DOC to build new training facility in College Point

The New York City Department of Correction will build a new officer training facility in College Point.  Photo courtesy of Department of Design and Construction

By Jacob Kaye

The New York City Department of Correction will train its officers in College Point by the time Rikers Island is closed for good, the agency announced last week.

The DOC has identified a new site to build its Correction Academy, which will include a facility to train its officers and on-site parking in the Western Queens neighborhood. It will be located next to the NYPD’s Police Academy on College Point Boulevard and 28th Avenue.

“A new, modern correction academy is what our recruits and our staff deserve, and I am extremely pleased to see this plan on its way to becoming a reality,” DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said in a statement. “The new academy will move the department further along the path of positive change by facilitating state-of-the-art training for a reform-minded, modern workforce.”

The training facility is expected to be built on 30,000 square feet of space that is currently being unused next to the NYPD facility’s track.

The proposed facility will be four stories tall and will feature 114,000 square feet of usable space, the agency said. It will also include 240 parking spaces.

“Better training facilities mean better learning environments for our staff, and more effectively prepared personnel in our jails,” said recently-appointed DOC Chief of Department Kenneth Stukes. “The development of this new academy and all that it means for training will help smooth the transition to borough-based jails, and it will go a long way towards facilitating culture change.”

In 1927, New York City became home to the very first academy for correctional officers in the country. The school has moved from Roosevelt Island, to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, to Manhattan, to Rikers Island and to Middle Village, where it is currently located.

The city’s Renewable Rikers Act and its borough-based jails program will see the Department of Correction move off of Rikers Island entirely by 2027, the same year the College Point facility is expected to be completed.

The new facility is expected to cost $225 million, according to the DOC.

Tensions between the DOC and its correctional officers came to a head last month when the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association filed suit against the agency over unsafe and unhealthy working conditions.

The July lawsuit alleged that officers were denied meal and bathroom breaks and that officers were asked to work double and triple shifts without any prior notice throughout the pandemic.

Contributing to the poor working conditions is a precipitous decline of staffing numbers. In July 2020, there were a little over 8,200 correction officers working in the DOC. In June 2021, there were 7,651, according to the union.

“The Correctional Officers Benevolent Association fought vigilantly for many years to attain a modern, first class correction academy to meet the needs of our incoming officers,” COBA President Benny Boscio Jr. in a statement to the Eagle. “We welcome the news that this location has been selected. It’s well past time that our officers have a first class facility to train in, just like any other uniform agency in our city.”

“We hope moving forward, it will serve as a valuable tool to recruit many men and women to serve as correctional officers and in particular, as soon as possible, given the dire staffing shortage we face right now with officers working 25 hours or more every day,” he added. “Hopefully this academy will be able to accommodate large classes of recruits to take on the challenges that lie ahead.”