De Blasio finally says he’ll tour NYC’s troubled Rikers Island next week after pressure from Eric Adams, other politicians

NEW YORK — Took him long enough.

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised Friday that he will visit Rikers Island next week for the first time in over four years, caving to mounting political pressure as deteriorating conditions at the jail stand to become a national embarrassment for the city.

Speaking during his weekly appearance on WNYC, de Blasio claimed his decision was not influenced by calls from a laundry list of local politicians to visit the island already.

“I don’t care how many people call for something. I got to do what I think is right,” the mayor said. “The right thing to do is to fix the problems, put my best energies there. Now, I’ll go see if those solutions are working.”

Hizzoner declined to specify the day of his visit, but said he’ll be joined by First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and Correction Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi.

De Blasio’s announcement came just minutes after Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the city’s likely next mayor, became the latest public official to call on him to tour Rikers.

“Yes, he should do a walk-through,” Adams told reporters during an unrelated event in Brooklyn. “He should bring all of his top commissioners and deputy mayors to walk through and say: Look what failed policies have produced in our city for decades. Because those men and women at Rikers Island is an indictment on our city. Not on this administration only — but on every administration.”

De Blasio last visited Rikers in June 2017.

Pressure for him to tour Rikers again began to build after a group of state lawmakers visited the lockup on Sept. 13 and described witnessing a “humanitarian crisis,” with inmates being held in overcrowded pens without access to food, water or medication, sometimes for days on end. The lawmakers also said jail hallways were lined with human feces, rotting food and dead cockroaches.

Amid the deplorable conditions, 11 inmates have died on Rikers Island since December. A 12th inmate held in city Correction Department custody died Wednesday onboard a jail barge docked just north of Rikers.

De Blasio has blamed the deepening crisis on staffing shortages in the Correction Department ranks caused by hundreds of officers calling out sick without proper documentation.

The mayor has also pointed fingers at the state court system, claiming the city has had no choice but to keep sending inmates to the already overcrowded jail