Chinatown Activists Blast Plan To Build A New, Larger Jail

CHINATOWN, NY — Dozens of Chinatown residents and local groups slammed the de Blasio administration's plan to build a 450-foot jail at the site of an existing detention center, which shares a wall with a low-income senior housing building.

With dust masks in hand and chanting "save our seniors" on the steps at City Hall Monday morning, Chinatown residents called for the city to stop the review process and consider another location for Manhattan's new jail — which is under a larger project to close Rikers Island, build four borough-based jails and reduce the city's jail population to about 5,000 people.

The city's plan to locate a jail in Downtown Manhattan has sparked outrage from Chinatown activists for months.

For many Chinatown neighbors, the jail plan brings up decades-old memories when the city first proposed to build the Manhattan Detention Center at 125 White St. in Chinatown. After protests at the time, the city agreed to build Chung Pak Local Development Corp. — 88 units of low-income senior apartments and community facilities.

Now, Chinatown neighbors fear the seniors who live at Chung Pak would suffer from construction noise and air quality issues while the new, taller jail is built at the Manhattan Detention Center.

"It's the same thing 37 years ago," said David Chen, representing the Chung Pak senior building.

"They want to tear down the old jail and make it bigger and larger," inciting boos from the crowd, which included more than a dozen different resident and neighborhood groups.

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The city's community engagement process has only heightened the mistrust and outrage among residents. At some meetings, press has been shooed out, and the Manhattan jail's location has been switched from 125 White St. to 80 Centre St. and back again.

"Why are they doing this without consulting the community? " Chen said. "You cannot shortcut for expediency at the expense of the community."

The review process known as the uniform land use review procedure (ULURP) is expected to formally begin Monday for the jails plan.

The city's project is a part of a larger de Blasio administration goal to close the notoriously violent Rikers Island, decrease the city's jail population to 5,000 and build more humane jails through programming in the new buildings and siting them closer to the courts for quicker transportation to inmates' court hearings.

Regarding the senior building next door to the existing Manhattan Dentention Center, a spokesman for the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice said seniors at the Chung Pak building are not expected to be relocated.

"We don't anticipate relocating any senior residents at Chung Pak at this time," said mayoral spokesman Patrick Gallahue. "We continue to look at how construction can have a minimal impact on the lives of Chung Pak residents. We have also heard from the community and Council Member and recognize their concerns."

Councilmember Margaret Chin, who holds a pivotal vote in City Council as the jail plan goes through ULURP, tweeted concerns regarding the senior building Friday.

"While my commitment to criminal justice reform remains unbroken, my first priority is the well-being, health and safety of the residents of our community," Chin tweeted. "In particular, we must have assurances that seniors living next door to the proposed project will be protected. With [City Planning] expected on Monday to move forward all four boro applications for new jails, this process is far from over — it is just the beginning."

Before I make any decision on whether to support a new jail in Chinatown, the concerns of community boards, Borough President & most importantly the residents & small biz most directly impacted by this project, must be heard (1/3)
— Margaret S. Chin (@CM_MargaretChin) March 22, 2019

Though the activists on Monday called for a halt to the ULURP process, one collective alternative remains unclear.

Some want Rikers Island to be renovated rather than closed. Others want the city to consider a different location — though outrage ensued regarding a previous proposed location at 80 Centre St. as well. Some say they support criminal justice reform, but don't want a jail in Chinatown at all.

"Right now, that location is unsound and unfit," Chris Marte, Downtown activist and a state committeeman who ran against Chin in a 2017 primary, said of the Manhattan Detention Center at 125 White St.

Marte said it is unclear to him why the city does not consider building more, smaller jails, among other questions. Marte said he supports closing parts of Rikers and keeping other parts open.

Nancy Kong, a founding member of Neighbors United Below Canal, said she believes the four jails would simply become "mini-Rikers."

"[The Mayor is] not trying to change the culture [of the jails] immediately — but trying to build, somebody said it [earlier], four mini-Rikers, and that is not right," Kong said.