Plan to banish jails from Rikers faces little opposition
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A member of the #CloseRikers campaign holds a sign at an April public hearing on a plan to build four new jails that attracted hundreds of attendees and significant backlash. In contrast, a related plan to close the jails on Rikers by 2026 has faced little opposition. Eagle file photo by Jonathan Sperling.
By Rachel Vick
The city’s unprecedented land use plan to build four new borough-based jails in an effort to close Rikers Island detention facilities prompted vehement opposition from local communities — particularly around the site of the proposed jail tower in Kew Gardens — before it ultimately passed.
But the city’s related plan to banish jails from Rikers Island by 2026? It’s been relatively smooth sailing.
After Queens Community Board 1 voted unanimously in favor of a map change that would eliminate jails from Rikers — a Jan. 21 vote that elicited an ovation from members and attendees — Borough Hall hosted a public hearing on the proposal, the next step in the city’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The comments factor into the borough president’s advisory recommendation.
Only a handful of community members attended the meeting, in contrast to the marathon public sessions that led up to the City Council vote in favor of the borough-based jail plan.
Dana Kaplan, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, said the city proposed the map change plan to eliminate jails in response to community concerns and to ensure lasting change after Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves office and a new mayor takes over.
Kaplan said the city also listened to local concerns and adjusted the borough-based jail plan by decreasing the square footage and lowering jail heights. A “Point of Agreement” document included in the plan includes the promise of continued community engagement.
Former prosecutor James Quinn, a candidate for Queens borough president, was the only speaker who opposed the plan to Close Rikers jails at a public hearing Thursday. Eagle photo by Rachel Vick.
“I think it’s important for us to share details of what’s happened to date. Not only have we heard concerns but I think that the community engagement that we've done over the last year and half the intention has been to be very responsive to concerns.”
Nevertheless, Acting Borough President Sharon Lee said she was concerned with signing a “blank check,” placing faith in a process without any specifics or “definitive outline” of public engagement plans.
“There is no question of the intent by the mayor's leadership, by the city council’s leadership, in terms of the commitment to a more humane system, to a better system,” Lee said. “This is not an indictment of your intent.”
Lee will make an advisory recommendation on the plan, the next phase of the ULURP process.
Only one speaker explicitly spoke out against the plan to close Rikers jails. James Quinn, a longtime top prosecutor in the Queens district attorney’s office for 42 years who resigned at the end of last year, called the plan a “political move.” Quinn is running in the special election for Queens borough president.
“The new bail laws that were passed were intended to reduce the incarcerated population, and after decades of successfully reducing crime, crime in New York City isn't going down, it’s on the rise,” Quinn said. “What if the city ultimately builds 3,600 jail cells and they find that they have to house 5,000 inmates?”
The city’s plan for closing Rikers Island jails and building four new detention facilities — one each in every borough but Staten Island — hinges on the city’s ability to reduce the jail population to about 3,300 detainees by 2026, the year the new jails are set to open.
The city will demolish the dormant Queens Detention Center behind the criminal courthouse and construct a new 195-foot tall tower with capacity for 1,150 detainees. The Queens jail will specifically detain all women incarcerated in New York City in a separate unit. Men will also be detained in Queens.
