We cannot wait to overhaul Rikers

Given the history of site selection and construction in city history — it takes forever to build here, especially when what you’re building is something as undesirable a jail — the decadelong timetable for closing Rikers Island laid out by an independent commission and embraced by Mayor de Blasio seems prudent.

But it is an awfully long time in the lives of the men and women who will continue to be locked away in the jails, and the men and women who labor there.

Which is why fixing Rikers now, even as the wheels turn to make possible an ambitious and worthy overhaul of our city’s corrections system, is imperative.

We cannot wait 10 years to recognize that the violence and corruption in our jails result from their underground economy, primarily controlled by bullying gangs, and that the introduction of contraband into our jails feeding the addiction of so many persons confined there is the lifeblood of that underground economy.

To fix the corrosive culture of Rikers, first and foremost, the people who run the jails must be able to limit the introduction of contraband and control, if not eliminate those gangs.

This means obtaining legislative approval for new technologies like full-body x-rays, and a willingness by the Board of Correction to reconsider rules intended to protect incarcerated persons that actually make them less safe.

At the same time, the Bronx district attorney must continue to hold those incarcerated in the jails on Rikers accountable for their behaviors, as she did last month by obtaining a court order to “lock down” Steven Sidbury, who repeatedly assaulted officers and other prisoners.

But it’s not only inmates that make the place a violent mess. The report of an independent monitor this month said, “Guards at Rikers Island continue to use brutal force against inmates at an ‘alarming rate.’”

The people of the city pay our correction officers almost $90,000 a year after five years on the job, and many officers make more than $100,000 with overtime. We have a right to demand integrity and accountability from them in return.

Nor can we wait a decade to do a far better job diverting mentally ill individuals from the jails, or for the courts to make better decisions about pre-trial detention.

We must begin today to expand the use of supervised release and other alternative pre-trial services, and to facilitate prompt, informed decision-making, and ease payment of bail.

Closing Rikers is not a new idea. Will it happen this time? Only time will tell. It will be a difficult political journey navigating the complexities of the city’s land use laws and the politics of siting. This demands leaders using political capital to make tough deals and trade-offs.

The mayor’s early concession that Staten Island will not be getting a jail — when the commission plan hinged on putting new facilities in each of the five boroughs — demonstrates that the hard part is already here.

Each borough must carry its fair share of the responsibility for its detained citizens. There are sound reasons for this: Housing Richmond County’s prisoners elsewhere would inconvenience their families and attorneys, upset the financial calculations the proposal relies on and unfairly burden other counties. And there are zoning limitations to how much capacity each site can accommodate. Burdening the other boroughs with Staten Island’s prisoners may tip a delicate balance.

Perhaps most important of all, the commission’s proposal now requires real leadership by the governor and state Legislature, especially to reform bail laws and adopt a completely transparent and truthful sentencing structure.

The long standoff between the Assembly and Senate — finally settled — over raising the age of criminal consent does not bode well for the additional, bold steps Albany has to make now.

In the wake of the commission’s report, there was much joy. It’s obviously, painfully premature. The excitement about a better future must be channeled into durable and tireless leadership that starts making real changes now. The men and women who work in our city’s jails and those confined there are our fellow New Yorkers, and they cannot wait 10 long years.