Opposition to Brooklyn Jail Proposal Organizes a Little

The Brooklyn House of Detention expansion proposal now has an organization called the Brooklyn House of Detention Stakeholders Group working to "keep the community informed of the ongoing struggle against expansion of the Brooklyn House of Detention." Their website is brooklynjail.org. Quite a few groups near the facility, which the city wants to reopen and double in size, bitterly oppose the plan. The group says the city ignored a "visionary plan" to redevelop the facility. The proposal from Time Equities and Hamlin Ventures would have added condos and rental housing, but replaced the jail with alternative incarceration and treatment programs. Groups involved in the "stakeholders" effort include the Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, 53 Boerum Place Condominium, the Boerum Hill Association, Brooklyn Vision Foundation, Cobble Hill Association and State Street Houses Association.