DNA Info reported the following regarding a 2015 budget hearing at City Hall chaired by Council Member Elizabeth Crowley:
Crowley, speaking at a recent budget hearing, said she recently visited the department's training facility in her Queens district and was surprised at the conditions.
“I was very disappointed when I saw the lack of training facility. There's no gym. There's hardly the space that one would think of a department that we're requiring a level of professionalism,” Crowley said during a DOC budget hearing at City Hall.
[Corrections Commissioner Joseph] Ponte said the agency has spoken with the Office of Management and Budget about finding an alternative location somewhere in the city, but Crowley thought that Riker's Island, with its 400 acres and obsolete buildings that could be demolished or modified, would be an ideal location.
“Does it really make sense to look around the city for adequate space when you have 400 acres of available land on Riker's Island to build a proper training facility?” asked Crowley.
So, it sounds like Council Member Elizabeth Crowley has come up with a plan to move the “inadequate” Corrections Academy from the Metro Mall in Middle Village to Riker's Island….while simultaneously being in favor of relocating Riker's inmates into communities. She's apparently not only willing to subject her constituents to the threat of a jail siting, but is also okay with losing important jobs and the workers who spend money at local businesses in the district. After all, an academy can more peacefully co-exist with a new residential community than a jail, right?
