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May 3-9, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
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Tensions run high at KG hearing
Three main perspectives take center stage as communities fi ght for better criminal justice
BY MARK HALLUM
The topic of closing jails
on Rikers Island saw many
people at the first Queens
public hearing open up about
the abuses they endured in the
isolated and controversial
correctional facilities.
The event at Queens
Borough Hall on April 24 stood
as a chance for minorities in the
city to make their experiences
known to neighborhood
residents who many viewed as
“racist” or “NIMBYs”, though
few of the attendees agreed that
borough-based jails were the
way to go.
The presentation displayed
at the hearing was the same one
given to Queens reporters at an
earlier briefing.
While residents of Kew
Gardens, Forest Hills and
Briarwood believed the 1.2
million square foot jail planned
to take the place of the Queens
Detention Center would damage
property values overburden
infrastructure, others believed
that jails should be abolished
entirely.
Kandra Clark, however, was
on board with the Kew Gardens
jail proposal after spending
time herself in Rikers and
working in an advisory capacity
with Beyond Rosie’s Campaign
to the women’s facility planned
Justice reform advocates, many of whom were formerly incarcerated, recalled the horrors of Rikers
as they called for either no new jails or closure of facilities on the island. Photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
for the Kew Gardens jail.
As a survivor of childhood
sexual abuse, Clark was
forced to relive her 8-year-old
nightmares in Rikers as she
claims that assaults are endemic
in women’s facility on Rikers.
According to Clark, the new
jail which will hold 200 women
on any given day will focus
on providing mental health
services, a maternity ward
and nursery instead taking a
punitive approach.
“We can do so much better
than what the current mayor’s
plan is, but I do know that if
we do not close Rikers now, I
don’t think it’s ever going to
happen,” Clark said. “There’s
less than 500 women on Rikers,
approximately 61 of them have
serious offenses… We’re talking
about as little as 100 women that
would be maximized in this
centralized facility. If you spread
those 100 women out between
four boroughs, you’re getting 25
in each borough, you’re getting
no programming, you’re getting
no oversight, we can’t control
whether it’s a trauma informed
facility.”
But community board
members and residents of the
surrounding communities stood
their ground on the negative
impacts they believed would
be inflicted on the community
from congestion if the jail was
built.“The reality is that we
are in a transportation black
hole. Traffic doesn’t move, the
subways are overcrowded,
they cannot do anything about
expanding the platform at
Union Turnpike – Kew Gardens
Station,” Andrea Crawford
said. “There is no investment in
this city into infrastructure.”
Crawford said she was
in favor of justice reform
measures that would see fewer
people incarcerated, but does
not see the Kew Gardens jail as
“appropriate” to place in Kew
Gardens.
Many echoed this sentiment
with chants that called for
Rikers to remain open.
One speaker by the name
Mark was cynical about the
retail space planned for the
ground level which Dana
Kaplan, deputy director of the
Mayor’s Office of Criminal
Justice, indicated might be used
by a community organization.
“They want to invest $10
billion in new jails but we
have to fight to $1 billion for
NYCHA,” he said. “They say
they’re going to beautify this
jail with a community center.
You’re going to be able to go
visit your loved ones in jail and
maybe play some basketball on
the way out, what kind of plan
is that?”
Assistant District Attorney
James Quinn, however,
dismissed the concerns of
people who said the majority of
people in Rikers were awaiting
trial or could not afford bail.
He claimed that he had run the
numbers earlier that day and
that there were only 11 people
in Queens in that position.
“You’re talking from
emotions. Not facts,” Quinn
said. His remarks were followed
by heckling.
Vol. 7 No. 18 52 total pages
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