Friday, June 17, 2011

$620 million for new jail

From the IBO Blog:

Tough fiscal times have led the Mayor to propose a 20 percent reduction in planned city capital spending. That means less money for affordable housing construction, building new schools, or rehabbing city parks. Because of this, some New Yorkers may be surprised to learn that the Bloomberg Administration is still planning to commit more than $620 million in 2011 through 2015 to the construction of a new jail on Rikers Island, the renovation of jails in Brooklyn and Queens, and the closing of other facilities. What may make this even more surprising is that when the changes are complete, the system will have less capacity than it does now.

While the jail proposal has also been cut back—by nearly $115 million or 16 percent in the May 2011 Capital Commitment Plan compared with the September 2010 plan —some may question the need for it at all. Part of what’s driving the initiative is dilapidated conditions. Some of the structures being used on Rikers were only meant to be temporary. Another reason is to reverse a Giuliani Administration initiative that closed the jails near the borough courthouses and placed all inmates on Rikers Island. That proved to be a costly decision, ratcheting up overtime and other expenses in order to transport inmates to court dates.

As a result, the Department of Correction is going ahead with a jail renovation initiative which includes the construction of a new 1,500 bed jail on Rikers Island and reopening detention facilities in Brooklyn and Queens, in conjunction with reductions in the capacity of a number of other facilities. Because the initiative would remove more beds than are being added from the new construction, the city’s overall jail capacity would be reduced by nearly 3,000 beds.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Most of the extra cost is for the luxury cable channels.

Anonymous said...

include the universal gyms to that cost. we must have convicts with abs.

Anonymous said...

"Another reason is to reverse a Giuliani Administration initiative that closed the jails near the borough courthouses and placed all inmates on Rikers Island'

Yep, another lingering cost due to that vindictive asshole's catering to the real estate lobby who wanted those locations, and such facilities out-of-sight.

His frantic sale of City-owned (and in-rem) build lots in order to preclude new initiatives for Public Housing is another one that left us with only costly alternatives.

In the months leading up to 9-11 he was one of the least popular Mayors in recent history.....People finally woke up.

Mayor Mike said...

"$620 million for new jail"


I'll need a new place when the people find out how much I've skimmed from their tax dollars. Dullards!!!

Yocap said...

The Bronx House of Detention was completely refurbished some year back. Don't know how many million it cost, it was reopened for approximate one year, closed and remained closed until it was torn down to make way for a mall. So, let's see if I got this correct, spend millions, sell cheap and then say you have to spend millions more to build a new jail....makes sense to me.

Anonymous said...

I thought crime was down,that's why b-berg let the nypd manpower to lose 6000 cops? this will be a good summer for funeral directors......