Kew Gardens jail foes cheer Manhattan judge’s decision to block detention tower
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Opponents of the city’s plan to build a jail in Kew Gardens rallied at City Hall in March 2019. Eagle file photo by Todd Maisel
By David Brand
A state Supreme Court judge’s decision to strike down the city’s plan to build a new jail in Manhattan’s Chinatown was a major blow to lawmakers and advocates intent on closing the outdated and isolated detention complex on Rikers Island.
But for Queens opponents of the city’s jail plan, the order out of Manhattan was a big win and, they say, a precedent-setting move by a state court.
“I was very pleased by it,” said former Queens prosecutor Jim Quinn, who made opposition to the jail plan a centerpiece of his bid for Queens borough president.
The judge’s decision “was very well thought out, well reasoned and it validates the opinions of everyone who said that the city was trying to rush through without any real analysis of the impact of it,” Quinn said.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge John Kelley sided with a group of plaintiffs who argued that the city’s unprecedented four-borough land use proposal violated protocols and neglected necessary impact studies. The approval by the City Council was “arbitrary and capricious” and “rendered in the absence of proper procedure,” he wrote.
Kew Gardens Civic Association President Dominick Pistone said the ruling reinforced the claims outlined in a lawsuit filed by a group of Central Queens residents, including his organization, who call themselves the “Community Preservation Coalition.”
The CPC filed an Article 78 lawsuit to halt construction of the new Kew Gardens jail “on the grounds that the city has violated its own required procedures” when it approved the land use plan. Article 78 proceedings allow New York City residents to contest decisions made by state or city agencies that they consider illegal or arbitrary.
“The judge said what we’ve been saying all along — that the city did a shoddy job and rushed through because this is what the mayor wants as a matter of policy and community be damned,” Pistone said of the Manhattan order.
Pistone said he rejects “pharaonic Robert Moses-style construction” that ignores the interests of the local community. He said he would support a plan to renovate the existing Queens House of Detention — an idea the city nixed because of outdated and unsafe infrastructure.
“Let’s be blunt: who wants a jail in their neighborhood? But we’ve had one for years,” Pistone said. “The footprint of the old Queens House of Detention, I think we could live with that.”
Pistone, however, said he was “not a NIMBY” — a “not in my backyard” complainer — and instead wanted the city to spend the money earmarked for new jails on other initiatives.
“NIMBY. That’s a cheap, easy thing to say,” he said, before mocking jail plan proponents who “are screaming about how NIMBYs are blocking this ‘moral imperative.’”
Under the land use plan approved by the Council, the city will demolish the Queens House of Detention — also known as the Queens Detention Center — and build a new 195-foot-tall structure. The site would also feature a new 696-spot municipal parking lot across a demapped 82nd Avenue.
Supporters of the plan to build the new jails say moving defendants off Rikers Island is a crucial justice reform that will make conditions safer and more humane for inmates and staff.
“Closing the dysfunctional, shameful jails on Rikers Island is an urgent moral imperative, today more than ever,” said former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, who chaired the commission that recommended closing Rikers Island jails and made the effort more politically feasible among center-left lawmakers.
“As the courts consider technical land use issues on appeal, the city should press forward on policies that rely on jail only as a last resort, continue planning for a smaller borough jail system, and begin preparing for a green future for Rikers,” he continued.
The land use proposal approved by the Council did not include text to actually close Rikers Island jails, however. The city introduced a measure that would ban detention facilities from the island just days before the Council jail plan vote in response to pressure from progressives, many of whom have called for no jails at all.
JustLeadership USA President and CEO DeAnna Hoskins, a jail plan supporter, acknowledged the progressive mission to one day abolish jails and prisons, but said building the new borough-based facilities and closing the old Rikers sites was an important step forward.
“Every day that Rikers remains open equals horrific human suffering and harm — including death,” Hoskins said. That’s fact, not exaggeration.”
“JustLeadershipUSA has worked tirelessly to help build the movement that created the pressure to close Rikers,” she continued. “While that plan includes the construction of jails — the capacity of those jails will be significantly lower than the bed count on Rikers Island. More importantly, these will be community jails — where people who are detained can better access their attorneys and family members can visit.”
