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Rikers replacement jails are announced in NYC mayor and City Council agreement

Jailbreak

Rikers replacement jails are announced in NYC mayor and City Council agreement

Rikers Island aerial (Russ Nelson/Flickr)

Only two weeks after New York City announced that Perkins Eastman would be studying potential locations and designs for the borough-based jails that will eventually replace Rikers Island, the Mayor’s office has released a list of the chosen, community-based sites. These four smaller jails will ultimately provide space for 5,000 inmates, and are spread out across three existing Department of Corrections (DOC) facilities and one new location in the Bronx.

The four chosen sites are as follows:

Manhattan Detention Center, 125 White Street, Manhattan, 10013
Brooklyn Detention Center, 275 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, 11201
Queens Detention Center, 126-01 82nd Avenue, Kew Gardens, 11415
NYPD Tow Pound, 320 Concord Avenue, Bronx, 10454

The decision is as a joint agreement between Mayor Bill de Blasio, Speaker Corey Johnson, and City Council Members from each of the relevant boroughs. As part of the arrangement, all four sites will undergo the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the public review process, as a single project instead of individually. The city will simultaneously solicit public input and conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) to speed the ULURP process along.

“This agreement marks a huge step forward on our path to closing Rikers Island,” said Mayor de Blasio in a press release sent to AN. “In partnership with the City Council, we can now move ahead with creating a borough-based jail system that’s smaller, safer and fairer. I want to thank these representatives, who share our vision of a more rehabilitative and humane criminal justice system that brings staff and detainees closer to their communities.”

Of note is the establishment of a permanent jail in the Bronx, which as of writing is serviced by “the Boat,” a jail on the barge in the East River, and the reopening of the Kew Gardens detention center which closed in 2002.

The plan to renovate and reorient these jails towards a rehabilitative model will be spearheaded by Perkins Eastman and its 17 subcontractors. Besides masterplanning the sites, Perkins Eastman will also be responsible for maximizing density at each of jail. This movement of inmates off of Rikers will be accompanied by a suite of intake, bail, mental health and re-entry reforms targeted at reducing the overall amount of inmates.

Mayor de Blasio’s announcement comes, maybe not coincidentally, immediately after the state level Commission of Correction released a scathing 70-page report on the condition of Rikers Island. The commission, which has delivered its findings to Governor Andrew Cuomo and the state legislature, has labeled Rikers as one of five “worst offenders” in the state, and details inmate deaths, escape attempts, fires, and conditions that are “unsecure, unsanitary and dangerous, for staff and inmates alike.” Although the city has committed itself to closing Rikers Island within ten years, the state may take action as a result of this report to close the jail sooner. The full report is available here.

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