BROOKLYN — Rikers Island is slated to begin closing its facilities this summer. Many are wondering how its nearly 7,000 inmates will fit into the city’s already congested prison system.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Sunday that Brooklyn residents have no need to worry. He stated that Boerum’s Brooklyn House of Detention (BHoD) will serve as the prisoners’ new home in the borough. DA Gonzalez stipulated that the jail “may need some new renovations … I don’t think we would need to build anything new.” Back in June 2017, DNAinfo reported the potential support for expansion of BHoD to accommodate additional prisoners from Rikers. Since then, no news of renovations has been reported.

Renovations Necessary to Accommodate Additional Inmates

Gonzalez added, “The political issues of where a jail would go or how we can house people in the boroughs don’t really apply to Brooklyn.” However, renovations may not be easy to achieve, either. In 2009, then-City Controller William Thompson, Jr. shut down an expansion of BHoD that would have doubled its bed count after costs spiraled out of control during the project.

With so many prisoners on Rikers Island, expanding BHoD’s current 815-bed capacity is absolutely necessary to house enough displaced prisoners. Still, Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s 10-year shut down plan calls for reduction of the city’s nearly 9,000 prisoners  to below 5,000 before fully moving inmates off of Rikers. As such, the real key to successfully closing Rikers Island is reducing the number of inmates in the city’s prisons.
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Inmate Population Reduction Initiatives Underway

City officials have begun adjusting their operations to achieve the necessary reduction in the incarcerated population. DA Gonzalez and Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. recently announced they would not seek bail for most non-felony cases. Additionally, City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer published a report this month calling for the elimination of the private bail bond industry. He is aiming to reduce unnecessary jail time for those too poor to make bail. His initiative is part of a larger overhaul to the entire bail system. The entire borough of Brooklyn is also doing its part. The number of suspects from Brooklyn admitted to the city’s jails decreased by 10% from 2016 to 2017, and by 31% since 2013, according the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

All of this will reduce the number of prisoners in NYC jails, but the question remains: Will BHoD truly be able to absorb Brooklyn’s share of displaced Rikers Island prisoners? Only time will tell.