The de Blasio administration plans to shut two city jails in the next four months as part of its larger effort to shutter scandal-scarred Rikers Island prison complex.
The Brooklyn Detention Complex in Boerum Hill is expected to shut down by the end of January while the Eric M. Taylor Center lockup on Rikers will close in March, city officials said Thursday.
Both sites are currently half empty and are currently housing 1,250 inmates combined, who will be moved to other city jails.
The City Council last month approved de Blasio’s polarizing $8.7 billion plan to shut Rikers by 2026 and replace it with four smaller jails in every borough but Staten Island.
De Blasio predicts the city’s jail population — currently at nearly 7,000 inmates — will drop to 3,300 by 2026, when the Rikers prison facility is expected to close and the new jails open.
To meet his goal, he’s banking on state bail reforms that went into effect in April, the expansion of a city-funded supervised release program and other initiatives aimed at driving the prison down.
There were about 11,000 inmates in city lockups in 2014 when the mayor came into office.