Probation Chief: ‘This Is the Last Place They Would Ever Commit a Crime’
SAINT ANN’S PARENTS VOW TO TAKE ACTION
By Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS -- The activities of the busy Downtown Brooklyn Court system have a way of leaking into the nearby residential neighborhoods.
Not only is the Brooklyn House of Detention looking to expand in Boerum Hill, but now a federal probation office is set to open next month at 147 Pierrepont St. (One Pierrepont Plaza) in Brooklyn Heights, the same building that houses middle and high school classrooms and a computer center for the prestigious Saint Ann’s School.
Plans for the probation office were first reported by Brownstoner on Friday, and spurred a flurry of e-mail activity between parents and community leaders who are concerned about the proximity of federal criminals to school children.
"From the point of view of a parent, this is obviously a terrible idea," said Hillary Richard, the mother of two children who attend Saint Ann's. "I just heard about it and already I've gotten several emails from other parents clamoring to know what on earth is going on.
"It doesn't take a sociologist or an urban planner to know it's a terrible idea to have a parole facility right next to a school,” said Richard. “It's safe to say that parents will all be taking action . . . Believe me, we're not going to sit back and watch this happen.”
Dr. Lawrence S. Weiss, the headmaster of Saint Ann’s School, told the Brooklyn Eagle Friday, “The position of Saint Ann’s School is to assess, and to protect to the greatest possible extent, the safety interests of our students.”
“We had not been apprised of this. It was only in the last few days that we became aware of it,” he said. “I don’t know if anything can be done. Parents as individuals are exploring all kinds of possibilities, and as a school we are also.”
Probation Office Has Been in Heights For Decades
The new probation office is set to open on August 25, about a week before school comes back in session for Saint Ann’s.
“I understand the parents’ concerns, but once they know the facts, I think those fears will be mitigated,” said Tony Garoppolo, the chief probation officer for the Eastern District of New York federal court. In an interview Friday, Garoppolo said he had already placed a call to Headmaster Weiss in hopes of setting up a meeting with parents to answer all their questions.
Garoppolo says the last place convicts are likely to misbehave is at their probation office. “[The office] has been in the Heights forever,” says Garoppolo, who is also a resident of the neighborhood. “I’m invested in the Heights as well,” he says. “Not one crime has ever been committed by one of our offenders in the Heights area. This is the last place they will ever commit a crime – they commit new crimes, but not here. They’re not that stupid.”
The probation office has been in the area since the 1930s, says Garoppolo. “We have functioned so smoothly here, that most residents have never even known we’re here,” he added.
Whereas probation offices are often in courthouses, due to space constraints the probation office for New York’s Eastern District has been in commercial spaces in Brooklyn Heights since the 1970s, says Garoppolo. “We’ve always been in close proximity to Saint Ann’s and Packer,” he says. Packer Collegiate Institute is another private, K-12 school in Brooklyn Heights.
After being headquartered at 175 Remsen St. and 189 Montague St., the probation office moved to 75 Clinton St. in 1988 with additional office space at 111 Livingston. These two offices will close when they are combined and move into One Pierrepont Plaza.
“I’m not alarmed,” said Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association. “As long as the office has occupied 75 Clinton St., it’s been invisible. Nothing has ever happened outside there. And my two children went to Packer nearby.
I think that parents should really listen to [the Probation office] before they mobilize. The idea is much more frightening that what takes place,” she said.
Additionally, Garoppolo pointed out that “offenders have been going in to [One Pierrepont Plaza] for years,” since it served as offices for the US Attorney, which are now in the Post Office building on Cadman Plaza East.
Dr. Weiss said that Saint Ann’s had been aware that the U.S. Attorney had been in the Pierrepont Street building, “and a space directly across from our lower school had active investigations going on all the time, so this is not exactly new. But we are actively interested in the awareness of [the new probation office] and its ramifications.”
The probation office will serve about 1,700 offenders, not all of whom visit the office, but are served “out in the field.” Anywhere from five to 150 offenders could be visiting the office on a given day, said Garoppolo.
What Types of Probationers Will Be There?
For the most part, the offenders have committed white collar crimes, “fraud, money laundering, environmental crimes, copyright infringement, high-end drug dealing,” says Garoppolo. These are not drug dealers “on the corner selling to kids,” he says, but people who were involved in “high level, wholesale distribution.”
The probation office will also serve sex offenders, says Garoppolo. The sex crimes are specifically related to the use of computers to download and exchange child pornography – a federal crime. “Most of our offenders have committed no violent offenses,” he says.
“We rarely deal with murderers,” he says, “though there may be a small number who have been involved in a conspiracy to commit murder,” since the probation office deals with members of organized crime. Murderers convicted in federal court “are sentenced to life, or death,” he says, and would rarely be a part of the probation system.
Garoppolo clarified that there is no parole in the federal system. The offenders that the probation office deals with are on “supervised release” after a completed prison term, or on community supervision in lieu of imprisonment.
Hillary Richard does not take comfort in the distinction of white collar crime. “On balance, no matter what kind of criminals they are – nice or not nice, white collar or blue collar – this is not the right place for a parole facility, right next to a school,” she says.
The new probation office will occupy part of the ground floor, part of the 16th floor and the entire 19th floor of One Pierrepont Plaza. Offenders will only be on the ground floor in secure interview rooms, says Garoppolo. Guards will stand just inside the entrance, which will be on Pierrepont Street and separate from the school entrance, and all those entering will pass through metal detection.
“There has never been, and we would never allow loitering in front of the office. If it ever became an issue we would deal with it swiftly,” said Garoppolo.
When asked if Saint Ann’s was considering hiring extra security guards, Headmaster Weiss said, “The school will do whatever needs to be done to protect the students. If we need to hire extra security, we’ll do it. But we really want to be prepared for maximum cooperation and maximum coordination with the Agency. We’re actively involved in trying to assess this and get the best possible outcome.”
10-Year Lease
According to Robert Perris, district manager of Community Board 2, the probation office has signed a 10-year lease for the space. It is owned by Forest City Ratner, who Garoppolo says, “did their due diligence in checking us out. They met with our officers, looked at our current space and had about 100 questions for me. They realized that [for the neighborhood] it wouldn’t be any different from having the US Attorney’s office there.”
Initially, there were plans to expand the probation offices at 75 Clinton St., but negotiations fell through with a new landlord, who Garoppolo believes wants to convert the building to condos.
The probation office was unable to be housed in the new federal courthouse on Cadman Plaza East, Garoppolo says, because it ended up being smaller that originally planned.
“The office has to be near Eastern District Court and it has to be near the US Attorney’s office, who we transact business with everyday,” says Garoppolo. “It’s not easy. Most office space in the Heights is small. Pierrepont Plaza is one of the few that can house a larger operation.”
Garoppolo pointed out that between the DA’s office and all its associated services near the neighborhood, there could be violent offenders “eating at Five Guys Burger and Fries next to Saint Ann’s kids after school.”
The offenders that come to Federal probation office are a “better class of criminal” he said, and they usually want to get as far away from their probation office as they can.
-- additional reporting by Mary Frost
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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