City aims to move 3,000 prisoners from Rikers

The city’s Corrections head honcho would like to reduce the number of prisoners at Rikers by 25 percent by moving the inmates to jails in Brooklyn and the Bronx. In addition, he would like the process to be in the works by the time he - and the Mayor - leave office.
“December 31, 2009. My time frame is to have a spade in the ground by that date,” said Correction and Probation Commissioner Martin F. Horn.
Currently, the northwest Queens facility, located on an East River island that bears its name, houses an estimated 12,000 of the city’s 15,000 prisoners. However, a proposed jail in the South Bronx would hold at least 1,500 inmates, and city officials hope to renovate a Brooklyn facility to house an additional 1,500, Horn said recently at meeting of the United Community Civic Association (UCCA).
“Is it too soon to cheer the removal of 800 plus inmates from our unwelcome neighbor, Rikers Island?” UCCA President Rosemarie Poveromo asked Horn to start the meeting.
Horn responded, “800 is not the number,” explaining that he would prefer if Rikers, which is comprised of 10 separate buildings, house 9,000.
“There is no reason why this community of northwest Queens should have to bear almost all of the burden,” Horn said.
City officials would also like to permanently destroy several of the oldest - and most decrepit - structures on Rikers so that the buildings are never again occupied.
“If we can get the inmates out of there, we will bulldoze [the old buildings],” Horn said.
A long-standing complaint of northwest Queens community members has also been the arrival and departure of some 8,000 employees who staff the jail - the only access point to the island is via the Francis R. Buono Memorial Bridge, which leaves drivers on Hazen Street in Astoria.
Horn said that the number of Rikers workers would decrease if the plan comes to fruition, but many positions would be retained because of security reasons.
The commissioner also shot down complaints about inmates.
“Most of them have never been convicted of a crime,” he said, later adding, “These are your neighbors and children of your neighbors.”
Horn said the only thing that would prevent him for continuing to push for the plans would be a phone call from his “boss” - Mayor Michael Bloomberg - telling him to put on the brakes.
However, both the Bronx and Brooklyn projects, the latter of which would have jail facilities wrapped around a retail center like an “inner tube,” have already been met by fierce opposition from residents, businesses and politicians, as well as corrections unions.
The correction officer’s union would rather the city spend money - including an estimated $375 million to build the Oak Point Detention Center in the Bronx and some $240 million to renovate and double capacity at the Brooklyn location - improving conditions at Rikers.
Moreover, the surrounding communities of Hunts Point and downtown Brooklyn fear that the planned detention centers would curtail local economic growth. Sustainable South Bronx (SSB), an environmental group that filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to see planning documents, is pushing for a recycling center - with between 300 and 500 jobs - to be built instead in the vacant lot.
“Needless to say, there are members of that community who aren’t happy,” Horn said of the planned Bronx facility.
The current owner of the 28-acre site where the Bronx jail would be built is tied up in bankruptcy proceedings, slowing the city’s attempts to negotiate a deal, and SSB recently won their court bid to force the city to explain why the location was chosen - officials have until March 21 to hand over documents clarifying the decision.
To speed up the processes, Horn called on Queens politicians to support both plans, despite opposition from other boroughs.
“I think we are getting closer, and I think we need help,” he said.