Rendering of the new parking garage and community space as part of the Queens jail site in the Borough-Based jails project. Image Credit: DDC

The structure will provide over 600 parking spaces and 25,000 square feet of flexible community space. On June 25, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the start of construction at one of the City’s four borough-based jails sites in Kew Gardens, Queens. The borough-based jails are part of the City’s controversial solution to shut down Rikers Island and replace the complex with four smaller, locally based jails in Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. The 866-bed Queens jail will replace the current Queens Detention Complex, which is located adjacent to Queens Borough Hall and the Queens Criminal Courthouse. Construction has started on the parking garage and community space that is part of the Queens jail project.  (more…)

Jamie Torres-Springer. Image Credit: NYC DDC

Torres-Springer, the former First Deputy Commissioner of the department, will be succeeding Senior Advisor for Recovery and outgoing Commissioner Lorraine Grillo. On March 23, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Jamie Torres-Springer as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction. Torres-Springer will be succeeding Lorraine Grillo. Former Commissioner Grillo left the position earlier in March to serve as the City’s Senior Advisor for Recovery. (more…)

Image Credit: Office of the Comptroller

Comptroller Stringer sent the letter in opposition to the Astoria Replacement Project because of the project’s reliance on fracked gas. On September 4, 2020, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer sent a letter to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Division of Environmental Permits urging the DEC to review the NRG Energy’s Astoria Replacement Project. Comptroller Stringer raised concerns about the project due to the wellbeing and of Astoria residents and the project’s environmental impact. (more…)

Elizabeth Glazer – Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice /> Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice
1 Centre St., 10th Floor, Room 1012N
New York, NY 10007
646-576-3499

On March 11, 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Elizabeth Glazer as the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, an office formed to advise the Mayor on criminal justice issues, public safety, bail reform, policing, and incarceration rates. Glazer took on the City role after serving as Governor Andrew Cuomo’s chief advisor on criminal justice. She came to the de Blasio administration with a wealth of experience in criminal justice and public safety, but did not originally intend that criminal justice work would be her career. (more…)

Department of Design and Construction Logo Image Credit: DDC

Contracting for the construction of the Borough-Based Jails under way. On February 4, 2020, the Department of Design and Construction announced the issuance of four Request for Qualifications for the Design-Build teams that might construct the new borough based jails.  The four jails will be located at 24-125 White Street in Manhattan, 745 East 141st Street in the Bronx, 126-02 82nd Avenue in Queens and at 275 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

(more…)