Lower Manhattan CB Committee Says No To City Jail Plan

CHINATOWN, NY — The Lower Manhattan community board's land use committee unanimously voted this week against the city's plans to replace the Manhattan Detention Complex with a larger jail, with various conditions for the city to get the board's OK.

The Community Board 1 committee's vote is against plans for a 450-foot jail to replace the Manhattan Detention Complex at 125 White St. The replacement jail is a part of larger strategy to close jail facilities on Rikers Island and relocate inmates to neighborhood-based lock-ups, as well as drastically reduce the jail population from 7,600 to 4,000 by 2026.

"A major concern is that the building is just too big," said Patrick Kennell, a Financial District neighbor who chairs the CB 1 land use committee. Though the committee's resolution supports the goal of closing Rikers Island, he added, "Everything is much in flux. We're having a hard time understanding what it is we [had] even been asked to agree to."

The full board will vote on the resolution May 28.

Previously, the city planned to have a jail population of about 5,000 across four jails in all boroughs except Staten Island. But upon state policy changes including bail reform and other efforts that put the city ahead of schedule to reduce its jail population, the city changed its goal to 4,000.

"We believe we will be able to build smaller facilities, which aligns with what the community has made clear is a priority," said Alacia Lauer, a spokeswoman for the mayor's criminal justice office.

Those numbers are expected to be released in the coming weeks, she said.

But for the board's committee, the lack of updated numbers confirms what many on the board and in the neighborhood have feared — that the plan remains in-flux.

"Great news — we're further reducing the jail population, but we still don't know what that's going to mean," Kennell said. The board "can't say yes to that when you don't know what it is that they're ultimately planning to build."

The city's plan to replace the Manhattan Detention Center with a larger jail has outraged community activists in Chinatown and Lower Manhattan since last fall. The process, some have said, has felt forced onto the neighborhood — with meetings that aren't public in which press has been shooed out and a back-and-forth of where exactly the new jail would be sited.

For the de Blasio administration, the goal to close Rikers Island is aimed at ending mass incarceration in New York City while also building better-designed jails more accessible by transit than Rikers Island for both loved ones and to the courts.

The land use committee's vote Monday evening is among the lengthy list of steps amid the uniform land use review procedure — which will go through review by the borough president, City Planning Commission, and ultimately, City Council. Last month, per Tribeca Citizen, CB 1's public hearing unraveled racial tensions between those who were pushing to close Rikers and others raising neighborhood concerns.

Councilwoman Margaret Chin, who supports closing Rikers but has raised concerns regarding a neighboring senior building and what other community givebacks will be offered, will hold a pivotal vote in the ULURP process for the 125 White St. lock-up.

The neighborhood mitigations still remain lackluster, Kennell argues. The city currently has plans for a 20,000-square-foot community center. Previously, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he would support additional affordable housing under the plan, though it is unclear if that will materialize.

CB 1's land use committee doesn't have specific asks for community needs, but Kennell said, "There are many, many worthy causes in Lower Manhattan."

The Neighbors United Below Canal — a group adamantly opposed to the plan — has argued the jail over-burdens the Chinatown neighborhood due to a federal prison nearby, will put a neighboring senior housing complex in the midst of the tower's construction and does not addressing the systemic problems within the Department of Correction.

"They're so focused on these four physical buildings, they're not addressing these immediate issues," Nancy Kong, a founding member of the group and president of Chatham Towers.

"I'm hoping that the mayor and his administration really listen to the questions and come back with a solid plan that we can work on," said Kong.

Queens' community board has also opposed the jail in that borough. Brooklyn's board couldn't come to a consensus. Bronx's full board has not yet voted. Though Community Board 3 is not where the jail will be sited, the board has been closely following the city's project and issued its own set of recommendations last month, though didn't directly oppose or support the jail.

"It's all the community boards right now saying, no, this is not a solid [uniform land use review procedure] application and there's zoning issues that need to be addressed," Kong said. "And any private developer who would put forth this plan would never have it be pushed forward like this."

To watch the full committee meeting, see below: