BROOKLYN -- Contrary to a widespread impression encouraged by the City Corrections Department that no comprehensive proposal was submitted last year to create a mixed-use and penal complex at the Brooklyn House of Detention site, one most certainly was.

This newspaper has learned that the proposal called for a different approach to handling low-level, non-violent offenders, who constitute the overwhelming population of this facility, while adding 490 units of affordable and market-rate housing, plus retail, all in a stunning physical environment that disguises the existence of a corrections facility.

The proposal was made in response to a request by the City Economic Development Corporation for a mixed-use concept. The concept was submitted last July by a consortium of companies currently developing a major part of the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Urban Renewal Project across the street from the House of Detention.

These companies, Hamlin Ventures, LLC; Times Equities, Inc., and Common Ground Community, received later in the year a letter from EDC saying it had rejected all proposals as “unacceptable.� There has been no further explanation of any kind.

The city asked for expressions of interest to create a new jail facility for 1,500 beds in a 415,000-square-foot facility that includes the existing 50-year-old jail and a mixed-use development around the jail.

The proposers maintain that the city’s practice is “over-reliant� on secure detention and doesn’t need more beds.

Abby Hamlin, principal of Hamlin Ventures, noted that according to the New York City Criminal Justice Agency more than 80 percent of the cases entering arraignment in Brooklyn were for a class A misdemeanor, and 25 percent of these faced class B charges. This means that the vast majority of cases cycling through the courts end with a decision that little or no jail time is warranted.

According to various sources, several states are focusing on developing community-based programs that deal with low-level, nonviolent offenders without locking them up. They have begun to control recidivism through programs that help newly released people find jobs, housing, drug treatment and mental health care.

Hamlin concluded that “redevelopment of the Brooklyn House of Detention provides a unique opportunity to introduce new assumptions into the criminal justice system in New York rather than just build new beds.�

The new plan calls for an eight-story corrections facility facing State Street, called the Re-Entry and Rehabilitation Center (RRC), which would contain 100 beds plus 100 more in a novel “first step housing� program to be developed, owned and managed by Common Ground Community in a contiguous building.

The RRC facility would have capabilities to provide health, financial, educational and employment assistance for detainees as well as visiting rooms for meetings with lawyers and their families. The whole atmosphere of the facility would be to try to help detainees, stressing the concept of corrections, rather than just a necessary imprisonment process.

The mixed-use components would surround the RRC in three separate buildings. One would be called Liberty House, facing Boerum Place, and would provide 300 supportive housing units, 100 for the RRC use. A second building, called State House, 19 stories tall, would provide 260 rental units, about 130 for low- and middle-income families. A third unit, facing Atlantic Avenue, would consist of 65 market rate condos. There would be selective retail along Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Place and Smith Street that would not include court-related functions or fast food outlets.

The entire complex would be called Atlantic Gateway and have 616,000 square feet of space, plus 24,410 square feet for retail.

Hamlin, who stressed the developers’ desire to have a dialogue with Corrections and EDC on this proposal, said a question that needs to be answered is this:

“Is there no better way to meet the need of the Department of Corrections for jail beds, improve services to detainees and their families, recognize the concerns of the community, and leverage this prime location for additional public benefit?�

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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