Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to close Rikers Island and replace it with four borough-based jails suffered a major setback this week, following a judge's ruling that the city bypassed the legally-mandated review process for its proposed Lower Manhattan jail.
State Supreme Court Judge John Kelley issued the decision on Monday, siding with local Chinatown residents who filed a lawsuit against the jail's construction.
The project would entail demolishing both towers of the Manhattan Detention Complex ("The Tombs") on 124 White Street and building a larger jail in the same lot. Residents have spent years organizing against the proposal, arguing that the 29 story building would threaten quality of life in their neighborhood.
In his decision, Judge Kelley said the de Blasio administration neglected to take a "hard look" at the potential public health impact of the jail, while pushing through a land-use review before the project's final design had been made public. After changing the location of the site, which was initially slated for 80 Centre Street, the city failed to re-do the scoping and environmental review processes, the judge found.
"The resolutions and approvals thus were arbitrary and capricious, affected by an error of law, and rendered in the absence of proper procedure," Kelley wrote.
The ruling will halt the demolition of the Manhattan Detention Complex, which was already pushed back until next summer. The city plans to appeal the decision, a Law Department spokesperson confirmed.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the decision will likely have major implications for the city's proposed jails in the Bronx and Queens, both of which are currently facing lawsuits from the community. (The proposed Brooklyn jail on Atlantic Avenue has not faced a community lawsuit).
The city used a single land-use procedure for all of its proposed borough-based jails, the source noted, and did not have formal plans finalized when the sites were analyzed for health impacts.
Though the city is required to close Rikers and build the four new jails by 2026, planning documents obtained by Gothamist show that work stretching well into 2027.
Each of the new jails will hold 886 people, bringing the total city jail capacity to 3,544, according to Department of Design and Construction's documents.
As of August, there were 3,972 people in custody in city jails. The jail population has dropped nearly 43 percent in the last year, the result of state bail reform and the push to free detainees who were vulnerable to COVID-19.
Neighbors United Below Canal, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the Chinatown jail, celebrated the ruling in a statement.
"It is immoral and now illegal for the City to move forward on a plan to expand incarceration," said Christopher Marte, co-founder of the community group. "It doesn’t add up fiscally, it is immoral from a justice perspective, and it is
now upheld in Court that the City tried to rush through a poorly-thought out proposal to jail our neighbors and further devastate Chinatown.”
Inquiries to the Mayor's Office were referred back to the Law Department.
