

The Department of Corrections says it will start putting inmates into the House of Detention on Atlantic and Smith next month, according to the Daily News, and eventually fill all 759 of the facility’s beds over the coming year. According to the story, the inmates will be pretrial prisoners who have court dates in Brooklyn and Staten Island. The jail basically stopped hosting inmates in 2003, and some neighborhood residents are less than thrilled about the HOD’s reopening: “Howard Kolins, president of the Boerum Hill Association and a member of the house of detention’s community advisory committee, said that when the jail was open, it brought visitors ditching contraband in the street, vehicles parking in bus stops and handicapped spots, and shackled prisoners being transported through residential streets. ‘Residents of State Street with small children are unnerved by that,’ he said.” A few years ago a bunch of different schemes for the building that came to nothing were bandied about, including ones that involved getting a developer to build retail and expanding the jail facilities. It remains to be seen whether simply bringing inmates back will have an effect on residents’ quality of life.

Inmates to Fill Reopened Brooklyn House of Detention in Boerum Hill [NY Daily News] GMAP

Photo by JayeClaire.