GET THE LATEST NEWS EVERY DAY AT QNS.COM
Sept. 6-12, 2019 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
• ASTORIA TIMES
• FOREST HILLS LEDGER
• LAURELTON TIMES
• QUEENS VILLAGE TIMES
• RIDGEWOOD LEDGER
• HOWARD BEACH TIMES
• RICHMOND HILL TIMES
ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE
Queens jail plan goes to City Council
City Planning Commission approves borough-based jails, including one in Kew Gardens
BY MARK HALLUM
With the City Planning Commission’s
decision on Tuesday
to approve the ULURP application
for four new jails across the
city — including a new facility
in Kew Gardens — reactions are
ranging from hope to dismay.
The Tuesday hearing in Manhattan
saw the agency vote in favor
the proposal by the Mayor’s
Office of Criminal Justice with
recommendations by the Lippman
Commission to close Rikers
Island, but the proceedings
were punctuated by the chants
of activists calling for no new
jails altogether.
Now the City Council will
decide on the fate of the plan,
which aims to institute a culture
change with Department
of Corrections while also keeping
detainees closer to families
and courts.
A hearing with the Land Use
Committee in the City Council
chamber will take place between
10 and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept.
5, and is expected to be the only
hearing before a vote.
Former Chief Judge Jonathan
Lippman was given the task
of evaluating how criminal justice
reforms in the city could be
implemented by former Council
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito
in 2017 and looked at the decision
as progress.
“With today’s approval by
the City Planning Commission
of the city’s plan to establish
smaller, borough-based jails,
we are one step closer to shuttering
the jails on Rikers once
and for all. Just three years ago,
the prospect of closing Rikers
seemed nearly impossible. With
the momentum generated by advocates
and those who have experienced
firsthand the horrors
on Rikers, and the blueprint we
developed in “A More Just NYC,”
we are closer than ever before,”
Lippman said. “We have a oncein
generations opportunity to
shut the door on a dark chapter
in our city’s history and open a
new one in which our justice system
can serve not only as a beacon
of fairness for New York, but
for our whole country.”
The proposal is currently on
track to impose these changes by
2026, which is estimated to cost
taxpayers about $11 billion over
the course of all that.
The facility in Queens will
be built on the current site of
the shuttered Queens House of
Detention, behind the Queens
County Criminal Court House,
and the adjacent municipal
parking lot.
The de Blasio administration
has reduced the capacity of the
Kew Gardens jail from 1,500 to
about 1,100, but will also include
the facility where all the women
in detention across the city will
be housed.
Borough President Melinda
Katz has supported the plan to
close Rikers but has adjusted her
view regarding the opening of
new jails.
Earlier this year, Katz voiced
opposition to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s
effort to move forward with
the borough-based jails unless
he began again with more community
input. De Blasio said
the project would push forward
as scheduled.
But in June, as a candidate
for Queens District Attorney,
Katz adopted the stance of rival
for the seat Tiffany Cabán when
she vowed to not support any
new jails whatsoever.
“I think with all the diversion
programs we’re about to use and
services we’re about to use, you
could lower that population easily
to 3,000,” Katz said. “So if we’re
doing all of that, why are we in
a rush to approve a 1,500-bed
facility anywhere … I will not
approve a 1,500-bed anywhere in
the borough of Queens, because
if you build the beds, the city’s
going to feel like they have to fill
them up and that’s not criminal
justice reform to me.”
As for the Land Use Committee,
Queens Council members
dominate the roster, filling seven
of the 17 positions. This includes
Peter Koo, Francisco Moya, Barry
Grodenchik, Rory Lancman,
I. Daneek Miller, Adrienne Adams
and Donovan Richards.
Lancman, during his run for
DA, voiced full support for the
city’s plan to close Rikers.
The Queens House of Detention is one step closer to getting razed thanks to the City Planning
Commissions vote in favor of closing Rikers and building borough-based jails. Photo by Mark Hallum/QNS
Vol. 7 No. 36 48 total pages
����������
��������������������������
����������������������������������������
����������������������������������������������
��������������������������������������������������������������
��������������������������������
������������������
������������
����������
������������������������
/QNS.COM
