New York City’s “floating jail” — which was supposed to be temporary when it opened in the East River three decades ago — is finally set to shutter.
The Vernon C. Bain Center – nicknamed “the Boat” – will close in October, the Department of Correction told Gothamist on Tuesday.
About 500 people in custody and 200 correction officers and staff stationed there will be moved off the boat and into jails on Rikers Island and other facilities, DOC spokesperson Patrick Rocchio said.
The move will help DOC more efficiently manage detainees, staff and resources by “centralizing” operations on Rikers Island, he said.
The 625-foot-long floating detention center was built in 1989 and opened in 1992 as a temporary fix for a soaring jail population at Rikers fueled by the “war on drugs.”
But the barge off Hunts Point in the Bronx is still open more than three decades later.
Criminal justice advocates have often called for the makeshift jail’s closure, especially in the wake of detainee deaths on the boat in recent years.
In September 2021, 24-year-old Stephan Khadu died at Lincoln Hospital after he was transferred from the floating jail. His family blamed jail conditions for his deterioration in health.
A year later, 48-year-old detainee Gregory Acevedo, who was in custody on a robbery charge, died from his injuries after jumping from the barge into the East River.
His sister, Cynthia Acevedo, told Gothamist in a text message that she will be “so glad” to see the floating jail shuttered, but added that more city jail facilities need to close.
She said that instead of being moved from “the Boat” to Rikers, detainees with mental health challenges should be helped into treatment and diverted from incarceration.
“Gregory, like so many others, needed housing and treatment, not jail,” she said, adding that she was emotional when she got the news just weeks before the first anniversary of her brother’s death.
Edwin Santana, a criminal justice advocate with the…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply