De Blasio to Unveil Plan for Rikers While Warning It ‘Will Not Be Easy’

Closing New York City’s troubled jail complex on Rikers Island will take at least a decade and will require a big decline in the inmate population, a continued drop in the city’s already low crime rates, a wellspring of funding and political capital, according to a strikingly blunt proposal that Mayor Bill de Blasio intends to unveil on Thursday.