Study seeks minor tweaks to jail plan
Capacity reduced at proposed Queens complex, but Kew Gardens residents still opposed
BY MARK HALLUM
A draft environmental
impact study for the de Blasio
administration’s boroughbased
jail plan was released
on Friday with one 3,200 leaf
document depicting dozens of
pages worth of comment from
local politicians, community
leaders and residents that show
a city-wide perception that
mayor’s office was not open
with the affected communities
on the proposal.
Representatives from all
four boroughs slated for jail
alternatives to Rikers Island
labeled the effort as lacking in
transparency with civic leaders
from Queens and Chinatown,
Manhattan having the most
vocal opposition to what they
see as “fait accompli.”
With the ULURP process
set to begin March 25, the
Mayor’s Office of Criminal
Justice held a briefing on the
draft environmental review
which changes some details
of the original envelope of
the plan such as reducing the
square-footage of the facility
slated for 126-02 82nd Ave. in
Kew Gardens from 1.9 million
to 1.2 million and reducing the
projected capacity from 1,500
detainees to 1,437.
“Obviously we have been
engaged in a very intensive
process of neighborhood and
community engagement, and,
you know, we’ve obviously
heard what concerns were
and we’re doing what we
can to respond to them,”
Deputy Director of the Office
of Criminal Justice Dana
Kaplan said.
The plan to reduce the
number of jails in the city to
a total of 11 city-wide, with
nine being on Rikers Island,
is an effort to reduce capacity
to 5,750 and relocate detention
centers nearer to county
courthouses in order to cutback
on the time and resources
used to transport detainees to
court appearances.
It would also offer attorneys
better access to clients without
having to travel to Rikers
Island as well as house them
nearer to family connections.
According to Kaplan, the
Queens Detention Center will
have a ward to accommodate
pregnant women and also
have a nursery. Juveniles will
Elizabeth Glazer, director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, outlined the draft environmental review for the borough-based jail
plan. Screenshot via YouTube
not be consolidated into the
four facilities as they have
already been moved off Rikers
and into one jail in the Bronx
and another in Brooklyn.
Although the plans detailed
in today’s press conference
at City Hall, the Office of
Criminal Justice admitted
that there is not a specific
cost assessment to the whole
borough-based jail plan, but
they are confident the city
budget can accommodate it.
Many residents in two prior
meetings in Kew Gardens
regarding the jail proposal
called on the administration
to hold off on the plan to close
Rikers in exchange for smaller
facilities to give legislators
Albany the opportunity enact
justice reform such as ending
cash bail.
“We have been extremely
successful so far in enacting
bail reform without the
legislation in this city by
encouraging judges to use safe
diversion programs and abide
by an array of other efforts
that have had an accelerated
decline our population,”
Director of the Office of
Criminal Justice Elizabeth
Glazer said. “Right now we’re
focused on what we’re able to
do in our own capacity.”
Sylvia Hack from
Community Board 9 said claims
from the administration that
they had engaged residents in
their plan were not what she
would define as adequate.
“At the presentation that
you and Liz Glazer made to the
commissioners of CPC, you
make the statement, ‘We have
been engaged in a significant
amount of community
meetings.’ Well, this isn’t
true. I don’t know what
you mean by ‘community,’
because you’ve not been in
the communities that this
proposal will affect.”
In lower Manhattan, the
detention facility to be placed
on Centre Street was viewed
by some as not only lacking
in transparency, but an act
of racism eerily similar to
19th century policy that
led the community to build
Chinatown into a sanctuary
for their culture.
“Chinatown was formed
as a neighborhood because
Chinese immigrants and
Chinese-Americans were
historically excluded, ignored,
abused and maligned by
racist laws like the Chinese
Exclusion Act,” one comment
read. “And in the present day,
to propose a major correctional
facility in our neighborhood
without properly consulting
or involving us, is yet again
another affront.”
Commissioner of the city’s
Community Affairs Unit,
Marco Carrion, answered
for the fact members of the
press have been stifled from
covering meetings regarding
the proposal and reach the
wider public in an attempt to
be sensitive to people who have
been through the criminal
justice system.
“I think we have some folks
on both sides of the issue –
it’s very emotional for those
in support and opposition –
people who have very personal
stories of their interactions
with the criminal justice
system who may not be open
to sharing that with the press
will share that with their
neighbors,” Carrion said.
But the NAC in Queens
lashed out against this policy
at a March 19 meeting in
Kew Gardens when for the
second time in a row the city
banned reporters who were
invited by the members of the
committee.
Leaked audio of the
meeting depicted anger from
members of the committee
who felt the policy of keeping
reporters from covering
was nothing more than the
de Blasio administration
protecting itself from bad press
and prevented information
from reaching the
broader community.
Mara Einstein, who
attended the meeting, said
there were people who
attending who had only just
heard of the jail proposal.
A Feb. 28 meeting saw
reporters Maya Kaufman
from Patch and David Russell
from Queens Chronicle
turned away at the door while
the TimesLedger was not
confronted by anyone.
This was not the case
at the March 19 meeting in
which Patrick Gallahue,
press director for the Office
of Criminal Justice, could not
justify why the move was not
a violation of the state’s open
meetings law.
According to Section
103, Paragraph A of the New
York State Open Meetings
Law, “Every meeting of a
public body shall be open to
the general public, except
that an executive session of
such body may be called and
business transacted thereat in
accordance with section one
hundred five of this article.”
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