Protestors gathered outside City Hall as the Council voted 36-to-13 to close Rikers Island and build four new jails around the city — including one in Boerum Hill. Photo by Kevin Duggan
Council votes to expand Brooklyn jail
COURIER LIFE, OCTOBER 25-31, 2019 3
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The House of D expansion is
offi cially a done deal.
City Council voted to approve
a $8.7 billion scheme
to close the Rikers Island jail
complex and construct four
smaller borough-based jails in
its place on Thursday.
The controversial vote
passed by a substantial 36-to-13
margin after months of infi
ghting, controversy, protests,
and political back-and-forth, to
achieve a historic step in addressing
the city’s tainted history
of incarceration, according
to the Brooklyn legislator,
in whose district the larger
Kings County jail will be built.
“This is a historic step forward
in our city,” said Councilman
Stephen Levin (D–
Boerum Hill). “Today is a
result of years of advocacy of
people who have lived fi rst
hand the tortures of the jail.”
The plan calls for infamous
jail complex on Rikers Island
— which houses some 7,000
inmates — to be decommissioned,
and paves the way for
construction of a 295 foot 886-
bed jail facility on Atlantic Avenue
in Boerum Hill, replacing
the current 11-story 170-foot
building housing 815 beds.
Both Mayor Bill de Blasio
and Council Speaker Corey
Johnson were ardent supporters
of the jail plan, which was
harshly criticized for by antiincarceration
activists, prolaw
enforcement groups, and
residents living nearby the
proposed jail sites.
In an effort to close the massive
island detention center off
the coast of northern Queens,
the four new facilities will be
erected by 2026 in all boroughs
except Staten Island, because
there aren’t enough jailed people
from The Rock to justify a
separate facility there, the city
has argued.
In a separate vote, the council
banned any future detention
facilities from operating
on Rikers Island — which has
become symbolic of the nation’s
comparatively-high incarceration
rate.
Brooklyn legislators were
relatively split on the issue,
with nine voting for and six
against the plan.
Among the Kings County
yes-voters were Stephen Levin
(D–Boerum Hill) — whose district
the Brooklyn lockup will
be built in — Majority Leader
Laurie Cumbo (D—Fort
Greene), Brad Lander (D—
Park Slope), Antonio Reynoso
(D–Bushwick) Robert Cornegy
(D–Bedford-Stuyvesant), Mathieu
Eugene (D–Prospect Lefferts
Gardens), Justin Brannan
(D–Bay Ridge), Farah Louis
(D–East Flatbush), and Mark
Treyger (D–Coney Island).
The vote for building new
jails was not easy, but it will
be the best way to improve the
city’s system of incarceration,
according to Lander.
“I don’t like voting to build
jails — of course I would rather
spend that money on housing,
on schools, on community centers,”
the pol said. “It is the
most likely path to incarcerating
the fewest people in the
least inhumane way.”
Freshman legislator Farah
Louis said while she supported
the plan, she remained skeptical
and noted that much more
needed to be done to address
the city’s broken criminal justice
system, and that the administration
should also work
to protect law enforcement offi -
cers — such as her brother who
she said was stabbed in the jail
complex.
“This process — I believe
– will not solve or change the
problem but it will move the
problem,” Louis said. “My
hope is… that the administration
will earmark funds for
communities that provide for
schools, recreation centers,
and a substantive restorative
justice plan to protect offi cers
like my brother who was over
four times at Rikers.”
Bushwick councilman Rafael
Espinal went further by
voting against the proposal because
the city wouldn’t match
the massive investment in
the lockup with money for the
community.
“I cannot approve spending
$8.7 billion on new jails, without
a plan that would match
that investment dollar for dollar
in at-risk communities like
the one I represent,” Espinal
said. “This plan addresses how
people are incarcerated, but it
doesn’t address why people are
incarcerated. We can do better.”
Other Brooklyn lawmakers
opposed to the plan included
Chaim Deutsch (D—Sheepshead
Bay), Inez Barron (D—
East New York), Kalman Yeger
(D—Borough Park), Alicka
Ampry-Samuel (D–Brownsville),
and Carlos Menchaca
(D–Sunset Park).
The demands for more community
investment echoed
concerns by members of the detention
facility’s local Community
Board 2, whose members
in June cast a purely advisory
vote against the plan as part of
the city’s land use review process,
demanding more funds
go to addressing the causes
of incarceration, and toward
more affordable housing, education,
and alternative sentencing
programs.
The following month, Borough
President Eric Adams
gave a purely advisory vote
for the land use application ,
but asked for a smaller facility
with less beds, while also laying
out a slate of his own wellness
ideas to help jailed people
once they’re released, including
a vegan diet, yoga, childcare,
and job training programs.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s offi
ce announced ahead of the
vote that the city would add
$265 million of investments to
address the root causes of incarceration,
in addition to $126
million already earmarked for
that.
The total of $391 million —
slightly less than 5 percent of the
overall budget for the project—
will go toward expanding pretrial
services and programs to
divert people away from incarceration
and the criminal justice
system, as well as helping
people in custody with programming
and reentry services.
The funds will also go to
housing, mental health services,
reducing violence, and
better integrating the new jails
into their surrounding communities.
The hours-long marathon
meeting was interrupted several
times by audience members
applauding for the plan
and protesters opposing it.
The vote stalled when protesters
from the group opposed
to the building of new jails,
Now New Jails, threw fl yers
down from the audience balcony
that read “If you cage our
future, blood on your hands,”
before security staff escorted
them out.