Brooklyn Justice BROOKLYN-USA.ORG
Beep demands City shrink jail expansion
plan in call for more modest House of D
Late release: Community Board 2 leaders criticized the City for delaying the release of so-called “Guidelines and Principles” for the House of D expansion, sourced from civic honchos and
business advocates among others in the months leading up to the board’s public hearing and recommendation vote. Photo by Kevin Duggan
The city should expand the Brooklyn
House of Detention jail facility
in Boerum Hill — but not to
the extent that Mayor Bill de Blasio
is requesting under a current rezoning
proposal, according to Borough
President Eric Adams.
The Beep on Wednesday, July
8th, issued a purely advisory recommendation
for a facility that would
replace the Atlantic Avenue holding
facility, asking that the Mayor’s
Office for Criminal Justice and the
Department of Corrections reduce
the proposed building’s height from
395 feet to 235 feet, and from 1,437
beds to 900 beds. The jail currently
houses 815 beds and is 170 feet tall at
11 stories.
As borough president, Adams was
asked to weigh in on the proposed
detention center as part of a roughly
yearlong public-review process. The
new jail is an aspect of de Blasio’s
$8.7 billion scheme to close down
New York City’s personal brand of
hell on earth — Rikers Island — by
8 ONE BROOKLYN | FALL 2019
2026, and relocate inmates to four
new facilities located in every borough
except Staten Island.
The borough president applauded
the mayor’s borough-based
jail plan, which will keep inmates
closer to court and nearer to home,
but said any scheme to improve the
circumstance of prisoners must accommodate
the needs of local residents.
“We have listened closely to all
stakeholders throughout this process,
and have put forward a recommendation
that balances the needs
of the community with the imperative
of making our criminal justice
system more humane for all, something
all sides have agreed is critical,”
he said in a statement.
Adams’ recommendation echoed
a symbolic resolution passed by
Community Board 2 on June 12th,
demanding the building’s proposed
size and population be reduced, although
the beep didn’t go quite as
for far as the civic group, which requested
a more modest 875 bed cap.
The borough president rejected
the city’s scheme to reserve ground
f loor space at the new prison for
commercial retail businesses, saying
those units should be reserved
exclusively for community use.
He did side with the city over
community board members on the
issue of building a Staten Island
jail — an idea that City officials
have repeatedly shot down, arguing
that there aren’t enough jailed people
from The Rock to justify a separate
facility.
His recommendation also does
not include the civic panel’s demand
for a new facility to train corrections
officers, nor did he advise
funneling some of the funds toward
affordable housing, as community
members had requested.
He proposed that the city form an
advisory group of local community
and business groups, politicians,
and other stakeholders that would
meet regularly with officials to give
their input on the building’s design
and operations.
Borough President Adams also
advised connecting the criminal
justice arms of city government
with hospitals and psychiatric institutions
for inmates with substance
misuse and mental health issues,
which the beep said could be done
with the city’s Health + Hospital system,
as well as with Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s health initiative, “Vital
Brooklyn.”
Adams — a noted fitness fanatic
— laid out a slate of his own
wellness ideas to help jailed people
succeed once they’re released, including
a plant-based diet and yoga,
as well as expanding childcare and
job training programs.
The beep’s recommendation follows
a recently- announced decision
by the Mayor’s criminal justice division
to reduce their target to 1,150
beds per site due to recently-passed
statewide bail reform, according to
spokeswoman Alacia Lauer.
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