Biden’s NYC Visit Should Include Rikers Stop, Advocates Say

NEW YORK CITY — A troubling sightseeing tour should be on President Joe Biden’s itinerary next week when he visits New York City for a high-profile sit down on gun violence, advocates argued.

The destination: Rikers Island.

A group of public defenders and lawyers with The Legal Aid Society this week publicly called on Biden to visit the troubled city jail for a firsthand look at an “unprecedented and unmitigated humanitarian crisis that has no end in sight.”

“President Joseph Biden’s visit to New York City is an opportunity for this nation’s leader to witness firsthand the horrendous conditions New Yorkers endure each day on Rikers Island – conditions that should serve as a reminder of why incarceration is not a panacea for public safety concerns,” the group said in a statement.

“We call on President Biden to visit Rikers Island and bear witness to the ongoing human rights violations against incarcerated New Yorkers.”

Biden is scheduled to visit New York City on Feb. 3 for a face-to-face with Mayor Eric Adams on gun violence.

A spate of high-profile gun violence incidents in the city, especially the fatal shooting of two NYPD officers, has turned the issue into a full-bore crisis.

Adams has repeatedly referred to a “sea of violence” on the city’s — and the nation’s — streets. He did so again in a statement about Biden’s pending visit.

"I look forward to welcoming President Biden to New York City next week and sitting down to discuss how we can work collaboratively to end the scourge of gun violence we are seeing on New York City streets,” Adams said. “The sea of violence comes from many rivers, and that's why my Blueprint to End Gun Violence in New York City seeks to dam every river that feeds this greater crisis. Public safety is my administration's highest priority, and we welcome the opportunity to display to President Biden how federal and local governments can coordinate and support each other in this fight to keep New Yorkers safe."

But gun violence is only one simmering public safety crisis in the city.

Conditions at Rikers Island have deteriorated for months, even by the jail’s harsh standards. Inmates have waited days in crowded intake areas, a short supply of guards faced grueling shifts and COVID-19 spread through the facility.

Many high-profile public officials have urged immediate state and federal action to help the facility.

The public defenders urged Biden to join their ranks.

“At a time when people are consistently denied basic medical and mental health care and are enduring inhumane and dangerous conditions, including an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases, we should be moving towards immediate decarceration,” they said in a statement. “Focusing instead on discredited punitive and surveillance-based approaches that feed mass incarceration and send even more people into facilities that cannot keep them safe demeans democracy and endangers everyone. This should alarm all elected officials.”

This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch