New York City’s already notorious jail system is experiencing a substantial uptick in violence, according to city data — highlighting one of the biggest challenges facing the next mayor.
According to updated findings released by the city recently, the rate of violent incidents among people in custody climbed nearly 10% in the last fiscal year over the year before, while serious injuries rose 12%. The increase was even sharper for correction department staff, who saw assaults rise 31% and serious injuries rise 21%.
The numbers come amid increasing chaos on Rikers Island and uncertainty around the jail complex’s future. A federal judge stripped the city of full control over Rikers in May, citing “unprecedented” levels of violence and disorder. A plan to close the facility and build new borough-based jails has stalled indefinitely under Mayor Eric Adams.
Rikers will be one of the biggest and most intractable problems for whoever is elected mayor this week. Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has pledged to move forward with borough-based facilities, while independent Andrew Cuomo has proposed canceling the plan. Republican Curtis Sliwa has positioned himself as the “tough on crime” candidate and has criticized closing Rikers.
Department of Correction spokesperson Patrick Rocchio cautioned against drawing conclusions from a single year of data, noting that “over the past five fiscal years nearly all indicators related to violence are down.” The agency, he said, is using new technology, improving operations and investing in training to make the jails safer and more humane.
Still, the latest numbers mark a change from that recent trend. The rate of violent incidents among people in custody — 104 per 1,000 detainees — is the highest it has been in a decade. Other indicators were mixed over the longer term. For instance, stabbings and slashings are down from their 2022 peak but remain far above pre-pandemic levels. The rate of serious injury to those in custody has followed a similar pattern.
The findings, which were first released as part of the Mayor’s Management Report in September, cite a growing jail population and continued difficulty hiring and retaining staff as major drivers of increased violence. The report also says, as a result of bail reform, a higher proportion of people in custody have been charged with serious crimes.
But attorneys who monitor conditions say the causes run deeper than head count.
Kayla Simpson, a staff attorney with the Legal Aid Society’s Prisoners’ Rights Project and part of the litigation team that prompted federal oversight of Rikers, called the findings “another chapter in a long story of dangerous dysfunction.”
“Front-line correctional officers just don't reliably do what the [federal] monitor has often called Corrections 101,” she said. “What happens when you don't have staff reliably doing basic security measures and giving people the things they need? And you pair that with supervisors who can't seem to correct those problems? You get violence, you get injuries, you get deaths. And all of it is as predictable as it is terrible.”
Simpson pointed to chronic management problems, noting overtime costs have more than doubled from $153 million in 2021 to $341 million in 2025. The federal monitor, she added, has described the department’s staffing models as “inefficient” and “nonsensical,” and the department still has one of the largest staffs in the country.
Still, staffing challenges remain. The Vera Institute of Justice reports that officers routinely describe the work environment as physically and mentally draining. Many leave the job early. Gothamist previously reported that uniformed staffing was down roughly 25% over two years. And city budget hearing materials from April showed the total uniformed staff was just under 6,000 even though the department has a budget for more than 7,000 positions.
Advocates say the new mayor will have to address these issues if the city is to move forward with its plan to close Rikers Island and replace it with a network of smaller, borough-based jails designed to hold roughly 4,200 people. At present, the system holds many thousands more — 6,823 people on an average day in the last fiscal year, according to the mayor’s report. Officials have already acknowledged they will miss the original 2027 deadline.
“The violence of Rikers Island is well known,” said Darren Mack, co-founder of the Freedom Agenda, which has led the push to close Rikers. “Mayor Adam’s failure to take decisive action has allowed this humanitarian crisis to basically deepen.”
Mack pointed to a number of proposals for reducing the swelling jail population from the Independent Rikers Commission, which he says have been largely ignored by the Adams administration, including expanding pre-trial electronic monitoring, access to treatment courts and alternative-to-incarceration programs.
The share of those in custody with a serious mental-health diagnosis has increased for the third year in a row, according to the mayor’s report. The figure is now 1 in 5. Simpson said that increase shows how the jails are being used to manage issues that would be better addressed elsewhere.
“The jail system does not have the resources or ability to address mental health issues,” she said. “ You have to address in mental health infrastructure outside of a carceral system to support those people.”
Beyond the topline figures, the mayor’s report noted that higher rates of violence led to a 28% jump in jail-based arrests with 436 incidents in the past year. And while stabbings and slashings declined, the number of contraband weapons recovered during searches rose by more than half.
At least 12 people have died in Department of Correction custody so far this year, compared to five deaths in 2024.
The Board of Correction, which regulates, monitors and inspects the correctional facilities, declined to comment on the mayor’s report. The New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the union representing correction staff, did not respond to a request for comment.
