More than a hundred residents and elected officials made their demands clear in Chinatown on Monday morning: “What do we want?” they chanted. “Housing!” The chorus of demonstrators drowned out the rumble of excavators behind the construction fence at 125 White Street as they rallied against the city’s contentious plan to build a roughly 300-foot-tall borough-based jail on the site, which would make it one of the tallest jails in the world if completed.
At a press conference outside of the construction site, community advocates and elected officials unveiled a new, community-led alternative proposal. The new plan, co-authored by Neighbors United Below Canal (NUBC) and the nonprofit Welcome to Chinatown, proposes repurposing the currently vacant Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC), a federal facility shuttered in 2021, as a more appropriate jail site for the city’s planned borough-based jail in Manhattan. The 125 White Street lot, they say, could instead house 1,040 units of affordable housing, a 25,000-square-foot public plaza, and 70,000 square feet of community-serving retail. The maximum height of the development would also be reduced from 335 feet to 235 feet.
“The plan we unveiled today reflects what the community has been asking for all along: more affordable housing and a real voice in what happens to our neighborhood,” said Jan Lee, co-founder of NUBC, one of the non-profit community organizations leading the effort. “We’ve made it clear from the beginning — we understand the city’s goal to close Rikers and to place a borough-based jail in Manhattan. But that can’t come at the expense of our health, safety, or future.”
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Since 2017, after then-Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the plan to close Rikers Island and replace it with four borough-based jails, including the one at 125 White Street in Chinatown, the plan has largely been opposed by the Chinatown community, who have cited concerns over the impact on local businesses, residents, and quality of life. Experts say the city’s borough-based jail plan is no longer realistic both in cost and timeline.
“This is going to be a jail that has already failed its original goals. It’s billions of dollars over budget, years behind schedule, and already in violation of several laws,” Lee said. He pointed to a legal requirement that the jails be completed and operational by 2027 — a deadline city officials now see as unattainable. He also said the city has failed to submit required quarterly reports and environmental impact reviews in a timely manner.
In February, Tutor Perini, the contractor hired to build the Manhattan facility, revealed that the Manhattan borough-based jail project is now expected to take more than seven years and cost $3.8 billion, more than double the original $1.7 billion estimate. Citywide, the cost of the borough-based jail plan has ballooned to $16 billion, nearly twice the $8.7 billion projected in 2019.
The alternative proposal has already garnered support from Councilmember Chris Marte, Assemblymember Grace Lee, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Councilmembers Julie Won and Linda Lee, and Community Board 1, which passed a resolution endorsing the plan last month.
“This is a win-win solution,” said Councilmember Marte at the press conference, who represents the district and co-founded NUBC. “It meets the city’s goal of closing Rikers while preserving the vitality of this neighborhood.” He added that MCC’s location is already equipped for detention, situated near the courts, and removed from dense residential areas, making it a logical alternative. “We have a viable site that’s decommissioned and ready to be reused,” he said.
At the press conference, Assemblymember Lee said the proposal reflects a thoughtful vision that addresses the crisis at Rikers without further harming Chinatown. “I stand with the community in calling for real engagement, the relocation of the proposed jail to MCC, and the transformation of this site into deeply affordable housing,” she said.
One hurdle to repurpose MCC as a borough-based jail is that MCC is a federal facility. Transferring it to city control would require federal approval. Lee said NUBC submitted the application to the city in late April and also reached out to the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer. According to Lee, Schumer has been in contact with the Bureau of Prisons about the status of MCC and is open to supporting local efforts if the matter escalates to the federal level.
“We started the process by contacting Senator Chuck Schumer and giving him the information so he can investigate at that level,” Lee said. “Hopefully if we get the green light, then it should give our city the green light to really take this proposal seriously and move forward.”
Senator Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the status of MCC.
Lee also recalled a campaign promise made by Eric Adams during his mayoral run, when he told Chinatown residents there would be “no mega jail” in their neighborhood. “He said these words, ‘We can do a better job. We can solve the problem of incarceration, and we could not have a mega jail in Chinatown.’ And I hold him to his word,” said Lee. “He’s still our mayor. He can still act.”
However, Lee warned that time is running out for the Chinatown community, stating that the window to make any changes to the city’s borough-based jail plan in Manhattan could be as small as “a matter of weeks.” “Once those boring tests are over, the bulldozers come in,” he said. “We have very short time,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Adams administration continues to face criticism over delays and ballooning costs related to the borough-based jail plan. Conditions at Rikers Island have worsened in recent years, with a string of inmate deaths and growing calls for immediate closure.
And while last month, The New York Daily News reported that Mayor Adams might be reconsidering the borough-based jail plan, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, Liz Garcia, reiterated to Documented that “the Adams administration’s position has not changed. It continues to build borough-based jails while working to close the jails at Rikers.”
Garcia also emphasized the administration’s investment in Chinatown, including more than $44 million for the “Chinatown Connections” initiative aimed at improving public spaces and safety, and grant funding for small businesses.
She confirmed that on May 15, the city issued a Notice to Proceed for the Manhattan jail project, initiating the next phase of design and community engagement. She didn’t comment on the alternative proposal.
“To be clear, the decision to place a jail in Chinatown was made before Mayor Adams took office through the City Council,” Garcia said in a statement. “The City Council must first decide to move the jail, as our administration cannot unilaterally select a new site. Still, we continue to engage with community members on the project and implement other public safety improvements within our control.”
