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]
Can’t stand these people. Yeah, they’re real concnered that the cells are too small. I’d love to see the HOD say “OK, we’ll double the size all the cells, now are you satisfied?”
Anyhow, as much as I can’t stand em, I must admit they’ve created a pretty cool flyer. Love the graphics and sense of fear the picture of the building creates.
http://www.stopbhod.org/images/Stop_BHOD_flyer.pdf
It’s true — where would these people have the jail be located, then? It’s not like the authorities are reopening/expanding the facility because they can’t think of anything better to do or anywhere else the money needs to be spent. The opposition would prefer East New York, perhaps? Is the logic that since more offenders come from poorer neighborhoods, the facilities should stay in poorer neighborhoods? Should eminent domain be used to amass property to build this new jail elsewhere?
I don’t have the sense that the opposition has thought things through, or followed their assumptions to their logical conclusion.
I don’t mean that people should not fight for the neighborhood or that they have no rights. But as a former resident of BH and now in a neighborhood that is fighting an expansion of the men’s shelter, I have to say even with the expansion, in BH at least there is a commensurate police presence. Having the jail there, and certainly with better conditions, makes sense because of the courts. Seeing my street go from scary to prime real estate over the years- and while the HOD was open, it is a fact that the HOD had little to no effect on rising prices in the area or new construction.
Beyond that issue, the courts and their employees, the jail and all the attendant services (including marshals and lawyers)have grounded the area as well as put money into it. It’s well-established and part of city life. Every neighborhood has to deal with the unpleasant realities of running a city, but some neighborhoods have been forced to deal with it more- like Crown Heights.
Compare that with neighborhoods that are struggling to come up, which have been overloaded with shelters that are poorly run and poorly funded, with little to no expanded police presence.
Good points 11:35 and 41.
I was shocked to learn that the sizes of the cells at the HOD are so small — it is inhumane especially given that many of the guests are pending trial, and are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
It’s interesting how none of these comments bother to address the part about how the current facilities are half the size required under federal law, a regulation probably meant to ensure humane conditions for the prisoners. No one also mentions that the current plan is to build two new towers and add hundreds of cells. Sounds like a couple of years of construction plus a lot more people.
It is amazing to read some of the emotional invective raised by several posters who make this a NIMBY or yuppie issue and the endless class warfare commentary. As a 30yr resident I am ashamed of the provincial attitude of so many in the community. The “I was here first and don’t try and change anything” is such a tired and simplistic refrain. “Get used to it” has never been my attitude. Why should those who live in the community not demand a more thorough vetting of the DOC proposal to see how it will impact the community. This idea that the DOC has a right to do whatever they want because it was there in the past is nonsensical. Why does it have to be in any backyard. The idea that new residents should abandon their rights to object to the doubling of the jail size and just accept this as a done deal is also troubling. Let’s try and move beyond the NIMBY accusations spouted by DOC Horn and have an honest debate.
Maybe the can house detainees in all the vacant uints the city plans to subsidize at Atlantic Yards?
Never mind the inaccuracies of the DOC; StopBHOD need to cut out their own “inaccuracies”. A couple came to my house this weekend handing out the posters and actually told my wife that the plan was for the jail to expand onto the vacant site on the other side of Atlantic where the gas station used be. Unless something’s changed dramatically in the past couple of months, that, to the best of my knowledge, is a bald-faced lie.
I did a whois for the website registrant and discovered that he’s a former DA who now works for a private law firm and who specializes in getting off corporate bigwigs who’ve been fingered by whistleblowers. I’m so glad the phrase “yuppie scum” is in vogue again because I can’t think of a better definition.
Talk about Yellow Journalism. Nice editing Job Brownstoner.
I love the fact that one of these posters was located in the NEW, unopened restaurant still under construction at the corner of Bond and Pacific Streets. I think its ironic, that before they even move into the neighborhood, they are already trying to change it.
People, when you move somewhere with projects and a jail, you need to adapt. I don’t think its neighborly or fair to think because you spent $1,000,000 on your 1br condo or $2.5 million on your house that you are entitled to have South Brooklyn turn into suburban Connecticut.
Brownstoner, shame on you for this post.