Organized Opposition to House of D Plan Grows
Dozens of Boerum Hill stores and lampposts have started sporting “Stop the Jail” posters, markers of a new group’s efforts to protest the city’s plan to reopen and expand the House of Detention on Smith and Atlantic. The group, Stop BHOD, has launched a website saying it’s comprised of residents from the Brooklyn Heights, Boerum…
Dozens of Boerum Hill stores and lampposts have started sporting “Stop the Jail” posters, markers of a new group’s efforts to protest the city’s plan to reopen and expand the House of Detention on Smith and Atlantic. The group, Stop BHOD, has launched a website saying it’s comprised of residents from the Brooklyn Heights, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, and Carroll Gardens neighborhoods. Stop BHOD’s mission is twofold, according to the site: “Stop BHOD strongly opposes the reopening and expansion of the BHOD. We have made it our mission to stop the misguided plan to place a large prison in a thriving neighborhood with a large community of young children. We have also made it our mission to expose the inaccuracies of the Department of Corrections, a city agency more concerned with control over the site than with economics and the best interests of the community and city as a whole.” Among other things, the group says Corrections is planning a jail with cells that don’t “meet minimum federal or state standards of habitability. Some cells are 40 square feet, half the 80 sqaure foot size recommended by the American Correctional Association.” In March, an entity called the Brooklyn HOD Community Stakeholders Group launched that also opposes the jail expansion.
Stop BHOD [Official Site]
Brooklyn HOD Community Stakeholders Group [Official Site]
‘Stop the Jail’ Movement Begins on Atlantic Ave. [Brooklyn Eagle]
Locals Put Heat On City For Ignoring House of D Plan [Brownstoner]
City Looks to Supersize the House of D [Brownstoner]
Johnife – They are detainees not arrestees.
5:11 What were the alternatives and such the City checked out?
4:51, your use of quotation marks to ascribe statements to me that I never made troubles me far less than your use of them around the word “arrestees”. What are they if not that?
Sorry, 4:15, but your “gotcha” moment fizzles in the face of actual fact. I have never advocated the removal of the existent homeless shelter at the Armory. (or the one across the street from it, or the teenage halfway house a block away, OR the women’s shelter 2 blocks away from that. I could go on, but you get the point.) Our Civic Duty – more than done. I oppose the moving of the Manhattan intake center to Central Brooklyn.
In terms of Downtown Brooklyn and the HOD, if you did not have all of the courthouses, and there are what, 4 or 5 in the area, then you would have a valid argument. But, as Johnife and others have said, it makes no sense to transport people back and forth from Rikers or another out of the way location. It makes no sense environmentally, economically, logistically, or security-wise. It is unfair in terms of human rights, the right to consul, and the right to have family visitation for people who have not been convicted of anything.
You may have done your share, but there is a big difference between moving an intake center, and getting rid of a huge justice system “machine”, of which the HOD is just a small part. Centrally located courthouses are a part of every city. They also bring jobs and customers to downtown. That is not going to change anytime soon.
2:43- the area has changed a lot since the 80’s and even then, the HOD was not the problem. these people are locked up- they aren’t out on the street mugging anyone.
As for stopping a misguided effort – that jail has been in the neighborhood for years. Plenty of people raised families there without the emotional or psychological scarring you imply is going to happen. Rikers is way overcrowded and it is expensive and wasteful to bus them in from there. Johnife is right- it’s also environmentally irresponsible.
Downtown Brooklyn is what it is- the City has indeed checked alternatives and such which is why they are reopening it again. Al;though as some people pointed out, it was never completely closed. If you can’t handled seeing the justice system in action then move your delicate sensibilities to some utopian gated community. Not everything in NYC is going to be pretty. And as Biff points out, the people in the HOD are detainees, not convicted prisoners. They are innocent until proven guilty- and that’s the law.
Johnife
Now we all understand your line of demarcation. You need to live in the hood for more than 10 years to join “your club”. You go from the “vicarious thrill of entertaining your son” like it is some freak show to “Mr. Sensitive” towards the “arrestees”. So your argument is all about logistics and convenience. That is obvious to all and it is why the DOC is moving ahead. No argument from me. I am not proposing they continue the Rikers process but perhaps if you flocked to a Stakeholders meeting with all your energy and insight you might see that there are alternative sites in non residential areas that would not require transporting “arrestees” all of over creation. Did you know that there is a Federal facility in a non residential area of Sunset Park? Did you know the city closed the Brig in the Navy Yards? Instead of ranting about the newcomers why don’t you come learn from the oldtimers.
I’m pretty certain I live as close, if not closer to the HOD than the majority of posters here and, while I can understand people not being thrilled about having the HOD around the corner from where they live, I have to be objective and admit the current location of the HOD makes sense, given the proximity of the courts. So not all relatively new arrivals feel a sense of entitlement, as others might wish to believe.
As for comparing this to Rikers; it’s sad when we start treating detainees like convicted prisoners and houses of detention like prisons. Of course places like Guantanamo Bay have tragically blurred the line.
4:03, Okay, enlighten me, what percentage of the members of the “Stakeholders Group” has lived in the neighborhood longer than 10 years (essentially the dawn of gentrification in the area)?
You talk about distracting from the real issue and yet say nothing to invalidate the points I raise with regard to courthouse/HOD/transportation logistics. Are you actually saying that it makes more sense for arrestees to be bussed from a remote location (wherever that might be) than to be moved a block or two at trial time? Are you proposing moving the courthouse to a non-residential areas as well? All I hear is “I don’t want it here”. I don’t hear any solutions that are more cost-effective, more environmentally responsible, less time consuming, more respectful of (unconvicted) arrestees rights to counsel, or that make more effective use of the time of law enforcers. Maybe if we heard a solution that works on all those levels we’d be flocking to join your group.
Actually, the downtown brookyn area is third (ocean hill/brownsville is second). At 80 beds per acre, it is three times above average (CHeights = 112, Ocean Hill/Bville = 100).
So, the lecture about doing our “civic duty” is thus dismissed.