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Apr. 5-11, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE
Jail meeting held captive by mayor
De Blasio talks Kew Gardens detention plan with residents, but closes session to press
BY MARK HALLUM
Mayor Bill de Blasio
was in Kew Gardens last
week for an invitation-only
meeting on the jail proposal
recently certified by the City
Planning Commission just
days prior and to address
community concerns.
De Blasio may have
closed the March 27 event to
the press, but TimesLedger
obtained a recording of the
meeting from an attendee. On
the audio file, Councilwoman
Karen Koslowitz voiced
support the plan to install
a borough-based jail and
criticized community leaders
for heated accusations against
the de Blasio administration
of taking an underhanded
approach without notification
or input at previous meetings.
“I want to remind
everybody that there had been
a jail here for 40 years without
incident and I’m supporting
this because I feel that I can
work with the administration
and make this facility viable
to all of us,” Koslowitz said,
referring to the now-shuttered
Queens Detention Complex
that would be razed to
make way for the communitybased
jail.
“As far as safety is
concerned, the criminals
are inside; they are not
outside. And you will have
more security here because
corrections officers around
the area,” she added.
Koslowitz believes the
jail could bring an economic
revival to Queens Boulevard
which has seen about eight
prominent businesses
shuttered recently. Traffic
could also be improved, she
said, with the 800-car garage
being built for visitors at the
proposed facility with could
house less than 1,400 detainees
in a 27-story complex.
The facility at 126-02 82nd
Ave. would detain the majority
of incarcerated women in the
city and include a maternity
ward. Initial plans for the
facility to have an infirmary
serving all four boroughbased
jails has been scrapped.
“At the front end of the
process, we’ve been reducing
the prison population very,
very substantially while
keeping the city safe,” de
Blasio said on the recording
provided to TimesLedger. “It’s
because we’ve seen changes in
policing and criminal justice
that we’re able to finally get
to the day where we can be
off Rikers Island … Our goal
here of course, when someone
enters the criminal justice
system and comes out, we
don’t want them to ever be in
the criminal justice system
again and cause a problem for
their community. We cannot
do that effectively with the
facilities on Rikers.”
Meeting over the course of
the last several months have
been explosive with residents
having angry engagements
with city officials and
representatives of elected
officials for supposed lack
of transparency. Further
distrust was sewn between the
city and residents as members
of the press, invited by
members of the Neighborhood
Advisory Committee, were
barred from meetings by
the Mayor’s Office of
Criminal Justice.
De Blasio defended himself
against the claim that he was
“dictatorial” by stating that
as mayor he was given certain
authorities, but the fact that he
was in the community at the
time of the meeting was proof
of the opposite. There have
been a total of five meetings
with the administration.
“There are people at this
meeting who are trying to work
with everybody, but mostly
the meetings are screaming,”
Koslowitz said. “And when
you scream, nothing gets
done because nobody hears
what you’re really saying and
that’s all they want to do is
get out of the room. So when
you say there’s been no input,
there has been input from the
administration. I don’t defend
the administration all the
time, but the administration
has been here in this room
trying to lay out the plan.”
The question of the ability
of Rikers Island to rehabilitate
detainees was at the forefront
of recommendations compiled
but the Lippman Commission,
convened by the city to
streamline criminal justice.
The primary issue seen
with Rikers is the isolation.
A COLORFUL TRADITION
Hundreds enjoyed the Phagwah Parade in Richmond Hill on March 31. The colorful parade celebrating the Hindu Holi festival
featured participants spraying each other with colored powder. See more photos on Page 14. Photo by Mark Hallum
Vol. 7 No. 14 60 total pages
/QNS.COM
