by Sarah Walsh, Fordham Environmental Law Review, Environmental Justice Columnist<\/p>\n
In 2019, the New York City Council approved an $8 billion plan<\/a> to close the Rikers Island jail complex and replace it with four smaller jails by 2026. However, rather than completely shut down and abandon the complex, the Renewable Rikers Campaign<\/a> makes the case that the City should use the closure \u201cas a moment for restorative environmental justice<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Rikers Island, sometimes known as \u201cthe most notorious jail in America<\/a>\u201d and one of the world\u2019s largest jails, has the capacity to house over 7,000<\/a> inmates. The majority of which come from New York City\u2019s environmental justice communities (i.e., low-income and minority communities that are forced to bear an overwhelming and disproportionate amount of the hazards associated with climate change) . These include neighborhoods such as the Queensbridge Houses, Sunset Park, South Bronx, and the north shore of Staten Island<\/a> \u2013 notably, communities that are home to peaker plants<\/a> (polluting power facilities that only activate whenever the City\u2019s energy demand increases and when air pollution is typically at its worst). Peaker plants \u201cspew even more harmful emissions into neighborhoods already overburdened by pollution and exacerbating widespread health problem<\/a>\u201d. These communities are also home to most of the City\u2019s wastewater treatment plants, bus depots, and municipal waste transfer stations.<\/p>\n The Renewable Rikers Act, proposed in January 2019 by City Council Member Costa Constantinides (whose district includes Rikers) would \u201ccreate a sustainability hub on the site of the former prison.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 The Act is composed of three bills<\/a>, the most central of which transfers control of the island from the New York City Department of Correction to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The second bill requires the City to determine renewable energy capacity on the island and the third assesses how much waste wastewater can be diverted to the island \u2013 potentially closing several facilities in northern Queens, the South Bronx, and Upper Manhattan.<\/p>\n The Act mainly aims to use the complex for energy generation and waste management. However, due to the island\u2019s relatively small size, it can\u2019t host enough solar panels to generate sufficient energy. As such, the focus<\/a> will be on storing power in batteries that can then be sent to the electrical grid when demand arises. The City would then be able to close down plants that are polluting communities in the outer boroughs.<\/p>\n Perhaps one of the biggest sells is the fact that the Renewable Rikers Act can help to address New York City\u2019s environmental justice issues. As Constantinides\u2019 partner on the bill, Rebecca Bratspies,<\/a> the founding Director of CUNY Law School\u2019s Center for Urban Environmental Reform, argues, it could be part of a reparative environmental justice process<\/a>: \u201cwe can use renewable energy generation to remove the polluting infrastructure that was forced on some of the poorest communities in the city who are also most impacted by incarceration on Rikers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Sarah Walsh, Fordham Environmental Law Review, Environmental Justice Columnist In 2019, the New York City Council approved an $8 billion plan to close the Rikers Island jail complex and replace it with four smaller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fordhamlawelr.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}