Say No To Chinatown “Mega Jail”
New York City’s Chinatown is facing a possible crisis. Under former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a proposal was passed to shut down Rikers Island Correctional Center, the main jail complex in New York City, and create correctional facilities in every borough of the city (except Staten Island). One of these neighborhoods, Chinatown, was the one hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The government plans to spend 8.3 billion dollars in taxpayer money on a “mega jail.” It would be 40 stories high and would be under construction until 2027. This would disrupt an already struggling neighborhood. According to the Welcome To Chinatown website (an activist site), it would not only hurt but also displace businesses and restaurants such as Jaya 888 and New York Bo Ky.
Due to the racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinatown, Manhattan, has faced many challenges in the past two years. According to the New York Times, around 17 restaurants and 139 storefronts have permanently closed. Demolishing the current correctional facility in Manhattan, which resides on White St. in Chinatown, would disturb the community greatly. The construction, which will take five years, will entirely displace many struggling businesses and disrupt many more. The Welcome to Chinatown website also says five businesses would be directly impacted; Whiskey Tavern, AppleTHAIze, Pasteur Noodle and Grill, Nha Trang One, Thai Son, and Forlinis.
Dashiell Allen, a journalist for the Village Sun, wrote about how creating a “Mega Jail” now hurts neighboring businesses, and activists fear it will make way for big developers to take over the neighborhood and displace the working-class people who live there. These activists are also making the point that the current prison system is harmful and doesn’t do what it sets out to do. Instead of rehabilitating prisoners, it sends them prisoners, but it sends them into a loop of isolation and crime. This creates a spiral of getting in and out of jail, which benefits the government financially.
Currently, Rikers is facing an overcrowding problem. To make matters worse, the government has decided to move all the prisoners who were in the current Manhattan correctional facility to Rikers, even with the knowledge that it’s in a humanitarian crisis. The government does not care about whether these prisoners can be rehabilitated. This is why they’re closing Rikers in the first place and building this “mega jail.”
Having just moved to this neighborhood, I would be in the direct line of fire if this correctional facility is built. Chinatown is a diverse neighborhood that has survived over a century. It has a rich cultural history and is home to people who have lived here for generations. I already have a preconceived notion that prison is harmful to the people inside and the families affected. I think that building a “mega jail” will not only hurt the neighborhood but will not help the incarcerated people who will be housed there.
Personally, I believe in abolishing the prison system and building a new version of what would become a place for transformative justice. The Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton explains Transformative justice as “a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm, and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence and/or engaging in harm reduction to lessen the violence.” The only thing that prisons can do is isolate people. Many are products of a system, which is why they are in prison in the first place.
The current humanitarian crisis jails are facing does not belong in Chinatown. It should not be displacing citizens and businesses more than it already does. Our community deserves not to fear that they will be displaced to further the government's agenda of over-policing and mass incarceration.
By Layla Blue Rudolph
2022