Boerum Hill Residents Pushback Against an Incarceration Skyscraper
Talk of expanding The Brooklyn Detention Center (BDC) began around the same time that consensus was being reached about closing the Rikers jail-complex, Howard Kolins remembers.
At a city council subcommittee hearing last week, Kolins testified that doubling BDC’s size would be “a skyscraper to incarceration” — a monument to imprisonment that he called an insult to Brooklyn. Kolins, president of the Boerum Hill Association, had his reservations during Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to expand the jail and still does.
Two hundred constituents signed up to testify at that hearing; despite the varying opinions and assorted activist groups, one theme remained constant: Rikers is a broken-facility that needs to be closed.
“Rejecting this plan will mean Rikers will continue to exist for generations to come and that cannot be our legacy,” said Judge Jonathan Lipman in reference to the borough-based jail plan.
In 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to replace the Rikers jail-complex with “a network of modern and humane borough-based jails” by 2026 with an 8.7 billion dollar budget. The approaches, pace, and execution of that, however, is controversial and unique to each affected community.
“It’s not that this community doesn’t want a jail in its backyard, because we already have one, it’s that we don’t want a skyscraper where it doesn’t belong,” says Sarah Crichton, a long-time Boerum Hill resident. While the BDC currently stands at 220 feet, it is expected to rise to 395 feet if the Mayor’s proposal passes. The BDC sits on a busy intersection between Atlantic Ave. and Smith Street and the surrounding area is predominantly residential.
Across from the detention center is Metro Buffet — a deli run by Mohammed Ahmed, whose business “depends on the correctional officers coming in for lunch. Maybe the construction workers will eat here but that’s fifty-fifty.” he says. Ahmed echoes Crichton’s sentiment that a skyscraper on his block would be like a “sore-thumb in the neighborhood”
According to the Mayor’s plan, the new Brooklyn jail would house a daily population of 4,000, which is a revision from the initial estimate of 5,000 residents. Currently, The Brooklyn House of Detention can house up to 815 residents. The project also includes what designers call a modern, humane jail-design with community retail space.
Other locations for the jail, like the Brooklyn-navy yard, were briefly considered but the city officials prioritized proximity to the court-house (which shares an underground tunnel with The Brooklyn House of Detention) and easy transportation for family visitation.
Since the fruition of the borough-based jail plan in 2017, the de Blasio administration has faced criticism for its lack of transparency in this decision-making process. Echoes of closing Rikers the “right way” without ignoring the community’s input was a sentiment that resonated throughout last week’s hearing. In addition, several members of the public were skeptical of the D.O.C’s ability to reform criminal-justice in New York and take on the culture changes these new jails demand.
For Brooklyn, Councilmember Stephen Levins is likely to approve the proposal; he, however, neglected to inquire into the height of the jail at the subcommittee hearing. His constituents say that is one indication that they are being overlooked:
“I’m all for development, but intelligent development,” says Kolins. “The D.O.C is rushing to close the jail, without taking into account how this community will be changed. We are asking for a facility that supports criminal justice reform and is also appropriately scaled to its surroundings.”
The City Council is headed towards a final vote next month, and negotiations regarding the jail’s height remain ongoing.