Planning O.K.’s borough jails plan
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
The City Planning Commission
voted 9 to 3 in favor
of Mayor de Blasio’s borough
based jail system on Monday,
despite vocal opposition
from members of prison-abolition
group No New Jails NYC.
The City Council now has 50
days to vote on the plan.
Under the scheme, Rikers
Island’s jail complex would be
closed, to be replaced by the creation
of four new jails in Manhattan,
Queens, Brooklyn and
the Bronx.
The City Council’s Subcommittee
on Landmarks, Public Siting
and Maritime Uses will hold
a public hearing on the boroughbased
jails system plan at 10 a.m.
this Thurs., Sept. 5, at City Hall.
“Today’s vote is so much more
than a vote on site selections and
special permits,” said Marisa
Lago, the City Planning Commission
chairperson. “It’s a vote
to end a bleak era in New York
City history.”
Two years ago, de Blasio announced
his plan to close Rikers
and move detainees closer
to courts and families in almost
every borough. Jails are slated to
open next to court houses within
four of the city’s fi ve boroughs.
Inmates in Staten Island will be
shipped to the Brooklyn facility.
In Manhattan and Brooklyn,
facilities will open where there
are already existing detention
centers: at 125 White St. near
City Hall and at 275 Atlantic
Ave. in Boerum Hill, respectively.
However, inmates at the
Brooklyn detention center would
have to be sent to Rikers at the
end of the year as the new facility
is built, according to THE
CITY. In Queens, a facility in
Kew Gardens will be torn down
and rebuilt. The Bronx facility in
Mott Haven would be built on
the site of current New York Police
Department tow pound.
Retooling the prison system is
a part of de Blasio’s larger plan to
shrink the city’s jail population
from 7,000 inmates to 4,000 by
2026.
During the vote, members
of No New Jails NYC shouted,
“There is no justice with this
plan!” and “You have blood on
your hands!” at the City Planning
commissioners who supported
the idea.
Others shouted that commissioners
did not care about black
and brown lives and equated
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Activists supporting the mayor’s plan, as well as those decrying it, raised a din
at the raucous Sept. 3 vote on the borough-based jails.
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
On Sept. 3, the City Planning Commission voted 9 to 3 in favor of Mayor de Blasio’s
borough-based jail system.
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Activist Kei Williams, left, and Brittany Williams, right, with No New Jails NYC,
reacted as they heard the City Planning commissioners’ vote on the boroughbased
jail system. They shouted the commissioners had “blood on their hands.”
supporting the plan to supporting
white supremacy.
Opponents of the boroughbased
jail system argue that the
city needs to look at other ways to
put an end to incarceration.
Other shouts of “Close Rikers
now!” could be heard between
cries of “No more jails!”
Activists from Close Rikers
Now, who support the mayor’s
plan, also crowded into the jampacked
hearing room.
Harvey Murphy, a member of
Just Leadership to End Rikers
Island, said he was formerly incarcerated
at the jail complex and
was damaged by the experience.
“Rikers Island has harmed a
lot of people, it’s harmed me,”
Murphy said. “I don’t think I’ll be
alive to see abolition but I’m alive
to see reform; we have to start
within there.”
“When you are voting to build
these new jails, you are voting to
continue to incarcerate 90 percent
black and brown folks,” said
Kei Williams, a member of No
New Jails NYC.
Opponents of the plan argue
that the substitute jails would only
continue to hurt New Yorkers and
that the city should fi nd ways to
end incarceration completely.
After the vote, the City Planning
Commission released modifi
cations made to the proposed
jails’ designs.
All four facilities have had “setbacks”
added — moving them
back from the street wall — intended
to increase light and air in
the surrounding neighborhoods.
For the Manhattan jail facility,
the height of the White St. arcade
walkway has been increased from
the previous 29 feet to a minimum
height of 55 feet, which would allow
more light to pass through the
arcade, according to a statement.
For the Brooklyn facility, C.P.C.
called for the removal of the State
St. skybridge and an increased
transparency requirement for retail
and community spaces from
30 percent to 50 percent near the
new jail. This was done to ensure
“active and inviting streetscapes
for pedestrians.”
C.P.C. also voted to reduce the
heights of all the planned new
Manhattan, Queens, Bronx and
Brooklyn jails — to 450 feet, 270
feet, 245 feet and 395 feet, respectively.
Initially, the jails were going
to be 495, 310, 275 and 430 feet
tall. Each jail’s fl oor area ratio, or
F.A.R., has also been lowered a
bit, which would reduce the maximum
square footage that could be
built.
Schneps Media TVG September 5, 2019 3