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.
I just bought 3 blocks away. Use it as a prison, don’t use it as a prison, doesn’t matter. I don’t think having a bunch of people locked up and awaiting trial affects anything. And when they let them on the streets it is one of the few times these people are unarmed, so they are relativly harmless.
Now if they replaced it with a high school, where they let the criminals out on the streets every day, that would be something worth protesting. Do you ever see a story like the queens stabbing happen because a bunch of prisoners were just released?
“Commissioner Horn says Queens bears too much of the burden of the jails? Give me a break. Saying Riker’s Island is a burden to Queens is like saying Ellis Island is a burden to Manhattan or Brooklyn. Queens has no community jails.”
I guess you have never visited Rikers Island. People don;t sit in backed up bottle neck traffic trying to get on and off of Ellis Island. I feel for the people who live along the route to the BQE. They have to deal with traffic from those buses making hundreds of trips to courts in S.I., the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens all day Monday through Friday. During shift change the traffic is backed up from the BQE all the way to the Island.
I have asked the bigwigs at the company I work for if they would move right next to me so I don’t have to commute on the subway or the bus and so that I can be closer to my family.
The Guest
I don’t understand why the jail has to be so close to the courts. Do the inmates prefer shorter bus trips? They have to be bused to the courthouse one way or another. The Bleeding hearts may be well-intentioned but they are mistaken. The existing facility is really gross and inhumane. There is nothing that favors the inmate population there. On the contrary.
But, 1:08, the current relic that is sitting there now does not meet today’s guidelines and would have to have a crapload of money to make it useable. They can’t just sweep the floors and call it a day.
1:08 – That’s just it. It doesn’t make $ sense OR practical sense to use the current facility. Closing it in 2003 has gained the City more than $5 million in annual savings due to economies of scale. The old facility is not only inhumane (imagine living in 40 square feet of space), but it’s also completely inefficient. That’s WHY it was closed in the first place.
Commissioner Horn doesn’t want to open it without expanding it because that makes no sense. That’s why he has to expand it. And the DOC wants to ignore all the legal mandates required by such an expansion.
Is Bloomberg asleep at the wheel? His own chief financial officer is calling for him to sell this monstrosity. The City’s in a financial crisis. Maybe it’s lame-duck syndrome.
amazing what distorted perspective when the dork mention bars and restaurants first as benefits of gentrification.
I’d gladly trade most of the bars and plenty of the restaurants.
And reason HOD is there is not because Atlantic Ave was wasteland in 1958 and it is not in heart of brownstone brooklyn.
It is across from the court house and part of commercial/business/goverment center of downtown brooklyn.
Whether it makes $ sense to expand capacity I don’t know – but using the current facility probably does make $ sense and practical sense and does no harm to surrounding neighborhoods.
I-L-L-E-G-A-L
I-D-I-O-T-I-C B-U-R-E-A-C-R-A-C-Y!!!!
When the jail was built, that part of Atlantic Avenue was considered an urban wasteland just waiting for the bulldozers.
Cities are tenacious though, and now the HOD is in the very heart of brownstone Brooklyn.
There is no reason to keep this jail in Boerum Hill any more than to keep cardboard box manufacturers in DUMBO. Times change, cities evolve. What seemed like a great idea in 1958 may not be such a good idea in 2008.