Don't Bring Rikers To Brooklyn, Jail Opponents Say

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Rikers Island has to go — but locals say it shouldn't come to Brooklyn. Civic leaders and activists railed against plans for a new Boerum Hill jail Thursday evening, saying it would bring a range of social and logistical problems to the community.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration plans to replace the existing Brooklyn Detention Complex at 275 Atlantic Ave. with a modern 1,500-bed lockup. It's one of four meant to replace the notoriously violent Rikers Island complex, which the city plans to close by 2027.

A vocal crowd of more than 200 people packed an auditorium at P.S. 133 in Park Slope for the first of four formal hearings on the plan. While they supported closing Rikers, critics said the new facility would be far too big for the area and feared it would just bring the island's problems closer to home.

Many neighborhood residents slammed the city for shutting locals out of the planning process. Several civic activists and elected officials called on the city to withdraw its draft scope — an outline of the environmental review it plans to conduct — and issue a new one after consulting with the impacted community.

"The cake is in the oven, and the city is here to only ask you what color you would like the frosting," said Justin Pollock, who lives on Smith Street across from the existing jail.

A more radical group of activists said the city shouldn't build any new jails to replace Rikers. The injustices against New Yorkers of color that the island perpetuates will continue no matter how shiny or small the new lockups are, they argued.

"Everybody here knows that Rikers is a hellhole, but every single jail is a hellhole," said M. J. Williams, a lawyer and member of No New Jails NYC. "No architect can design away, no coat of paint can cover up the misery, horror and violence of locking people in jail as they wait for trial.

The standing-room-only crowd grew restless as city officials and an architect delivered a boilerplate presentation. Many attendees got cranky as the politicians who got to testify first went over their three-minute time limit.

Councilman Stephen Levin, who represents the area, was shouted down as he tried to tell people how to contact his office.

"You can always call me," he said before someone shouted, "Next!"

De Blasio's Democratic administration contends the new jails will be "smaller, safer" and "fairer." Opening one in each borough but Staten Island once the jail population drops to 5,000 will put detainees closer to the courts, their families and other services they need, officials argue.

The buildings will have more modern and humane designs that will improve safety for inmates and guards alike, while also creating a more respectful experience for visitors, officials said.

"We cannot achieve the types of reforms necessary on Rikers Island," Dana Kaplan, deputy director at the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, told the crowd.

Levin, a Democrat, said replacing the outdated Brooklyn jail "serves the common good," but said the process can't happen without "the expertise of the community."

But at 40 stories tall, the new lockup would twice as high the existing 20-story jail, noted state Sen. Velmanette Montgomery (D-Brooklyn). Renderings were distributed showing how it would tower over the surrounding area.

Residents expressed concern that the influx of Department of Correction staff would make the area more congested. The city should consider building a larger number of smaller jails — including one on Staten Island — to achieve its goals, some said.

But several activists countered that the social-justice imperative for closing Rikers is too strong to wait any longer. Some cited the case of Kalief Browder, who died by suicide in 2015 after spending three years on Rikers awaiting trial on charges that were ultimately dismissed.

"Our jail system dehumanizes and strips people of their dignity simply because they're too poor to afford bail set by judges and requested by prosecutors," said Kelsey De Avila, a jail services social worker with Brooklyn Defender Services.

Browder's brother, though, shared activists' concerns that the borough-based jails wouldn't be an improvement.

"By putting a jail in our communities, what you are doing is implementing fear in our communities," Akeem Browder said. "You're making sure we understand that, 'Negro, you could be back in there.'"

The three-hour hearing was one small part of the environmental review process for the four jails. Three more hearings are set for Sept. 26 in Queens, Sept. 27 in Manhattan and Oct. 3 in the Bronx. The city will then issue the final outline of its environmental study and eventually a draft environmental impact statement.

(Lead image: Victora Phillips speaks at Thursday's hearing on plans to build a new jail in Brooklyn. Photo by Noah Manskar/Patch)