A jail grows in Brooklyn, but at the expense of people with mental illness

One of the four jails under construction to replace Rikers Island will have additional beds to accommodate the city’s growing detainee population, officials revealed this week. But to make room for the extra beds, a unit intended to help those with mental illness and addiction issues will be downsized.

The $3 billion Brooklyn jail will now have 1,040 beds, up from 886, according to a PowerPoint presentation released Wednesday. The jail cannot grow in physical size, per zoning law, so to pack in more detainees, the city will reduce the number of “therapeutic beds” intended for people with mental illness and those with substance abuse disorders. Those specialized units are more spacious and were designed to be on one tier, to reduce the risk of suicides; the new plans call for two tiers.

Despite the city’s plans, the percentage of people diagnosed with mental illness who are detained has steadily increased in recent years and is now at 53%, according to city data. Most of the record 19 deaths in city custody last year were due to suicide or drug overdoses; in May, Rubu Zhao died by suicide after jumping off a second-level tier.

Meanwhile, the jail population has sharply increased under Mayor Eric Adams, who has prioritized arrests to reduce crime. There are now more than 6,000 people in city custody, but the four new planned jails —which by law must replace Rikers in 2027 — were only designed to hold 3,300 people. Adams has said the city will need a “plan B” to accommodate what his administration projects will grow to 7,000 incarcerated people by next year.

Increasing the headcount at the new Brooklyn jail — which will rise on the site of the old Brooklyn House of Detention on Atlantic Avenue — appears to be part of that “plan b.” It is unclear if the jail projects in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx — which are at various stages of the design and construction process —will be similarly affected.

A spokesman for the mayor's office confirmed that the city’s jail population is too large to hold in the new facilities. "It has become painfully clear that the plan approved under the last administration leaves open serious questions about the city’s ability to keep New Yorkers safe," said press secretary Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, in a statement. "The Adams administration’s decision to increase the number of beds in the Brooklyn jail reflects an honest accounting of the realities of the criminal justice system and public safety in our city, including maintaining critical services for those in custody...This is what we must do to protect public safety, provide humane conditions for those in custody, and close the jails on Rikers Island – there is simply no other path forward."

Darren Mack, an activist for the group Freedom Agenda and member of the jail project’s Brooklyn Neighborhood Advisory Committee, attended the committee meeting Wednesday where the modified plans were first revealed. He criticized Adams for his role in increasing the population of Rikers with more detainees struggling with addiction and mental health needs.

“Now he's pointing to a jail population that is inflated because of his failed policies, and trying to use it to justify efforts to add more beds to the replacement borough jails,” Mack said.

Instead of cutting therapeutic housing units to make room, Mack said, there should be more supportive housing units in the community to accommodate those with those who have such needs.

The therapeutic beds will now make up just 22% of the jail beds in Brooklyn, compared to 40% before, said Dana Kaplan, senior advisor to the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform, which has guided the city in closing and replacing Rikers. Officials are moving in the wrong direction, she said.

“The city should also be laser focused on reducing the jail population as a whole, particularly those with medical and mental health needs,” Kaplan said.

Therapeutic units are designed to have a lower staff-detainee ratio, and intended to provide a “safe, restorative and healing environment,” according to the city’s design guidelines.

Compounding the problem, advocates say, is the Adams administration is also delaying the planned addition of 400 therapeutic beds at city hospitals, which were intended to relocate people from Rikers Island with complex medical needs, according to the news organization The City.

Almost all people held in city jails have not been convicted of crimes and are awaiting court hearings.

This story has been updated.