Hundreds Clash At Public Hearing On Kew Gardens Jail Plan

KEW GARDENS, QUEENS — Hundreds of Queens residents and criminal justice advocates clashed at a public hearing Wednesday about the city’s plan to build one of four new jails in Kew Gardens.

All speakers during the three-and-a-half-hour hearing in Queens Borough Hall said they backed Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to close the detention facilities that currently stand on Rikers Island.

They diverged on what should happen next.

Members of advocacy group No New Jails NYC called on the city to close Rikers and not build any of the four planned replacement jails in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.

"A cage is a cage — there’s no such thing as humane incarceration," said one speaker, a CUNY Queens College teacher. "If the city builds these new jails, they will find a way to fill them."

Judge Greg Lasak, a candidate in the Queens district attorney race this summer, said the city should instead build new jails on Rikers Island. Others pleaded with the community board to vote yes to the Kew Gardens jail — but with conditions, such as a smaller size.

Many also expressed skepticism of the city's promise to close the jails on Rikers, the city's insistence that it has the funds to build four new jails, and of a new jail run by the same agency, the NYC Department of Corrections.

Under the city's current proposal, jails on Rikers would close in 2027, after construction on the four new jails is complete and after de Blasio has left office.

"We've already closed one of the facilities on Rikers Island, in summer of last year," Dana Kaplan, deputy director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, told Patch after the hearing Wednesday. "Obviously the entire purpose of this is to have a smaller justice system that will allow the closure of Rikers."

"I understand the concern that it goes beyond this administration," Kaplan added. "This is something that's supported by the Council, by the mayor, that elected officials across the city and all of the different organizations here have demonstrated that the purpose of this is to close Rikers. That's the evidence that we will be able to see this closure."

Hundreds of speakers addressed a standing-room-only crowd throughout the night, with remarks often punctuated by protest chants or cries of disapproval. About 340 people attended the hearing, according to Alacia Lauer, a spokeswoman in the mayor's office.

Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and City Council Member Karen Koslowitz, who represents Kew Gardens, did not attend the hearing but sent representatives from their office, according to their spokespeople.

"I’m here tonight to warn you," said south Jamaica resident Edwin Santana, who said he spent time in Rikers. "Shut down Rikers Island now, or continue to perpetuate the idea that there’s nothing wrong with our criminal justice system, when there is."

Audience chants “Close Rikers now!” and “No new jails!”@nonewjails_nyc @CLOSErikers pic.twitter.com/eT6fgAHcZM
— Maya Kaufman (@mayakauf) April 24, 2019

The hearing at Queens Borough Hall was a rare chance for the public to openly address the individuals overseeing the jail plan. Discussions of the Kew Gardens jail have largely happened behind closed doors, among a select group of stakeholders known as the neighborhood advisory committee, or in private meetings.

De Blasio met privately with Kew Gardens and Briarwood residents last month to assuage their concerns about the jail, promising he would compensate the community for the jail's incursion, according to a recording obtained by Patch.

The community board's April 24 hearing was the first in a series of public hearings that will accompany the city's review of the four jail plans. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, the City Planning Commission and the City Council will all review the Kew Gardens jail proposal as part of the process, known as ULURP.

See the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice's full presentation on the Kew Gardens jail: