New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday that he wants to close the city's troubled Rikers Island jail complex, though he cautioned that doing so would be difficult and could take at least a decade.
"It will take many years and it will take many tough decisions along the way, but it will happen," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Among those challenges: The mayor said the jail's daily population would have to be slashed to half of what it was just a few years ago. New, smaller jails would also have to be opened elsewhere in the city - a potentially lengthy process considering the possibility of neighborhood opposition.
