Bronx community groups and elected officials said they were blindsided by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement Wednesday of a new jail slated for Mott Haven.
And they’re vowing to fight the plans.
Mychal Johnson, a Mott Haven resident of 15 years and founding member of the resident coalition South Bronx Unite, said it is unfair that of the four new locations for the detention facilities slated to replace Rikers Island, the Bronx site is the only one that will be created anew without modifying existing jails.
The borough is already home to two jails, the Vernon C. Bain Center and the Horizon Juvenile Center, and they contribute to some of the negative connotations about the Bronx, he said.
“We understand the need to close Rikers, but it would put another strain in our community,” he said.
The new facility would go up at the NYPD Tow Pound at 320 Concord Ave. The mayor’s plan calls for suspects to also be sent to existing facilities that would undergo renovations in TriBeCa, Kew Gardens and Downtown Brooklyn, according to the plans.
Johnson said there is no reason the Bronx’s other facilities couldn’t receive the upgrades.
Ruben Austria, the executive director of the Mott Haven-based Community Connections for Youth, which works to create alternative-to-incarceration programs for teens and children, said it was puzzling that the mayor’s office didn’t consult residents before making its proposal.
His group has worked to develop solutions for lowering the jail population, and would have given insight to achieving a better solution, he said.
“With a little creativity, and a little political will to bring the [jail] numbers down further, you can use the old facility,” he said.
The mayor said there will be meetings that allow community members to give input on the Rikers alternative facilities proposal, and that the city will take recommendations from community boards, borough presidents and other officials.
“The site in the Bronx is a site owned by the City of New York,” de Blasio said Wednesday during the news conference announcing the plan. “It is a very smart site in terms of its closeness to the courthouses. There is going to be a full community process, but let’s be clear, we’re going to talk to everyone, we’re going to listen to everyone, we’re going to try in every way possible address community needs and address other benefits that communities need.”
Johnson said his group is mulling its options, but plan to remain vocal as the process moves forward. He was skeptical that the city would take the community’s concerns seriously, and the borough’s elected officials indicated they were just as worried about the proposal.
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. criticized the lack of outreach by the mayor, and called for more transparency as the detention center plans develop.
“Presenting the selection of this site as a fait accompli undermines the entire process, and has the potential to derail necessary criminal justice reform,” he said in a statement.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson apologized to Diaz during the news conference.
“We have to do a better job at keeping him in the loop and the local community boards, so we’re going to ensure that it’s a robust, meaningful, community engagement process,” he said.
