, their streets, and their city.