A jail in Denver offers some lessons for criminal-justice reformers

ON JUNE 7TH Layleen Polanco, a 27-year-old transgender woman, was found dead in her cell at Rikers Island Jail. She was being held on $500 bail for a misdemeanour prostitution offence and the lowest-level drug charge, and she was being kept in solitary confinement for fighting. The death was not unusual in a jail renowned for corruption and cruelty, where mostly poor defendants can languish for years while awaiting trial. Bill de Blasio, New York’s mayor, plans to shut Rikers by 2026 and replace it with four smaller jails near courthouses in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens. Among other things, this fresh start offers a chance to rethink prison architecture in the city.