Politicians Rally Against House of D Plans
“A diverse cast of politicians” gathered yesterday to talk smack about the Department of Corrections’ plans to reopen and expand the House of Detention on Atlantic and Smith, says the Observer, including Councilman David Yassky, Comptroller Bill Thompson, State Senators Marty Connor and Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and Randy Mastro, a deputy mayor under…
“A diverse cast of politicians” gathered yesterday to talk smack about the Department of Corrections’ plans to reopen and expand the House of Detention on Atlantic and Smith, says the Observer, including Councilman David Yassky, Comptroller Bill Thompson, State Senators Marty Connor and Velmanette Montgomery, Assemblywoman Joan Millman, and Randy Mastro, a deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani. We’re not going to let you just move forward, ignore the wishes of the community and act as if you can unilaterally reopen and expand this prison. It’s not going to happen. Department of Corrections: back off. It’s a very bad idea, said Thompson. According to the Post, Yassky is opposing the plans, in part, because it would be much more expensive than moving the expansion to Rikers: $297,500 a bed in taxpayers’ dollars in Boerum Hill, or $440 million, versus $177,000 a bed at Rikers. The Sun says the event drew “dozens” of protesters “waving ‘Stop the Jail’ signs. Where do you stand?
Officials at Brooklyn Jail Protest: ‘People Live Here Now’ [Observer]
Brooklyn Jail a Wa$te: Pol [NY Post]
Brooklyn Jail Opponents Speak Out [NY Sun]
Photo by JayeClaire.
Here are some facts-
Having worked in the building before, I can tell you that the city will never let go of this place. Can you imagine the city trying to get some real estate to build a new prison somewhere? Never gonna happen- they’ll fight this to the end.
It is needed since it is for people on-trial. It would take 4 hrs each way to get people in an out of Rikers to appear in court. There is no option but to keep it.
It was closed because the existing building does not have enough light for inmates (they lost some court case I believe). They need to spend about $15M to provide new “security windows”. That’s just the windows, folks, and that doesn’t include upgrading the interiors.
It is great that your friend works in the DA’s office works hard. So do the thousands of CO’s and other staff that have to trek out there on a daily basis. Their lives are at risk EVERYDAY. Not just on the occassional visit. Rikers is antiquated and should be shut down. Re-Open the Brooklyn House! As a matter of fact open another jail in one of the new condo buildings downtown, right on top of the condo’s.
4.08 – how are you privileged?
there is information about Rikers on the DOC website and if you google it, you can access reports about the conditions there. from the repot by Legal Aid in 2006, conditions all over the Island are bad- from the condition of the buildings, to basic system failures, massive overcrowding and the use of temporary structures (meant to last only 5 years) which were built in the 70’s or 80’s, to house the growing inmate population and are still in use.
Add to that the difficulty in accessing Rikers for both families and legal counsel, and the extra time and cost of transporting them to the courts, it’s clear that Rikers needs massive amounts of money to be renovated, and then would require expansion still to house the population properly.And again, as with the BHOD, these are holding facilities. The people in them are for the most part awaiting trial, and have not been convicted.
bxgrl, your numbers are impressive, but is it the case that every building and location of Rikers needs to be fully renovated in order to continue to house the Brooklyn detainees? Sure, it would take more money to renovate the entire Brooklyn Museum than my apartment, but if in reality they just needed to upgrade one toilet stall vs. an entire gutting of my brownstone, then it’s no comparison. In this case, I think there should be a comparison of the actual work plans somewhere that addresses this more appropriately.
I’m still not opposed to the jail re-opening – oddly, the only thing I’m opposed to is the “Stop the Jail” movement itself – but really, that’s as much of a knee-jerk reaction in me (I hate NIMBY attitudes) as theirs is to the idea of the jail. But what are the facts? I’m okay either way – jail, no jail. But I’d like to see a decision based on what makes the most sense.
How do you raise Riker’s Island above sea level? Or is it more cost effective to build levees around it? We all know that levees will keep water out in extreme weather. What about the security issues with keeping the prisoners in a centralized location? Fixing Rikers doesn’t address this.
If you don’t have loved ones working there, including the defense attornies, court officials, medical staff or family incarcerated there, I guess that your property value, which BTW will not decrease because of the Brooklyn House reopening, is more important to you.
It’s not just about the renovation costs. That’s like one issue out of ten they have to consider here.
Read again this thread and see the very well informed and reasoned posts about how it affects those who work in the courts, if the prisoners are kept at Rikers not near the courthouse. Bussing prisoners, and attorneys and D.A. always having to travel to Rikers. Etc etc etc.
I have a friend who works in the D.A.’s office. He works really hard and it’s for all our benefit. Why make his job and life harder? Just because of unfounded ridiculous panic over your property values. Manhattan has a jail near Tribeca. You WISH your property values would be like Tribeca. This is just a lot of irrational nonsense from nincompoops. Move to the suburbs and spare us.
There is no way renovating one building in Brooklyn would be more expensive to renovate than Rikers which holds 15,000 inmates in 10 buildings on 413.17-acres.
As a privileged white female homeowner just blocks away from the jail, I can promise you that I bought my place with the full knowledge that it could open again at any time. I’ve lived in this neighborhood now for 15 years and while I love some of what gentrification has brought, I also am appalled and embarrassed by what I perceived as the NIMBY attitude.
However, if the facts are that it would cost more to renovate the Brooklyn HOD than to renovate Rikers, then that’s a different story. I’m reserving my opinion until I understand what really is at stake here.