Overview
- City officials will begin moving detainees with complex medical or mental health needs into a new detention unit on Bellevue Hospital’s second floor, which has 104 beds and will open in phases with about 25 beds first.
- The Department of Correction says it will close and decommission the North Infirmary Command on Rikers in June, ending use of the 1932 garage-turned-infirmary that advocates criticized for isolation and poor conditions.
- The Bellevue project’s price rose to $241 million from $130 million after years of delays tied to security-driven design changes, staffing concerns, and outstanding state oversight approvals.
- Health leaders say the hospital unit offers natural light, private rooms, physical therapy, outdoor recreation, and specialty clinics, replacing an infirmary where a 2023 fire exposed lapses in fire safety and emergency response.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Commissioner Stanley Richards say staffing is in place, noting more than 400 officer applications for roughly 130–140 posts, while similar hospital units in Brooklyn and the Bronx face higher budgets and openings now projected for 2028–2029.