David Yassky

 

Downtown Mobilizes To Stop Jail Expansion

By DENNIS HOLT Published June 23, 2008

Upcoming Meeting To Feature Yassky, Other Elected Officials

BROOKLYN — The challenge to the city proposal’s to double the size of the Brooklyn House of Detention by building a second building comparable to the existing one has intensified and is becoming a comprehensive political issue.

On Thursday, June 26, City Councilman David Yassky will host a press conference at 12:30 p.m. at the House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue to protest the city plan. He is expected to be joined by several other elected officials including Councilman Bill de Blasio and city Comptroller William Thompson. Although elected officials have voiced opposition to the jail proposal before, this press event is the first overt political step. It is anticipated that comments, and perhaps proposals will be made about an existing $500 million capital line in the city budget to build the jail expansion.

The House of Detention was closed in 2003 and is still closed, with prisoners being transferred to Rikers Island. This effort failed because of conditions there and because the city did not invest money to improve them.

The current Brooklyn facility has a capacity of more than 700 beds, and the new proposal would enlarge that capacity to about 1,500 beds. A building about the size of the current facility will need to be built.

Community opposition has been building for more than a year. A group calling itself the Stakeholders Group has existed for some time. It is composed of the Boerum Hill Association, the Cobble Hill Association, the Atlantic Avenue LDC, the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association and tenants from some of the new apartment complexes in the area.

Last week, a new group was formed, largely, but no means entirely from new homeowners on State Street in Boerum Hill. A meeting was held on Saturday, June 14, and by Sunday afternoon storefronts all over Smith Street, Court Street and Atlantic Avenue were festooned by stark posters featuring the command “Stop the Jail.”

The more than 30 people attending this meeting were divided into teams that then canvassed the neighborhood, both commercial and residential buildings and did so. Calling themselves Stop the House of Detention, the constituency includes more than just homeowners.

One of them is Jim Walden who is a member of the Manhattan law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. This firm went to court to stop a similar plan to build a new house of detention in the Bronx at Oak Hill. That effort was a success.

One of the issues this group is focusing on is the city’s decision that it does not have to go through the city land use review process to double the size of the jail. If nothing changes, this clearly will become an actionable issue.

The new group has created a new web site known as www.stopbhod.org. “BHOD” means, of course, Brooklyn House of Detention.

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