Soft-cell on ‘boro’ jails

5 too many: Blas

Mayor de Blasio called on the City Council Friday to reject recommendations by its own blue-ribbon panel to open new jails in all five boroughs as part of a plan to shut down Rikers Island.

“I don’t think the five-borough vision is the right way to achieve that goal,” de Blasio said on his weekly WNYC radio show.

The panel last month recommended shutting down Rikers over 10 years and opening new jails in each borough, all located near civic centers and courthouses.

But the mayor argued new jails in each borough is not necessary, saying: “The fewer the better.”

The Rikers panel was commissioned by Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

When told Mark-Viverito has already agreed to support a jail in the Bronx part of her district, de Blasio pointed out that she’s termlimited and won’t be in office when that jail might be on the drawing board.

“I commend her for her leadership, and I commend her stepping forward in terms of her own district,” he said.

“I will also remind you the process to make a decision through our land-use process takes a year or two, so . . . she will no longer be the council member [of that district] because her term ends at the end of this year.”

The mayor added that it was up to “council members individually and the council as a whole” to decide where the new jails will go because “that’s the only way we can get off Rikers.”

While calling on limits for new correction facilities, the mayor defended his proposal to open 90 more homeless shelters citywide.

The mayor said the “apples and oranges reality is” new jails have to go through the City Council’s land-use review process, while his office calls the shots over homeless shelters.

He conceded the possibility of siting new homeless shelters in civic center areas rather than in residential communities.

The mayor’s remarks came two days after Mark-Viverito said she opposes de Blasio’s position to give Staten Island a pass on a new jail because so few of its inmates go to Rikers.