After Morning Rally on Courthouse Steps, Local Pols Continue to Fight City’s Plan
By Ryan Thompson
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
ADAMS STREET — Hours after local politicians held a rally yesterday morning on the steps of the state Supreme Court, the controversial “Stop BHOD” case went before a Brooklyn judge to determine the legality of the planned reopening and expansion of a nearby jail.
Local politicians and a Brooklyn community group known as “Stop BHOD,” as in “Stop Brooklyn House of Detention,” sued the city late last year to halt the planned renovations and expansion of the Brooklyn jail, which has remained largely dormant over recent years.
“This is a closed prison,” said lead attorney for the petitioners, Randy Mastro. “There was zero maximum capacity.”
In response to the city’s claims that the jail has been consistently used over the years, Mastro cited numerous city and state officials as having admitted that the jail was “closed.”
The city, however, maintains that the jail has always been used, despite not housing prisoners overnight for the last five and a half years, and that the so-called “closing” of the Brooklyn Detention Center in 2003 was just temporary.
“‘Closed’ doesn’t mean permanently closed,” corporation counsel told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Sylvia Hinds-Radix at yesterday’s hearing. Therefore, the city has the right to reopen the facility, without having to go through many of the legal hurdles and environmental assessments that it would otherwise, city attorneys argued.
“There is a jail in Downtown Brooklyn. It exists. It has existed for 50 years,” corporation counsel said, arguing that the House of Detention has been used all that time albeit except for a small amount of time (five and half years) to not house prisoners. “We need it.”
The Brooklyn Detention Complex, as it is also called, is located on Atlantic Avenue, between Smith Street and Boerum Place, which turns into Adams Street. The lawsuit was filed after the Department of Correction transferred a work detail of 30 prisoners into the jail, becoming the first prisoners to stay there overnight since 2003.
The lawsuit alleges that the city acted inappropriately by transferring inmates into the jail without informing the public of the planned renovation.
“Government decision-making should not be conducted like a covert operation,” the lawsuit states. “…any attempt to ‘reopen’ the facility now — in anticipation of a massive expansion later — [is] illegal and impermissible.”
The suit also alleges that the city broke the law by not submitting its plan to an environmental impact analysis.
Much of the petitioners’ argument hinges on whether the city simply wants to reopen the jail, or whether the city wants to jointly reopen and expand the jail. The latter requires much more notice and legal scrutiny and analysis.
The city maintains the two phases are separate.
“The reopening is not dependent on the expansion,” corporation counsel argued in court.
But the plaintiffs disagree and contend that the two are linked.
“You can’t divorce the one from the other,” Mastro told the judge.
Corporation counsel actually seemed to make the mistake of conceding that point to Mastro at one point in the city’s argument yesterday — something that Justice Hinds-Radix made note of, as City Comptroller William Thompson and City Councilwoman Letitia James chuckled in the courtroom.
Thompson and James (D-Fort Greene, Prospect Heights) are two of the petitioners who joined Stop BHOD, along with City Councilman David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO) and state Sen. Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn).
Mastro, who represents the petitioners, was formerly the deputy mayor of New York City. He also represents James and Thompson and other politicians in the pending lawsuit to stop the mayor’s third-term bill.
The controversial Brooklyn Detention Center was expected to receive a budgeted $440 million for renovations and expansion, which would double the jail’s capacity. The plan has continued to be met by outcry among local Brooklynites and neighborhood associations, who believe that returning the jail to full use would be damaging to the local community.
“This is a closed prison,” Mastro said. “Five years later, you have a transformed neighborhood.”
Borough President Marty Markowitz agreed.
“It is my understanding that the DOC is within its right to reopen the HOD and that it also intends to increase capacity due to current limitations on Rikers Island,” Markowitz said in a statement yesterday. “However, I vehemently oppose the envisioned expansion. I believe that a larger facility would be a burden to neighborhood residents, and would not be an asset to the area’s evolution as a modern gateway into Downtown Brooklyn.”
Justice Hinds-Radix ordered the attorneys on both sides to submit additional legal memoranda and court papers, due before Feb. 11, and adjourned the matter for a later decision. The city has agreed not to move in any new overnight prisoners in the meantime.
Anti-Jail Pols Rally on Supreme Court Steps: A Commentary
There aren't too many political rallies permitted on the steps of the State Supreme Court building, but when the participants include the city comptroller, two members of the City Council, a state senator and a host of community leaders, official eyes cannot look the other way.
This was the situation Tuesday morning when about 75 people gathered there to protest plans to re-open and expand the 1960s-era Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue once again; and to take note that the first legal action against reopening the jail would be heard that afternoon in court.
These events are the latest in a chain of events that started a few ago when the city announced somewhat quietly that it planned not only to reopen the facility, which had been closed in 2003, but also planned to double its size.
As information slowly became known, it became obvious that a second building, taller than the current structure, would need to be built. In effect, the new complex would house about 1,500 transient prisoners.
At first, the opposition was confined to groups representing the area around Atlantic Avenue. However, it then expanded significantly to include residential areas in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Downtown.
After that, political opposition, which included the efforts of all the elected officials representing the general area, became very intense. A lawyer familiar with jail-related issues, former deputy mayor Randy Mastro, was hired. And when the city tried to reopen the jail a few weeks ago, all opponents went to court.
At the Tuesday rally, no new arguments were made, but a passer-by who didn’t know the details asked after comments were made: "Is that true?"
What was expressed was that this part of town has no reason for a jail; that demographics have changed in the last 20 years, making a jail here an unwelcome blot; that spending $440 million on something not needed or wanted at this time is "fiscal foolishness"; and that the city is not planning to use required public review measures.
By Dennis Holt
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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