City Council and advocates press Adams administration to implement FY26 mental‑health investments to close Rikers

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and council members, joined by service providers and family members impacted by incarceration, on Saturday urged Mayor Eric Adams’ administration to move immediately to implement mental‑health and public‑safety investments included in the city’s fiscal 2026 budget intended to reduce the jail population and advance closure of Rikers Island.

The council and advocates said the FY26 budget includes more than $50 million in new funding for justice‑involved supportive housing, Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Intensive Mobile Treatment (IMT) teams, crisis respite centers, recidivism‑reduction programs and other community‑based services—investments they say are critical to keeping people out of jail and replacing Rikers as a de facto mental‑health facility.

"Rikers is not a place for healing," Speaker Adrienne Adams said. "It has essentially been the city's largest mental health facility that has long been defined by crisis, violence, and neglect." She and other council members emphasized that the council secured the new investments during budget negotiations and called on the mayor to release funds and activate programs without delay.

Advocates and providers on the steps outside City Hall highlighted specific program types and operational obstacles they say must…