NY judge tosses last-ditch lawsuit seeking to block new Queens jail
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A cell bloc inside the Queens House of Detention. The old jail is set to be demolished to make way for a new facility with room for 1,150 people. Eagle file photo by David Brand
By David Brand
A New York judge on Thursday tossed a lawsuit filed by a pair of Queens civic groups attempting to block the construction of a new jail in Kew Gardens.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower said the city met environmental review standards, public comment rules and land use laws as it sought approval to build the 195-foot detention tower behind the Queens Criminal Courthouse as part of its four-borough jail plan.
The council approved the city’s land use application for the jails — the first proposal to roll non-contiguous sites in multiple boroughs into a single package — in October 2019. Rakower said the city’s Universal Law Use Review Procedure allowed for such an application.
“A single ULURP review of the four borough-based jail sites was lawful and rational,” Rakower wrote in her decision to dismiss the lawsuit. The city, she added. “reasonably deemed that the multi-borough review should be consolidated.”
Two civic groups, Queens Residents United and the Community Preservation Coalition, had filed the Article 78 lawsuit in September 2020 in a last-ditch effort to block the new jail, set to rise on the site of the soon-to-be demolished Queens House of Detention at 126-02 82nd Ave. Neither group responded to requests for comment Thursday. They can appeal the decision.
A spokesperson for the New York City Law Department praised the judge’s decision.
“We are pleased that the Court rejected the challenge to the Queens Borough-based jail, just as courts have thrown out challenges to jails in the Bronx and Manhattan,” the spokesperson said. “This decision will help the City to finally close Rikers Island and make our jail system smaller, safer, and fairer.”
The proposed structure will have space for 1,150 people, including all women detained in New York City. The city will construct additional jails in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan as it moves to close Rikers Island detention facilities.
The city will also demap 82nd Avenue in order to build a large parking lot, with spaces for local residents and jail staff.
Before the 2019 council vote, the jails plan encountered opposition on multiple fronts. Kew Gardens residents, like the lawsuit plaintiffs, resisted a new detention tower near their homes while “No New Jails” activists said the city should take the billions of dollars earmarked for the detention complexes and instead invest it in communities of color most impacted by mass incarceration.
But supporters of the plan said the new jails were imperative for getting defendants off Rikers Island and fostering safer and more humane conditions for people behind bars.
“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 a commission that recommended closing Rikers Island jails.
“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.”
