As early voting begins in New York City’s mayoral election, the race comes down to this: whether voters want law and order in City Hall — or a decarcerator-in-chief.

In Wednesday’s debate, the three candidates were asked about the city’s Rikers Island jail complex, which by law is set to close in 2027 — even though the first of the new county jails meant to replace it won’t be complete until 2029 at best.

Both Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa reasonably said they’d abandon the county jail plan and rebuild on Rikers instead.

The budget-busting county jails are already years behind schedule.

Only Zohran Mamdani insisted he’d close Rikers on time, because, he claimed pedantically, doing so is “required by law.”

Mamdani is running on making NYC “affordable” — a nebulous platform of free this and free that.

But his more important commitment is to “decarceration,” abolishing jails altogether, a goal he’s pushed for years.

As a candidate, he has (grudgingly) adopted the radical City Council’s plan to close........

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