NYC Picks Firm To Design Jails That Will Replace Rikers Island

NEW YORK, NY — A New York City-based architecture firm will lead a study of potential locations for jails to replace the infamous Rikers Island complex, city officials said Friday. City agencies signed a $7.5 million contract Tuesday with the planning firm Perkins Eastman to design the jails that will house inmates after Rikers Island closes.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans last year to close Rikers Island and replace them with smaller jails around the city. Perkins Eastman's 10-month study will evaluate existing city jails in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens and find other spots, likely in the Bronx, where a new jail could go.

The firm will also plan renovations of those three jails to make them better for incarcerated people, visitors and correction staff, the contract says. The study will also evaluate how to move the Department of Corrections' food, laundry and transportation operations off Rikers Island.

The contract is a step toward the first concrete plans for the new jails de Blasio promised in June. Designing them will involve "robust" community outreach, including meetings with neighborhood residents and surveys of jail officers, attorneys, formerly incarcerated people and their families, city officials said.

"The physical expressions of what jails look like, where they’re located, and what happens inside of them will determine what kind of system we’ll have, and it’s critical that we’re thinking about jails not as places that are far away on islands and hard to get to, but as part of the ebb and flow of a neighborhood," Elizabeth Glazer, the director of the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, said in a statement.

City officials have argued smaller jails will be safer and give inmates better access to the courts where their criminal cases are being heard. Reformers have long said Rikers Island's remote location and sheer size feed a culture of violence there and inhibit people accused of crimes from defending themselves in court.

Perkins Eastman was among four firms that responded to the city's November request for proposals for a study of Rikers Island's closure. The company also planned several infrastructure and construction projects for the city in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.

The contract with Perkins Eastman emphasizes the repurposing of the existing detention centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, where most inmates wait for court appearances or transportation to Rikers. The firm will focus on the Bronx when looking for sites to build new jails.

Perkins Eastman will work with other firms known for their progressive approaches to community engagement and jail design and services, city officials said. Among them is the design firm RicciGreen Associates, which designed the Orange County Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley with an emphasis on education and mental health services for inmates.

Brandon J. Holmes, who leads the advocacy group JustLeadershipUSA's close-Rikers campaign, said the new jails should have as few beds as possible and prioritize education, health and other support services. Input from "directly impacted communities" will be crucial to Perkins Eastman's study, he said.

"People who have been caged at Rikers, their loved ones, and those who support them know that we must reimagine and redefine our current understanding of detention facilities," Holmes said in a statement.

De Blasio has pledged not to open a new jail in Staten Island. People awaiting trial in that borough's courts are detained at the 61-year-old Brooklyn Detention Complex. The Queens Detention Complex closed in 2002, but City Council members from the borough support reopening it under de Blasio's plan.

Holmes said de Blasio should "look past the political cowardice" and propose a jail location for Staten Island.

De Blasio has touted the city's declining jails popuation, which fell below 9,000 last month. The Department of Correction plans to close the first Rikers Island jail, the George Motchan Detention Center, by this summer.

Councilman Keith Powers (D-Manhattan), who leads the Committee on Criminal Justice, said the city needs to move quickly to close Rikers Island once Perkins Eastman's study is complete.

"While this phase was awarded earlier than expected, it is imperative that a 10-month study does not hold up the earliest possible closure of Rikers Island," Powers said in a statement. "It’s my duty to ensure that the administration does everything it can to get Rikers closed quickly, safely, and responsibly."

This story has been updated with comment from JustLeadershipUSA and Councilman Keith Powers.

(Lead image: People walk by the entrance to Rikers Island in March 2017. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)