Reduce Rikers' Role: Jail System Readies Move Off the Island

Reduce Rikers' Role

Jail System Readies Move Off the Island

By REUVEN BLAU

The Department of Correction has detailed its comprehensive $650 million plan to build and renovate jails in Brooklyn and The Bronx, which will help cut inmate transportation time to courts, place them closer to their families, and create contingency housing.

NORMAN SEABROOK: No more band-aids. "We believe our plan is better for families, better for justice, and better for public safety," John Antonelli, the DOC's Senior Deputy Commissioner, told the City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services late last month.

Unions, Legal Aid Approve

The plan, which calls for building 4,700 replacement beds, was hailed by the unions representing correction personnel and by the Legal Aid Society's Prisoners' Rights Project, a group that has frequently been at odds with the Correction Department.

"Note the historic occasion," said John Boston, the director of the Prisoners' Rights Project. "But it is the case that moving pretrial detainees off of the inaccessible location of Rikers Island into borough facilities serves a number of important purposes."

JOHN ANTONELLI: Dispersal better for all. Speaking two days after the Council hearing, Correction Commissioner Martin F. Horn said the driving force behind the plan was that the more-than 60 buildings on Rikers Island "have outlasted their usefulness and they have to be replaced."

Most of the facilities on Rikers were built on landfill, which comprises 80 percent of the island, Mr. Antonelli noted. "As a result, water mains break frequently due to ground settlement, and we can lose jail capacity for days at a time," he said. "It is not uncommon for sewage to back up into our facilities."

Say Goodbye to Modulars

The new beds will also enable the department to eliminate the use of temporary trailer dormitories on Rikers Island called modulars, which were installed in the 1980s to accommodate the rapid growth in inmates. "All of the modulars will be decommissioned and demolished," Mr. Horn said. "There will be 4,000 fewer inmates on Rikers Island and 1,200 fewer beds systemwide."

The Correction union leaders all pointed out that many of the modulars are old and run down. "They should be replaced with a sound, concrete, steel building that is capable of not only withstanding destruction by inmates, but also destruction caused by Mother Nature," said Norman Seabrook, the president of the Correction Officers' Benevolent Association.

MARTIN HORN: Rikers an unwieldy hub. Mr. Boston said he was shocked by the deterioration of some of the buildings on Rikers during a recent visit to the island. His submitted testimony noted that the modulars have an average life-span of about five years.

Rikers' Drawbacks

According to Mr. Horn, building new facilities and renovating old complexes will be cheaper than repairing run-down jails on Rikers. "If you talk to people in the construction industry, they will tell you that there is a 15-percent premium on Rikers Island construction," he said. "If there is a security problem anywhere on the island, everything shuts down. Traffic stops."

He also noted that all construction workers on the island must be carefully checked. "We have to make sure they are taking their tools off the island," Mr. Horn remarked. Mr. Seabrook hailed the move to renovate and build new jails. "We can no longer place band-aids on open wounds that require major surgery ... we must make the necessary investments," he testified.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the city has become concerned that a similar natural disaster could damage the one road leading to Rikers Island, stranding thousands of inmates and Correction staff. "Rikers Island sits at the confluence of the East River, the Harlem River and Long Island Sound," Mr. Antonelli testified. "In a Category-2 hurricane, the only bridge to Rikers Island becomes impassible, compromising our ability to evacuate inmates."

Other Concerns

Rikers Island, which is in the direct flight path of LaGuardia Airport and is near fuel farms and other hazardous material sites, is also susceptible to other disasters. "I just think that in this day and age, we shouldn't put all our eggs in one basket, that basket being Rikers Island," Mr. Horn remarked. Rikers presently houses 85 percent of the city's 13,546 inmates.

The renovation and expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention is projected to cost $240 million and will eventually include retail and housing space. The project is expected to take several years to complete.

The expanded jail will be used to help DOC alleviate the temporary loss of capacity next year when the Vernon C. Bain Center, colloquially known as the Barge, must be removed from the water. "The Barge is actually a maritime vessel and subject to Coast Guard regulations," Mr. Horn noted. "It has to literally go to dry dock."

The floating jail, located in Hunts Point in The Bronx, was established in 1992 and must soon be examined by engineers to ensure its structural stability. The 800 inmates currently being housed there will all be transferred to the Brooklyn House of Detention, Mr. Horn said.

Will Build on Dump

The city is working to purchase land at a former dump in the Oak Point section of the South Bronx to build a jail in that location. Details of the plan came shortly after the city closed and sold The Bronx House of Detention to Related Cos., a firm with close ties to Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff. Mr. Horn emphatically denied those connections had anything to do with the deal. "That's absurd," he asserted.

At the Council hearing, Bronx Councilman James Vacca said he was skeptical about several key details of the new jail plan, including how the land would be purchased. Mr. Antonelli said DOC was not directly involved in the procurement process, which is being handled by the city's Economic Development Corporation.

"I would anticipate opposition to this," Mr. Vacca responded. "But I think that your agency is going to have to come forth with a more detailed plan than what we have today."

The new and renovated jails will place inmates closer to courts. Currently, DOC transports over 1,200 inmates to court each day, almost all from Rikers. According to Mr. Antonelli, to transport inmates to courts in The Bronx and Brooklyn, the department requires roughly 50 round trips per day and approximately 230,000 miles a year.

'Expedites Process'

"It will certainly expedite the court process," Mr. Boston testified. "It will certainly disencumber the transportation and traffic problems created by the present arrangement."

The move will also improve families' access to the detainees, "a factor which I think cannot be overlooked," he remarked. "Everyone there is someone's child, someone's parent, someone's sibling, and they need to have access to their families and vice versa."

He hailed the overall plan, but cautioned that there may be some "potential pitfalls," such as elevator problems and other maintenance concerns. Broken elevators have been an issue in the Brooklyn jail, he said, which makes it difficult to get prisoners to necessary programs and creates friction and tension. "It also becomes difficult for staff to get from place to place within the jail in an emergency, potentially threatening the safety of both inmates and staff," he added.

According to Mr. Boston, another concern is that the department will continue to create commands that are too large to efficiently manage. "Complaints to Legal Aid of violence and gang domination have always come disproportionately from the larger Rikers jails," his testimony said. "The difficulties in consistently providing essential services such as medical care have long been concentrated in those jails."