Community Board 9 is calling on newly elected City Council members to revisit plans for the proposed closing of Rikers Island and the switch to borough-based jails.
“We figured that now, with 26 new City Council members, that it would be time to hopefully bring to their attention what our feelings are,” Community Board 9 President Kenichi Wilson told the Chronicle.
The group is supporting a revised plan from Bialosky New York, an architectural firm based out of Manhattan, which calls for a completely new, more “humane” and cost-effective complex to be built on the existing island.
The plan was originally presented at a 2019 press conference in Chinatown held in opposition to the proposed jail there.
Rallies at that same site resumed on Feb. 6 as Lower Manhattan residents gathered to protest the destruction of the current jail there for a new and bigger site.
Around the same time, Community Board 9’s land use chair, Sylvia Hack, was working to track the original proposal down and the board received a “new and improved version,” CB 9 District Manager James McClelland said.
In early February, Wilson sent a letter to elected officials in the area.
“The proposed borough-based jails are towers offering no outdoor recreation spaces for the incarcerated and, should there be a reason to empty a tower building, no viable plan exists to safely evacuate nearly a thousand detainees plus security and support staff,” he wrote.
“If we are concerned about the incarcerated population and the possibility of really helping them with the reasons that landed them in jail, then we should seriously look at this new, alternative option to four huge monoliths constructed in densely populated areas of the city,” the letter continues.
The plan of transitioning from Rikers to borough-based jails, begun under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, calls for the Queens location to be erected in place of the old lockup near Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.
The Adams administration’s plan for Rikers remains unclear.
The plan for a “reconceived Rikers” includes outdoor space, gyms, art, music and science programs and skills-training programs. Another focus is to create low-rise buildings instead of the current towering structures.
According to Wilson’s letter, the plan would almost halve the price of building four new jails and prevent the “environmental and negative impacts” on surrounding communities.”
10 comments:
Sounds good to me.
Tell me I'm dreaming....
"The plan for a 'reconceived Rikers' includes outdoor space, gyms, art, music and science programs and skills-training programs."
Serving time in this hypothetical Rikers will be better than being free in New York City!
If Deblasio and co. had pushed for a new jail on Rikers in the first place, no one would have objected, it would be half built by now, and prisioners would have to spend less time in the hellhole that the current prision is.
This was never about making life less terrible for the imprisoned, and always about making life more miserable for everyone else.
Here's an even better idea. Deport all the illegals who are incarcerated, tighten our borders and reinstate the death penalty. Criminals will not stop unless there are consequences for their actions. This will certainly help out with about half of the criminals. Then keep rikers and make it a bit more "friendly" for those Criminals who actually do want to change. Screw their family members who want to visit them for now. Do they really need family members? I think they are better off by themselves trying to reflect on why they did what they did and try to focus more on their own lives.
All this "Innocent until proven guilty" stuff is for bleeding heart liberals. If a cop and or "Fake News" say you're guilty, then you're guilty.
Prove me wrong ...
DemoRats will not stop unless there are consequences for their actions at the voting booth.
The Sheep in NY that keep voting blue no matter who need to wake up.
They still need to make room for the Trump Turd Family and their toilet bowls.
"DemoRats will not stop" Never...
It's because these brainwashed people can never admit they were wrong. They just double down and things go more-wrong. The elected Dems and Rinos care for nothing Americans have to go through : They live in a safe bubble, all their expenses are paid for and are completely disconnected from the real cost of life. And no, being senile doesn't explain nor justify any of this. And still they won't concede that Voting for Leftoids and Boe Hiden was the biggest mistake in U.S. History.
@""DemoRats will not stop" Never...
It's because these brainwashed people can never admit they were wrong."
Says a brainwashed bozo who gets her/his/its news from Twitter/YouTube and Tucker Putin.
Go look in the mirror before you call anyone but your self and fellow TrumpTurds brainwashed.
And no. I don't watch CNN or MSNBC.
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