Policy
Issue
Inside Rikers
Jails can be safer and more humane
Highlights from the Journal
The City’s Jails Continue to be Violent and Uncontrolled
Vital City and Victoria Lawson
What the Data Tells Us
What Will New York Do to Answer Decades of Rape Claims?
Jessy Edwards
A landmark law recently surfaced claims of systemic sexual abuse at the women’s jail on Rikers Island.
Holding Rikers Officers Accountable: An Almost Impossible Task
Sarena Townsend
Getting Correction staff to follow the rules, then and now
A Snapshot of How Unions Forestall Progress
Reuven Blau and Graham Rayman
The story of body-worn cameras
Holistic Safety in Corrections: A Framework for Sustainable Change
Nneka Jones Tapia
Chicago Beyond rethought jails and prisons by tackling trauma
What Can New York City Learn from Abroad?
Cyrus Ahalt and Brie Williams
International models suggest that it is possible to transform correctional systems
Journal Issues
Issue 1
Gun Violence
Vital City's first issue looks at the problem of gun violence and how it might be solved.
Issue 2
How We Live Together
What is “disorder”? And what should we do about it?
Issue 3
The Power of Place
The indelible mark of neighborhoods
Issue 4
Summertime!
How life changes when things get hot
Issue 5
Nuts and Bolts: Solving Gun Cases
What it takes to reduce firearm violence
Issue 6
On Drugs
How substance use shapes the city
Special Online Issue
Crime: What Happened in 2023, and What 2024 May Bring
Breaking down New York City’s — and America’s — trends in violence and victimization
Special Online Issue
How Many People Should New York City’s Jails Hold?
Everything about Rikers Island and what replaces it depends on the answer
Issue 7
Does Evidence Matter?
Research meets the real world
Special Online Issue
Congestion Pricing*
*The long-anticipated change to Manhattan’s streets now at the mercy of politics
Issue 8
Is the Urban Doom Loop for Real?
The death and life of great American cities (again)
Issue 9
The Subway
Building better transit
SPECIAL ONLINE ISSUE
Inside Rikers
Jails can be safer and more humane
More to Explore
Gun Violence in New York City: The Data
What to Do About Closing Rikers
In our first special report, public safety veterans Elizabeth Glazer and Michael Jacobson provide a detailed, data-grounded roadmap to close Rikers Island that would simultaneously:
Sunday in the Park with Everybody
We asked radio producer Ike Sriskandarajah and artist photographer Azikiwe Mohammed to capture some of the sights and sounds of Brooklyn’s most iconic greenspace, Prospect Park. What they produced is a sonic-photographic essay, a sensory experience of the people, places and natural beauty at the heart of Kings County.