Borough-based jail plan fails first test as community board rejects recommendation
In a decision that came down to a single vote, Brooklyn Community Board 2 decided not to support a modified version of the city’s plan to expand the Brooklyn Detention Complex Wednesday night, after a contentious meeting where the board’s chairman threatened to have rowdy community members escorted out by security.
It was an important first test for the borough-based jail plan, which would see four new jails rise, including the one in Boerum Hill, to allow for the closure of Rikers Island. Brooklyn’s Community Board 2 is the first of four community boards to vote on any of the new jails. The other community boards — the Bronx’s CB1, Manhattan’s CB1 and Queens’ CB9 — will vote later this month. The board in Queens is likely to follow suit; a committee voted against the plan on April 23 and earlier this year the full board demanded the process stop in its tracks.
“This sets a precedent for everyone else,” said CB2 board member Sam Johnson, who voted no on the recommendation. “The no means something. There’s a lot of people saying no because they don’t want a facility of this magnitude, whether it be from a NIMBY perspective or a human rights perspective,” she said.