Mayor Adams argued Tuesday that last week’s horrific stabbing spree in Manhattan was the “byproduct” of efforts to slash the inmate population on Rikers Island.
Ramon Rivera, the homeless man accused of killing three strangers during the Nov. 18 attacks, was released early from Rikers in mid-October after getting credit for good behavior while serving a one-year sentence on burglary charges.
In his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon, Adams said there’s a throughline between Rivera’s early release — which came even though he had assaulted a jail guard while in custody — and the “constant pressure” the Department of Correction faces to thin out the Rikers population before the city must by law shutter the notorious jail permanently in 2027.
“It’s ironic, some of the same people who are critiquing what we’re doing right now are some of the loudest voices about ‘open Rikers’ to just let everybody out. This is the byproduct of opening Rikers and just letting everybody out,” Adams said, referring to Rivera’s allegedly unprovoked attacks.
“And we’ve heard it constantly, ‘Why is anybody on Rikers? No one should be on Rikers.’ So let’s be clear on what we constantly have to fight against and say: No, we’re not just letting anybody out. We got to do it correctly.”
Rivera’s now held without bail after being charged with stabbing a construction worker to death in Chelsea before killing a fisherman near the East River and a woman sitting on a park bench near the United Nations, all within a few hours.
Adams’ comments came after Rep. Ritchie Torres, a moderate Democrat representing parts of the Bronx, slammed the mayor and Gov. Hochul on Monday, arguing their administrations share blame for the deaths of Rivera’s alleged victims.
In a letter addressed to Hochul and Adams, Torres took particularly sharp aim at Adams’ Department of Correction.
“The worst offender is NYC DOC, which made the inexplicable and inexcusable decision to release Ramon Rivera early. … The city refuses to hold DOC accountable for the early release of a demonstrably dangerous criminal who went on a stabbing spree. The end result is incompetence that is not only destructive but deadly for New Yorkers,” wrote Torres, who’s publicly considering either running for mayor in 2025 against Adams or for governor in 2026 against Hochul.
Asked about Torres’ criticism Tuesday, Adams, who’s politically aligned with the congressman, said he “understands” the lawmaker’s concerns, but that the reasons Rivera got released are complex.
Rivera assaulted a jail guard at Bellevue Hospital while in custody before his sentencing. A quirk in the law holds that the Department of Correction can only consider whether an inmate should be given time off for good behavior based on actions taken after their sentencing — and Adams said that’s why Rivera got out early despite the Bellevue incident, which became a separate case.
To that end, Adams said he has directed his “team to sit down with the Law Department” to determine whether the city can legally deny inmates early release based on actions over the course of their entire time in custody.
Adams also reiterated his concerns about the long-term plan to replace Rikers with four borough-based jails. He said the plan should be modified to require that one of those jails becomes a mental health ward and also called on the state Legislature to enact laws making it easier to force people suffering from severe metal illness into treatment.
“We have to take the necessary action and stop lying about it,” he said.
Mayor Eric Adams visits Rikers Island
Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office Mayor Adams visits Rikers Island on Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022. (Benny Polatseck/Mayoral Photography Office)
Freedom Agenda co-director Darren Mack, whose organization has long been critical of whether Adams is taking the appropriate steps to comply with the law to close Rikers, said the mayor needs to think about the issues more holistically.
“Mayor Adams has spent his entire administration sending hundreds more people to Rikers, especially people with serious mental illness, and it’s been a failure in terms of addressing public safety, and that’s because Rikers doesn’t address the problems anyone is facing. If anything, it worsens them,” Mack said.
“People coming out of Rikers face yearslong waiting lists for housing and treatment. Hopefully the mayor is finally realizing it’s time to do something about that, not just talk about it.”
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