New York City’s $16 billion plan to close Rikers Island involves four smaller facilities that tout a more humane vision of carceral buildings. Some activists think that’s an oxymoron.

A federal judge ruled in 2022 that "no legitimate humane system would operate" like Arizona's prison health care system.

Two contests are expected to be seen as litmus tests for Mamdani’s political power, after his insurgent mayoral campaign transformed him into a national progressive icon.