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Jail in Kew Gardens? Not so fast
Central Queens residents tell de Blasio representative to shelve detention center plan
BY MARK HALLUM
Last week’s Queens
Advisory Council (QAC)
meeting on the proposal to
install a jail in Kew Gardens,
part of a 10-year plan to make
incarceration on Rikers
Island history, was not for the
faint-hearted — as aggravated
residents made their demands
clear to exasperated city
representatives.
Not only did QAC warn the
representatives at the Feb. 28
meeting that a tower jail is
unsafe, among other concerns,
but the advisory council was
adamant that criminal justice
reforms should be made before
any new jails are built in
order to accurately gauge the
demand for new facilities in
the years to come.
“We have heard it often
said that we are not listening.
Tonight we’re spending this
first part meeting to say,
‘we listened, did we hear
correctly,’” Arnold Bloch, a
senior project manager with
the planning firm Fitzgerald
and Halliday, said.
The representatives went
through pages of bullet
guidelines and principles
making revisions for all
decision-makers, such as city
council members voting on
the ULURP application to
be informed of the council’s
demands before making
a decision.
A representative from the
Deputy Mayor of Operations’
office attempted to pacify
residents in the room by
reminding them they would
put the recommendations on
the desks of “people who can
kill this project after reading
your words.”
The council was opposed
A Queens Advisory Committee meeting regarding the proposed Kew Gardens jail was a heated
exchange between residents who feel unheard and representatives from the city, with Arnold Bloch,
an advisor to the administration. Photo by Mark Hallum
any other part of Queens, but
some suggested Jamaica or
Long Island City, particularly
Anable Basin, as better suit
because of the proximity
to courthouses. College
Point was also offered up as
a suggestion.
But criminal justice
reform is still not far from the
minds of the council, many
of whom expressed the need
to legislate away from mass
incarceration.
“We’ve brought this up
at every single one of these
meetings; criminal justice
reform has to be worked
out. We don’t know what the
legislature is going to devise…
If they do pass reforms,
maybe you don’t need some of
these jails,” one member of the
council said. “Why in the world
are we even talking about a
jail without having first gotten
the criminal justice reform in
place and see how it works?”
Representatives of the
de Blasio administration
reminded the advisory council
that the plan to close Rikers is
still eight years out and just
because the city obtains a
ULURP does not mean they
will build in Kew Gardens.
The was also opposition to
the jail rising up to 29 floors,
claiming that a modern jail
facility would be low-rise
which protects staff who may
be required to move prisoners
through elevators and which
they believed would only lead
to trouble if there was an
emergency in which the jail
needed to be evacuated.
The current proposal,
which is in the early stages
calls for 1.9 million square
feet, which would mean the
building would rise 310 feet,
but the city claimed it is
working to reduce height.
The land city is looking to
redevelop the existing Queens
Detention Complex at 126-02
82nd Ave., next to the Queens
Criminal Courthouse, as well
as a parking lot to house 1,500
inmates in 29-story building
that would be one of four
across the city.
Reach reporter Mark
Hallum by e-mail at mhallum@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4564.
Why in the world are we
even talking about a jail
without having first gotten
the criminal justice reform in
place and see how it works?
to building a jail facility in
Vol. 7 No. 10 52 total pages
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