Protests in Chinatown against the city\u2019s drive to build a \u201cjailscraper\u201d there are A fresh warning that this \u201creplace Rikers\u201d scheme is an utterly misbegotten boondoggle.<\/p>\n
The bid to build four new borough-based jails and then close Rikers Island is years behind schedule, with costs ballooning by the billions<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Chinatown project sits atop the old Collect Pond; construction will require massive pumping and<\/a> drainage, at risk of sinking the surrounding ground and endangering other buildings. <\/p>\n More important, this whole scheme is nuts: The problems at Rikers stem from mismanagement<\/a> and forgone maintenance \u2014 not from the location, which in fact is ideal, since no civilian wants a jail in the \u2018hood. <\/p>\n Yes, the existing jails on Rikers are crumbling<\/a>, but the island has plenty of space to build new jails on site, if that\u2019s cheaper than repairs and modernization.<\/p>\n Building jails in the boroughs is a stealth bid to put a hard, too-low cap on how many people the city can keep locked up, no matter how bad crime gets.<\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n The planned four-borough jails will hold at absolute most a total of 4,200 inmates; over 6,500 are now in detention citywide, and that\u2019s historically low.<\/p>\n The progressives are aiming to make New York City a place where it\u2019s almost impossible to get arrested, because there won\u2019t be anywhere to put you<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \u201cReplace Rikers\u201d is of a piece with the no-bail law, the de-facto decriminalization of shoplifting, the war on stop-and-frisk and public-housing \u201cvertical patrols\u201d and the non-prosecution of fare beating.<\/p>\n