New Yorkers on Monday morning said goodbye to a floating jail that lived off the coast of the South Bronx, marking the end of a facility that for many reformers symbolized problems with the city's criminal justice system.

The 625-foot-long, five-story Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center was unmoored after crews used torches to cut through steel attaching the structure to its dock, and was tugged away en route to Louisiana, where it will be scrapped for parts .

For three decades, the floating jail served as an overflow facility while Rikers Island grew overcrowded. Officials at the city’s Economic Development Corporation in October announced the jail would be dismantled and sold to steel mills and metal factories in the South.

Juval O. Scott, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, c

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