Brooklyn On 40-Story Jail: 'If You Build It They Will Fill It'

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK -- Brooklyn residents detailed horror stories of life inside Rikers Island during a fraught public hearing Thursday night to discuss Mayor Bill de Blasio's plans to shut down the jail complex and replace it with four, larger borough-based prisons.

Dozens of locals took to the microphone to present a unified message that the 40-story, 1,437-bed jail proposed for 275 Atlantic Ave. was much too big for a city actively working to cut down its population of incarcerated people.

"If you build it, they will fill it," the crowd chanted between speakers. This message was echoed by City Councilman Stephen Levin, Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon and state Senator Velmanette Montgomery.

“We’re asking for real reform not just brick and mortar," Montgomery told representatives from the Mayor's administration.

“The least you can do is create a plan that includes some reform on how you treat people.”

But this is exactly why city officials argue the new jails — with modern design, inmate programming space and proximity to public transit to make it easier for family to visit — must be built.

"The borough facilities have little programming space, the rooms are very small," said Dana Kaplan, Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Initiatives.

"[The plan will] replace existing facilities with new detention facilities that have better program, recreation and visitation space."

Current plans call shuttering the eight-jail complex on Rikers Island and Bronx jail barge by 2027 and expanding capacity of holding facilities in Brooklyn, The Bronx, Manhattan and Queens.

In Brooklyn, the city would need to rezone the block bordered by Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Place, State and Smith streets to allow for a 395-foot tall tower, 292 parking spaces, and retail and community space along Atlantic Avenue.

The sweeping height and the large number of beds outraged locals who questioned why the city would build more, larger prisons as legislators work to pass law — including bail, discovery and speedy trial reforms — to decrease the city's jail population.

"Why are we not waiting to see the impact of these new reforms?" asked Albert Saint Jean, of the Black Alliance For Just Immigration. "Your first go-to is create jails and not invest in the community."

Saint Jean turned to the crowd. "They're playing three card monte with you," he said.

Residents who live near the jail also questioned the effect a larger complex would have on local infrastructure and traffic, noting the city is mounting massive reconstruction of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway just five blocks away.

Peter Bray, of the Brooklyn Heights Association, read the community group's position statement which details numerous concerns with the decision to build four large structures in four boroughs instead of numerous, smaller jails in five.

"In a city as diverse as New York City, the City’s one-size-fits-all approach lacks a firm rationale other than political expediency," said Bray.

"More troubling, it undermines the primary objective of creating better and safer jails and ignores the concentrated impact that the new jails will have on their communities in which they are situated."

Many of the people who testified had spent time incarcerated in Rikers Island and shared their experiences to show how large prisons change the lives of people forced to inhabit them.