By Nathan Duke
The city Correction Department has been drawing up a plan that would relocate 25 percent of the inmates from Rikers Island to other facilities in the Bronx and Brooklyn in the hopes of lowering costs associated with busing prisoners from Rikers to courts all over the five boroughs, Deputy Commissioner Steve Morello said.City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria) said the city's current jail network is outdated and inconvenient to Astoria. He said thousands of prisoners, guards, legal staff and visitors pass through Astoria en route to the Rikers Island Bridge, located at Hazen and 19th streets, each day, increasing neighborhood pollution and traffic.”Jail is meant to punish those guilty of crimes, but there's no reason why our jails should punish the innocent residents of a single neighborhood,” he said. “Crime is a problem shared by the entire city and, therefore, the responsibility of handling our criminals should also be shared.”Rikers Island, which has housed inmates since 1920, is technically located in the Bronx, but can only be accessed by crossing the Rikers Island Bridge in Astoria.The Correction Department's plan would include lowering the jail's daily average of 12,000 inmates by 3,000 and housing inmates at jails closer to the communities into which they will eventually be released, Morello said. Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn has proposed constructing a new jail in the Bronx as well as reopening and doubling the size of the Brooklyn House of Detention (275 Atlantic Ave.), he said.”The neighborhood has maintained 80 percent of the city's jail population for many decades,” Morello said. “And Rikers Island is a long way from neighborhoods where inmates are from, making it hard for visitors and attorneys to come there.”Morello said the completion of a new jail would take four years. The Corrections Department would need the City Council's approval to acquire land for the jail, he said.”One of the many burdens in this community is traffic from Rikers Island,” said state Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria). “Anything we can do to alleviate the burdens on this community would be welcome.”Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
