Mayor Adams is feeling heat to drop ongoing plans to overhaul the Big Apple’s jail system in favor of building a new college-campus-like complex for inmates on Rikers Island.

Adams had promised to deliver former Mayor de Blasio’s plan to shutter Rikers Island’s notorious jail complex and replace it with four smaller, more humane high-rise lockups in each of the city’s boroughs but Staten Island.

However, surging construction costs, project delays, complaints from the affected communities, and a rising jail population of nearly 5,700 detainees that far exceeds the planned capacity of 3,544 beds has left the blueprint approved in 2019 vulnerable.

Councilman Robert Holden, a Queens Democrat, said he met with city officials two weeks ago, including Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, and presented them with a cheaper alternative: building a more humane complex with all sorts of recreational space and social services on the 413-acre island.

“The city would just be throwing money away if it went ahead with the borough-based jail plan,” Holden said. “The previous administration was banking on a smaller jail system, but I believe the new mayor is more practical and more realistic.”

The 63-page plan, a revised version of one floated in 2019 by a group Manhattan architects and engineers, would include a hospital, athletic fields, work-training centers, a farming area, ferry service and a sun-filled atrium. 

Bill Bialosky, one of the architects, estimated the plan would cost $5.6 billion to build. The city has $8.2 billion budgeted to build the four new jails by 2027, but construction industry sources estimate project costs to rise to at least $10-$15 billion.

Other Council members backing the plan to retain jails on the island include Staten Island Republicans Joseph Borelli and David Carr and Queens Republican Joann Ariola.

Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, said the union also supports building a new jail complex on Rikers, adding the existing plan is “flawed.”

He said having a jail on an island provides an extra layer of public safety in the event of an escape.

However, many progressive Democratic pols say the stigma of Rikers – which has long been plagued by horrific living conditions and allegations of correction officers using excessive force – is too much to overcome and are calling on Adams stick to the de Blasio plan.

The Mayor’s Office declined comment on Holden’s presentation but said it will continue to listen to community concerns and other feedback and “incorporate” it into “ongoing process.”

While Adams hasn’t ruled anything, sources say he’s reviewing ways to reduce the size of the proposed lockups or relocate some of them to less-populated neighborhoods. His staff has also reached out to Gov. Hochul’s office about reopening some closed state prisons to help with any overflow.

But State Sen. Jessica Ramos, who watched in horror last September while an inmate failed while trying to hang himself in front of her as she toured Rikers Island, said the city shouldn’t build any new jails and, instead, invest money in social services to “keep people out of prison.” 

The progressive Queens Democrat also said the city should begin relying on ankle monitors to track detainees awaiting trial rather than subjecting them to “Rikers’ deplorable conditions.”