Rikers 2.0 in Brooklyn? Local Leader Says 'A Community Is No Place for a Prison'

Pictured: Rikers Island between Queens and the Bronx. Photo by Tim Rodenburg

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — The chronic problems plaguing New York City's notorious Rikers Island prison complex have lead activists and politicians alike to call for the facility's all-out closure in recent months.

But in the process of considering this possibility, the NYC Mayor's Office has also apparently been considering building brand-new jails to replace the old.

A March report in DNAinfo revealed Bill De Blasio's administration had identified several possible locations for new jails — including the 14-acre site of Greenpoint's former Brooklyn Union Gas Co., located at 287 Maspeth Ave., near the border with Williamsburg and Bushwick.

De Blasio has since tried to distance himself from the report.

That hasn't stopped another local politician, though, from preemptively railing against the relocation-to-be.

In a recent op-ed published by the Brooklyn Eagle, State Sen. Martin Malavé Dilan, who represents parts of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, wrote that he was "100 percent against" building a new jail in Greenpoint.

"Williamsburg, and the surrounding Greenpoint community, prides itself on being a safe, tight-knit community... and a community is no place for a prison," he wrote.

According to Dilan, the area in question is "already overburdened by temporary shelter placements, a multitude of trash transfer sites and with them truck traffic and air quality issues, and one of the most notoriously toxic superfund sites in America."

Gothamist has written extensively, too, about underground contamination at the site.

"We should be looking to nurture small business and foster industry and creativity," Dilan wrote last week. "A prison doesn’t serve these interests; it hinders them."

Read the Senator's full op-ed in the Brooklyn Eagle.