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City announces plan to cut down on Rikers violence – Metro US

City announces plan to cut down on Rikers violence

City announces plan to cut down on Rikers violence

With violence on the rise at Riker’s Island, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Correction Commissioner Joe Ponte announced a series of reforms Thursday aimed at making the massive complex a safer place for inmates.

Officials are taking on inmate-on-inmate violence, which accounted for 71 percent of all violent incidents last year, by adding security cameras, cutting down on the number of visitors and limiting their contact with inmates.

The plan will also house violent inmates together, and separate rival gangs into different housing units.

There have been 711 inmate attacks so far this year.

“Today we are taking aggressive steps to move Rikers Island from a culture of violence to a culture of safety,” de Blasio said in a statement.

The planned reforms are expected to be in place by the end of 2018.