Liberals: Mankind has evolved to the point where jails no longer needed An opinion piece in the New York Times called for Riker's Island, the main jail in New York, to be shut down, with most prisoners simply released on the streets. Shuttering Rikers would be an audacious move for Mr. de Blasio, who would have to find alternatives for the island’s roughly 10,000 overwhelmingly male, African-American and Latino inmates.  Do you think flooding the streets with 10,000 people accused of crimes would be "audacious"? No doubt he would be branded a softy by the tough-on-crime crowd.  No doubt!   I guess the "tough-on-crime" crowd are now the hard-right radicals who want criminals locked away. The mayor’s plan to expand supervised release programs would be a substantial achievement.... Eliminating money bail, or at least greatly modifying it, could lead to the release of another large portion of the jail...(Read Full Post)