This program is now sold out, but we encourage you to join our waitlist and be notified if tickets become available. 
In January 2018, New York City launched a major planning and design study to close Rikers Island, to be replaced by a network of smaller, modern borough-based jails. It is considered one of the most important projects in the city’s history.
Open House New York invites you to a presentation by Elizabeth Glazer, Director, New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, who will give an update on the city’s progress towards realizing this borough-based jail system.
Following the update, Open House New York will present the public premiere of After Rikers: Justice By Design, a short film produced by Public Square Media that explores the vision for community-based jails proposed as part of the city’s efforts to reform the criminal justice system and significantly reduce incarceration.
A panel discussion will follow with Elizabeth Glazer; Stanley Richards, Executive Vice President, The Fortune Society; and two people featured in the film, Pamela Drayton, former Rikers Island Correction Officer, mother of a previously incarcerated son, and current Director of Public Safety and Facilities at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and Johnny Perez, Director of U.S. Prisons Program, National Religious Campaign Against Torture; moderated by Matthew Watkins, Senior Writer/Host of the New Thinking podcast for the Center of Court Innovation.