MAX
COURIER LIFE, J M BR B G ULY 12–18, 2019 25
Adams demands
smaller boro jail
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
issued a purely advisory
recommendation
for a facility that would
replace the Atlantic Avenue
holding facility,
asking that the Mayor’s
Offi ce 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,
Adam’s 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 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.
Adam’s recommendation
echoed a symbolic
resolution passed by
Community Board 2 on
June 12 demanding the
building’s proposed size
and population be reduced,
although the beep
didn’t go quite as for as
the civic group, which
requested a more modest
875 bed cap.
The borough president
rejected the city’s
scheme to reserve ground
fl oor 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 offi cials 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 offi cers, 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 offi
cials to give their input
on the building’s design
and operations.
The Beep 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 Governor
Andrew Cuomo’s
health initiative “Vital
Brooklyn.”
His 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.