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Skyscraper Jails: The Abolitionist Fight Against Jail Expansion in New York City
A damning account of the latest transformation in mass incarceration, revealing how powerful nonprofits and so-called progressives used the language of social movements to build new jails.
In 2019, after unyielding pressure from activists, New York City seemed poised to close the detested Rikers Island penal colony. The local press dutifully reported that the end of Rikers was imminent, and New Yorkers celebrated the closure of the country’s largest urban jail, condemned as a moral stain on an otherwise great city. The problem, however, was that the city had not actually committed to closing Rikers. And at the same time, it laid the groundwork for the construction of more jails, a network of skyscraper facilities amounting to the largest carceral construction the city has seen in decades.
How did this happen?
In Skyscraper Jails, scholars and organizers Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti detail how progressive forces in New York City appropriated the rhetoric of social movements and social justice to promise “downsized” and “humane” jails. The principal advocates of these new jails were not right-wing politicians, but prominent city activists and progressive non-profit organizations.
As the political coalition that campaigned for the new jails fans out across the United States, the story at the heart of Skyscraper Jails is at once a case study and a cautionary tale for what will be coming to cities and towns across the United States and beyond.
In 2019, after unyielding pressure from activists, New York City seemed poised to close the detested Rikers Island penal colony. The local press dutifully reported that the end of Rikers was imminent, and New Yorkers celebrated the closure of the country’s largest urban jail, condemned as a moral stain on an otherwise great city. The problem, however, was that the city had not actually committed to closing Rikers. And at the same time, it laid the groundwork for the construction of more jails, a network of skyscraper facilities amounting to the largest carceral construction the city has seen in decades.
How did this happen?
In Skyscraper Jails, scholars and organizers Jarrod Shanahan and Zhandarka Kurti detail how progressive forces in New York City appropriated the rhetoric of social movements and social justice to promise “downsized” and “humane” jails. The principal advocates of these new jails were not right-wing politicians, but prominent city activists and progressive non-profit organizations.
As the political coalition that campaigned for the new jails fans out across the United States, the story at the heart of Skyscraper Jails is at once a case study and a cautionary tale for what will be coming to cities and towns across the United States and beyond.
272 pages, Paperback
Published March 11, 2025
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About the author
Zhandarka Kurti
3 books2 followersDr. Zhandarka Kurti is an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Loyola University Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2025
Upon finishing it, I immediately felt grateful that it had been written! It is oozing with a comradely yet confrontational spirit, a motivating ethos of: how can we be *of use* to movements against jails and prisons? It is unsparing in its critique of liberal nonprofits, but also doesn’t at all shy away from generative critique of leftist movements (especially No New Jails NYC).
That said, like many hybrid books that try to re-write recent history, it’s a bit caught between. Is it history or pseudo-journalism with real-time normative analysis of the players? The chapter that reveals how foundations co-opted the more radical shut down rikers movement reads at times like a recap of the twitter fights of yesteryear, yet also holds a valuable analysis of the harrowing loss of an abolitionist rikers movement to a liberal jail expansion project. The design chapter, which introduces the concept of “carceral utopianism,” is both an exciting gesture toward that analysis but feels a bit underbaked. (I want someone to take up the mantle of the project implied in that chapter).
The conclusion chapter, “What’s at stake?” is where it all comes together in an incredibly helpful meditation on what our abolitionist movement is missing: a revolutionary abolitionism that isn’t stuck in the “uncanny valley between reformism and revolution.” (!) I will recommend that my comrades read the conclusion even if they don’t read the whole book - it is sure to provide incredibly generative discussion and debate.
The book ends by revising our framework of non-reformist reform (which may have outlived its usefulness as a category) to “prorevolutionary measures.” How do we move forward creatively, experimentally in ways that embrace illegality, that bring forth a revolutionary overthrow of our current system? Prison and jail fights are the minimum demands of something far greater.
That said, like many hybrid books that try to re-write recent history, it’s a bit caught between. Is it history or pseudo-journalism with real-time normative analysis of the players? The chapter that reveals how foundations co-opted the more radical shut down rikers movement reads at times like a recap of the twitter fights of yesteryear, yet also holds a valuable analysis of the harrowing loss of an abolitionist rikers movement to a liberal jail expansion project. The design chapter, which introduces the concept of “carceral utopianism,” is both an exciting gesture toward that analysis but feels a bit underbaked. (I want someone to take up the mantle of the project implied in that chapter).
The conclusion chapter, “What’s at stake?” is where it all comes together in an incredibly helpful meditation on what our abolitionist movement is missing: a revolutionary abolitionism that isn’t stuck in the “uncanny valley between reformism and revolution.” (!) I will recommend that my comrades read the conclusion even if they don’t read the whole book - it is sure to provide incredibly generative discussion and debate.
The book ends by revising our framework of non-reformist reform (which may have outlived its usefulness as a category) to “prorevolutionary measures.” How do we move forward creatively, experimentally in ways that embrace illegality, that bring forth a revolutionary overthrow of our current system? Prison and jail fights are the minimum demands of something far greater.
June 8, 2025
It's a great overview of the movement to close Rikers in NYC, how it turned into a jail expansion project, and analysis and implications of thereof.
It gives a lot to think about and is great for fractal analysis of current trends in government vs grassroot activism.
It gives a lot to think about and is great for fractal analysis of current trends in government vs grassroot activism.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews