On Wednesday afternoon, the City Council's Land Use committee approved the mayor's $9 billion plan to close Rikers Island by 2026, and replace the complex with four new jails in Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens. The vote will go to the full council on Thursday, where it appears likely to pass.

"If we do nothing we allow this abusive incarceration system to remain in place for the next decade or two or three," said Bronx Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson during the committee vote. “Who has the kind of time to waste when lives are at stake?”

The two land use votes passed 12-4 and 11-5, with proponents arguing that delaying the vote would prolong the existence of the violence-plagued jails on Rikers.

“We have an opportunity today to change the dynamics of our criminal justice system. I choose to be on the right side of history for my constituents who live the every day reality of today’s Rikers Island. I choose to improve the conditions by which those who are detained and also all the staff who work there in the jails every day. They all deserve better.”

Brooklyn Councilman Stephen Levin, whose district includes the site for one of the new jails, also voted yes, and credited the No New Jails prison abolition movement, which opposes the new jails, with improving the plan.

“They really made us do better and made us think about what it means to decarcerate and what it means to really think about jail and prison abolition in the long term.”

The new jails will also be smaller and have fewer beds than the ones that were initially proposed. The Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform said the city would only need 3,300 beds by 2026 for Rikers to close, instead of 5,000 as originally envisioned. (Around 7,000 people are currently kept in city jails.) The largest jail, in Manhattan would shrink from 45 to 29 stories, and the three other buildings would also be shorter than planned.

Landmarks Subcommittee Chairwoman Adrienne Adams of Queens announced on Wednesday that the de Blasio administration had come up with around $391 million for reentry programs, alternatives to incarceration, and capital projects ranging from affordable housing to mental health programs and new community centers for young people. The

The additional funding seemed to have won over some councilmembers who were on the fence. Queens Councilwoman Karen Koslowitz, whose district includes a new jail, described her vote to close Rikers as the hardest one of her political career because so many of her constituents opposed building a new jail in Kew Gardens. But said she had visited Rikers and the existing, part-time jail in Queens and found them inhumane.

“They're not cells they're cages. And people don't belong in cages. They belong in a society that wants to help them," Koslowitz said.

Other councilmembers said their communities still oppose new jails. Bronx Councilman Rafael Salamanca, who chairs the Land Use Committee, voted no on Wednesday and said he will vote no again on Thursday’s full council meeting unless the city agrees to close the floating jail in the South Bronx before Rikers is shut down, and to move the proposed new local jail closer to the Bronx courthouse. The new jail is currently sited for an NYPD tow pound two miles from the courthouse.

“I strongly feel that this location for the Bronx jail belongs behind the courthouse not in the tow pounds.”

Two other Bronx councilmembers, Ruben Diaz, Sr. and Andy King, also voted no because they said the city should respect the will of Bronx community groups who oppose a new jail. Diaz accused the de Blasio administration of “selling out the community” with a multi-billion dollar new jail plan and said the money would be better spent on public schools that don’t have the funds to fix their buildings and air conditioning systems.

Brooklyn Councilwoman Inez Barron voted no for a different reason. She said she wants to close Rikers, but didn’t think the city is going far enough to change a criminal justice system that is still too discriminatory.

“This justice system as it's called, continues to have black and brown persons detained at rates that do not reflect what it is in our communities, in the totality of our society.”

The votes took place in a packed committee room at City Hall, which was filled with people holding signs urging council members to vote yes on closing Rikers. One of them, Marvin Mayfield, said he hopes opponents change their minds but he called the vote “a good indication” of the way things are heading.

“I believe the time for Rikers Island has long since passed and the archaic and draconian practices that have been associated with Rikers Island have been perpetuated for far too long and too many people of color, black and brown, in our community have been hurt by it.”

Mayfield, who said he served time on Rikers, also called opponents of the plan “out of touch.”

“People don’t really have a good sense of what’s going on until it hits home,” he said. “If people are still voting no and saying that it’s on a principal then they don’t have a sense of urgency to close this place, because it is affecting people. It’s costing lives."

The full City Council vote is scheduled during the council's stated meeting at 1 p.m. on Thursday.

No New Jails protesters are already out in front of City Hall.

Beth Fertig is a senior reporter covering courts and legal affairs at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @bethfertig.