Brooklyn Borough Prez Will Hold Hearing On Jail Plans Thursday

DOWNTOWN, BROOKLYN — Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams has scheduled what is likely to be another fraught hearing on a new 40-story jail on Atlantic Avenue, which is part of the city's controversial plan to close Rikers Island.

The borough president is next in line to offer his opinion about the plans as they go through the review process, and will likely be the only definitive stance from local officials after Community Board 2 failed to take a position for or against the proposal during its review last month. The borough president and community board votes are both advisory.

The hearing will be held at 6 p.m. in Brooklyn Borough Hall on Thursday.

It will review all zoning changes needed for the special permit to build the 40-story jail, one of four new prisons in Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to close Rikers Island by 2027 and replace it with a new, borough-based jail system.

In Brooklyn, the proposal includes expanding the Brooklyn Detention Complex at 275 Atlantic Avenue from 815 beds to 1,437 beds. The new detention facility would create 1.2 million gross square feet, including the space for detainees, support space and community or retail space, according to city documents.

The Brooklyn plans also would include changes to some of the surrounding streets, which will be used to take detainees to and from the detention center, which largely holds those who have not been convicted yet but are awaiting trial, to the Brooklyn Central Courts Building on Schermerhorn Street. The city has said it would need to de-map parts of State Street to create pedestrian bridges and tunnels to connect the jail and court building.

So far, meetings on each of the new jails have been packed with protesters who argue that the new borough-based jails are too big for the city's supposed goal of cutting down its jail population.

Brooklyn residents detailed horror stories of Rikers Island at a public hearing in front of the community board in April, contending that these conditions will only continue at the new jails. Many of the same protesters then showed up to Community Board 2's vote about the plans, yelling and chanting so loudly over the discussion and vote, that members essentially ran out of time to take a position on the proposal.

Community Board 2 ultimately shot down its committee's recommendation to accept the plans with a series of conditions, but did not vote on the plan itself. Some members said they would likely submit their own recommendations independently to the borough president to make their thoughts known.