Other boros join in blasting Mott Haven jail proposal
BY ALEX MITCHELL
Once again, our sister boroughs
are uniting to oppose
Mayor de Blasio’s communitybased
jail plan.
Advocates from the Bronx,
Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan
announced a new campaign
called Boroughs United
on Thursday, June 6.
Launching an online opposition
campaign at DeBlasios-
Jails.com, the citywide coalition
targets not only the plan to
put a 24 to 25 fl oor jail in Mott
Haven at 745 E. 141st Street, but
each facility in the four boroughs
that would adopt a new
incarceration center.
“As Mayor de Blasio pitches
himself on the national stage
as a progressive presidential
candidate, this campaign will
point out that the mayor’s proposal
is not progressive at all,”
Boroughs United said through
a statement.
“It is a regressive plan that
will not radically impact criminal
justice reform and will instead
simply divert billions of
dollars in public funding to the
creation of new jails that will
have many of the same problems
seen at other New York
City jails,” it continued.
An earlier, citywide protest of the jail plan at City Hall on Sunday, March 24. Schneps Media/ Alex Mitchell
A similar motion of protest
was executed on Sunday, March
24, when Borough President
Ruben Diaz, Jr. joined protestors
from the Bronx, Queens,
Brooklyn and Manhattan on
the steps of City Hall in opposing
the concept of what they
call ‘a miss’ at proper criminal
justice reform.
Boroughs United counters
that it would be far more progressive
to invest those billions
of dollars in building
communities, strengthening
diversion programs, providing
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 18 UNE 14-20, 2019 BTR
alternatives to incarceration
for pre-trial detainees,
supporting mental health and
drug use treatment programs,
ensuring speedy trials, addressing
the systemic issues
related to conditions on Rikers
Island, and protecting “the
rights of detained and incarcerated
women, children and
men of color.”
“Mayor de Blasio should
withdraw his deeply fl awed
plan and focus on progressive
reforms that strengthen communities
and protect human
rights,” said Nancy Kong, a
spokesperson for Boroughs
United.
The Bronx portion of the
citywide coalition is led by
South Bronx Unite, a volunteer
organization that serves
as a watchdog for the future of
Mott Haven, Port Morris and
its neighboring areas.
South Bronx Unite’s website
has its own page dedicated to
the nearly year and a half battle
over the jail plan with an online
petition against it as well.
“We applaud the city’s plan
to close Rikers Island, but the
answer is not to expand the
criminal justice footprint not
in the south Bronx,” the petition’s
description says.
“We challenge the city to
further reduce the number of
people in jail through a combination
of bail reform, decriminalization
of minor offenses,
and more restorative ways to
deal with crime that would
make the construction of a
new facility unnecessary,” it
continued.
The launch of Boroughs
United comes just days after
the Mott Haven Community,
led by Arline Parks and Diego
Beekman Mutual Housing
sued the city over the south
Bronx jail.
That urgently marked lawsuit
is still undergoing court
proceedings.
Weeks prior to that, Diaz
joined Queens Borough President
Melinda Katz in sending
de Blasio a scathing letter
of opposition and dissentient
over the way he and the city
have gone about the attempt to
close Rikers Island by 2027.
/Jails.com