---
title: "NYC Is Planning Giant High-Rise Prisons"
description: "New York City plans to replace its infamous Riker's Island prison with four high-rise prisons spread throughout the NYC boroughs."
date: "2019-12-09"
modified: "2019-12-09"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski.md"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nyc-planning-giant-high-rise-prisons"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "new york city"
  - "prisons"
  - "the digest"
---

# NYC Is Planning Giant High-Rise Prisons

![New York City plans to replace its infamous Riker's Island prison with four high-rise prisons spread throughout the NYC boroughs.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/nyc-planning-giant-high-rise-prisons.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Images via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Room With A View

New York City may finally close down Riker's Island, a prison infamous for violence and crowding.

And to replace it, the city has suggested constructing four high-rise buildings — one in each city borough other than Staten Island — to house inmates moving forward, [according to *The Guardian*](<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/dec/09/new-yorks-high-rise-prisons-what-could-go-wrong>). And while immediate backlash has already reduced the scope of the project, the proposal is forcing the city to reckon with [how it handles incarceration](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/prison-doesnt-deter-offenders.md>).

## Updated Skyline

Opposition to the new prisons comes from a mix of perspectives, *The Guardian* reports. Some comes from NYC residents who don't want new prisons in their neighborhoods, especially since the original plan was to build 45-story eyesores. Other opponents are prison reform advocates who want the city to close Riker's without building replacements at all.

Others argue the skyscrapers would [violate the rights](<https://futurism.com/us-prisons-collect-biometric-voice-data-surveillance.md>) of the aging prison population, arguing that tall, narrow buildings will pose a serious mobility issue for the incarcerated.

## Population Bomb

But even so, the city government expects the transition to the new prisons — planned for 2026 — to coincide with a steep drop in the number of inmates.

"This is a decarceration plan," Elizabeth Glazer, director of the mayor's office of criminal justice, told *The Guardian*. "There's been a real change in how we think about the purpose of punishment, how we treat people, how to develop a relationship between officers and incarcerated."

**READ MORE:** [New York's high-rise jails: what could go wrong?](<https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/dec/09/new-yorks-high-rise-prisons-what-could-go-wrong>) \[*The Guardian*\]

**More on prisons:** *[U.S. Prisons Are Covertly Gathering Inmates’ Biometric Voice Data](<https://futurism.com/us-prisons-collect-biometric-voice-data-surveillance.md>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)

## More

- [U.S. Prisons Are Covertly Gathering Inmates’ Biometric Voice Data](<https://futurism.com/us-prisons-collect-biometric-voice-data-surveillance.md>)
- [Mayor Announces $10 Billion Plan to Save NYC From Rising Seas](<https://futurism.com/mayor-announces-plan-save-manhattan.md>)
- [Whistleblowers: Flawed Software Held Hundreds of Prisoners Past Release Dates](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/whistleblowers-flawed-prison-software.md>)
- [These Incredible Images Reveal the Evolution of NYC](<https://futurism.com/incredible-images-reveal-evolution-nyc.md>)
- [Prisons Are Replacing Visits With Expensive, Grainy Video Calls](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/prisons-replacing-visitation-expensive-grainy-video-calls.md>)
- [Prisoners Alarmed to Discover That a Startup Is Training an AI Based on Their Phone Calls](<https://futurism.com/future-society/inmates-ai-securus-surveillance.md>)
- [China Is Installing “AI Guards” in Prison Cells](<https://futurism.com/chinese-prison-ai-guards-cells.md>)
- [Hong Kong Has a Plan to Make All of Its Prisons “Smart”](<https://futurism.com/smart-prisons-hong-kong.md>)