The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The city has preliminarily selected the 28-acre Oak Point site in the Hunts Point neighborhood, and has already budgeted $375 million for the new facility. However, local residents are organizing against its construction. "This city has a history of making decisions in the Bronx without the community. This jail is an example of that," said Lisa Ortega of Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities, one the groups in the coalition. "Jails have become new mental health hospitals. We can not stand by while the city makes decisions that hurt the community," she continued, calling for improved treatment for mentally ill inmates.

A member of Critical Resistance, which organizes against the prison industrial complex, questioned the motives behind the planned construction. "We believe it is being constructed for the profit of the rich. Rather than building a jail to lock up more people, we need to lesson the number of people in jail." She criticized the rampant incarceration of non-violent drug offenders, the behind-closed-doors nature of the planning process which, she said, has shut out the community's voice, and pushed for education, affordable housing, job training, and drug rehabilitation programs as alternatives to incarceration.

Commissioner Horn argued that the Rikers Island facilities are severely outdated and, due to their two levels of security checkpoints and inconvenient location, make prisoners less accessible to friends, family members, attorneys and community support providers,. Rikers Island inmates, many of whom are from the Bronx, would fare better both while incarcerated and upon release if they were relocated to their own community, explained Horn. He added that the Department of Correction's plan would ultimately reduce city jail capacity by 2,000 beds, though as Maggie Williams of the Bronx Defenders pointed out, that statistic is misleading, as many of the existing beds in city jails have already been decommissioned and are unused, a fact Horn was forced to admit after she confronted him with a document publicly released by his own department.

One point of contention was the alleged lack of transparency on the part of city officials, who residents said had kept them uninformed and uninvolved in the matter. "From day one, the city has not been forthcoming," claimed Leah Gitter of RIPPD. "The city wants to spend taxpayer money to build a jail in our own backyard, but they haven't told us a thing about it."

Horn insisted that the city and the department have remained committed to public openness. "We have tried to be respectful of the protocol . . . We have tried to be transparent," adding that he has met with elected officials and Bronx organizations, a statement that prompted murmurs of skepticism from some of those in attendance. In response to recurring criticism of the prison system itself, the Commissioner cited the Department's stepped-up re-entry programs, some conducted in conjunction with community organizations such as the Osborne Association, that serve inmates upon release from prison.

The Commissioner at times appeared to be irked at the persistent and vocal opposition of the audience, some of whom at one point held up signs opposing the plan, to which Horn complained, "I can't see the people behind you and I think that's impolite." Later in the meeting, he became involved in a heated back-and-forth dialogue with one of the organizers, who insisted that Horn commit to five such town hall meetings in Hunts Point before construction went ahead. Horn, in turn, expressed frustration at the apparent intransigence of community members toward the city's proposal. When he asked if there was any way they would accept a new prison in their community, the response was an almost unanimous, emphatic refusal, to which he said, "If that's your position, then there is no room for dialogue." In a follow-up interview, he stated, "If people are willing to have an open mind, then I'll meet. If people's minds are made up then I'm wasting my time," but also promised to "meet with anyone, anywhere, anytime."

It is an offer that Community in Unity is likely to pursue, given the solid opposition to the construction plan and the passion of the meeting's attendees. And whether or not Horn attends another town hall meeting, the coalition will continue to organize. Williams explained that the activists will be drafting letters of opposition to the Speaker and the City Council, try to schedule a hearing with the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice, and engage in more community outreach and education in an effort to catalyze local resistance to a new jail.

Despite the antagonism surrounding the issue, there are shades of promise. "This is a real opportunity. They are going to bulldoze the facilities [on Rikers Island] and that's great," says Williams, who, despite her opposition to the Oak Point prison, notes the progressive potential behind improving conditions for inmates. "This is the moment, this is the opportunity. I want to say to him, 'Step up to the plate and we will work with you.'"

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/77606.shtml