But Steven Smith, who will control the 28-acre property as head of Oak Point Property LLC, has not yet decided what he wants to do with the land. He is open to selling the parcel but also is keen to develop it himself, after the mandated environmental cleanup is completed. “I would like to see something on the property that is both good for the city and good for the community,” Smith said in a phone interview on Thursday.
Regardless, the city may be able to acquire the land through eminent domain. The Department of Correction first expressed interest in building a jail at Oak Point during an April City Council hearing, citing the land’s massive size and appropriate zoning designation. But some residents of the neighborhood are less than thrilled with the notion of a jail in their backyard, arguing that it will bring few tangible benefits to Hunts Point, and would symbolize the wrong type of future for residents.
The area, one of the country’s poorest urban neighborhoods, is already home to a number of municipal projects, including a wastewater treatment plant, two power plants, and a facility that processes more than half of the city’s sewage sludge into fertilizer.
“The South Bronx has been used as a dumping ground for everything that no one else wants,” said Omar Freilla, the executive director of Green Worker Cooperatives, an environmental justice organization.
This time, however, residents are fighting back. Fifteen community groups who oppose the jail at Oak Point have banded together in a coalition called Community in Unity. The coalition, which includes such groups as Sustainable South Bronx, Green Worker Cooperatives, The Point Community Development Corporation, the Bronx Defenders, and Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities, met with Department of Correction Commissioner Martin Horn for the first time at a community meeting on Oct. 23.
“The goal of today is to begin a transparent process,” Kellie Terry-Sepulveda, executive managing director of The Point, a local nonprofit, said at the time.
At the close of the meeting, Community in Unity members asked Horn to participate in five town hall meetings in the Bronx to discuss the jail project before seeking land use approvals. Horn indirectly agreed, replying that he would meet with “anyone, anywhere, anytime.”
A jail at Oak Point is part of the department’s long-term plan to move a portion of the inmates held at Rikers Island into jails in the boroughs, according to department spokesperson Stephen Morello. For one thing, it’s potentially dangerous to house such a large percentage of the city’s jail population on an island that can be accessed only by one bridge, he said. And thousands of prisoners at Rikers are currently held in facilities that were designed to be temporary and have fallen into disrepair. A jail in the Bronx would also make it easier for lawyers and family members to visit inmates, he added, and for inmates to be transported to court appearances.
