One Brooklyn
July 9, 2019
Contact: Jonah Allon, [email protected]; 929-291-8881
Brooklyn, NY – Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams unveiled his recommendations on the proposed borough-based jail facilities, including the proposed expansion of the existing facility in Brooklyn at 275 Atlantic Avenue, as part of a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) response to applications submitted by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) and the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS). The response was issued following months of dialogue with local stakeholders and community activists, including a public hearing that Borough President Adams hosted on Thursday, June 6th with several hundred attendees.
“We have listened closely to all stakeholders throughout this process, and have put forward a recommendation that balances the needs of the community with the imperative of making our criminal justice system more humane for all, something all sides have agreed is critical. What we are proposing advances the City’s goal of closing Rikers while providing real benefits to the surrounding community. Most importantly, it offers a roadmap for ending the cycle of incarceration that plagues our underinvested communities. We urge the City to adopt these recommendations, and to work in close consultation with the community, so we can move forward in a responsible way,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams.
In his recommendation submitted to the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP), Borough President Adams issued an approval with conditions on the City’s application that designates the proposed site at 275 Atlantic Avenue as the location of the new facility. The approval is conditioned on a maximum of 900 beds in the facility, as well as the formation of a community advisory committee comprised of representatives from the offices of local elected officials, Brooklyn Community Board 2 (CB 2), Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Heights Association, Cobble Hill Association, Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, and other local stakeholders. The committee would meet regularly with the relevant City agencies to provide input on construction, design, and operations of the facility, as a way of ensuring that the City is responsive to community needs.
Borough President Adams issued a disapproval with conditions on the City’s proposed special zoning permit to facilitate the construction of a jail facility. The disapproval is conditioned on several items, including:
• That the maximum height be reduced to 235 feet, and the base height along Atlantic Avenue to 120 feet;
• That the use of ground-floor space be restricted to community cultural uses, instead of retail, at an affordable rent;
• That the entrance/exit of the sally port to the facility be combined with initial parking garage circulation, then further separated within the facility
• That State Street between Boerum Place and Smith Street be converted to a pedestrian plaza with limited vehicle use;
• That the City incorporate environmental features such as passive house design, rain gardens, or others into the facility, and;
• That the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) for the new facility require demolition of comparable capacity at Rikers Island.
Borough President Adams also urged the City in his recommendation to consider reforms that would further reduce the City’s incarcerated population. They would include expanding the supervised release program for non-violent offenders, which allows defendants to await trial at home and be supervised by an assigned social worker. He also encouraged the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) and MOCJ to establish specialized facilities that are close to a hospital with a psychiatric support facility; to achieve this, he recommended dialogue with NYC Health + Hospitals as well as State officials, who could help determine the feasibility of integrating facilities on property associated with the Vital Brooklyn initiative.
Borough President Adams’ recommendations focused heavily on proactive measures to cut off the pipeline to prison, many of which he has advocated for throughout his career in law enforcement and activism in civil rights. For example, he has been very vocal about the high rate of people with learning disabilities such as dyslexia among the City’s incarcerated population. Studies have shown that investing in education programs for people with learning disabilities can reduce recidivism rates. In his recommendation, Borough President Adams emphasized that the City should screen all inmates for learning disabilities and introduce educational programs for all individuals, regardless of age, that is tailored to their needs.
Additionally, as a means to achieve a reduction in recidivism rates, he called for advanced integration of general wellness initiatives for post-release success, such as nutrition education, plant-based diets, and yoga. His recommendation also stresses the importance of investing in early intervention programs and providing educational and economic opportunities that curtail violence in underinvested communities and reduce incarceration. Notably, Borough President Adams called for the New York City Administration for Children’s Services to expand access and utilization of early childhood development interventions, including universal home-visitation programs; for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) and New York City Department of Youth and Community Development to expand the number of afterschool programs and summer youth employment initiatives, and for the City to fully fund the Fair Futures initiative, which would provide full-time life coaches and tutors for current and former foster youth from middle school through age 26.
Borough President Adams’ recommendations will be presented tomorrow at 10:00 AM at a public meeting of the City Planning Commission.
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