Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast.

This is Teddy Kupfer, an associate editor of City Journal.

Joining me on the show today are Nicole Jolinas and Raphael Mangual, both of whom are senior

fellows at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editors of City Journal. Ralph is also the head

of research for MI's policing and public safety initiative. Last week, the two of them wrote an article for City General about the crisis at the Rikers

Island Jail Complex.

Today, we'll talk about that crisis and how it can be fixed or made worse.

Nicole and Ralph, thank you both very much for joining me.

Thank you, Teddy.

Thanks so much for having us.

So everyone agrees, I think, at this point that Rikers Island is in crisis.

There's really no other word for it when 12 people have died so far this year while being

held in the jail.

Conditions there have deteriorated to the extent that medical care, food, and water are scarce,

and violence is up both among inmates and between inmates and guards.

A federal monitor said on Friday that the jails are in a state of emergency.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to visit the jail this week, and a group of congressional Democrats

have asked President Biden to intervene.

Before we turn to the broad story of how we got here, let's focus on the immediate circumstances.

Just how bad are things at Rikers right now?

Could we see meaningful improvement in the next days and weeks?

And how long have conditions been this dreadful?

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