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Gowanus Residents Rally Against Parole Office

By Leslie Albrecht | November 20, 2014 10:18am
 Protesters gathered to rally against a parole office slated to open in Gowanus in 2015.
Gowanus Parole Office Protest
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GOWANUS — Roughly 100 protesters and a kids' rock band braved frigid temperatures Wednesday to rally against a parole center slated to open in Gowanus next year.

Gowanus United, the group that organized the rally, says the parole center, where ex-inmates from across Brooklyn would check in with their parole officers, doesn't belong at Second Avenue and Sixth Street, in part because the site is too close to schools and day care facilities filled with "thousands" of children.

"It's unconscionable that somebody would put a parole site of this size near so many schools," state Sen. Jesse Hamilton told the cheering crowd, which included many local kids. "We must protect our children."

The three-story office would consolidate three previous parole offices into one location serving all of Brooklyn's ex-inmates. Parolees would use the center from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. In addition to checking in with their parole officers, ex-inmates would also get services such as job placement and housing help.

Officials at first said the office would serve about 4,000 ex-inmates from across Brooklyn, but the state's Department of Corrections and Community Supervision later said approximately 6,000 parolees would visit the center. Opponents argue the office would be too far from public transit, and would bring foot and car traffic that could disrupt nearby industrial businesses. 

David Meade of the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation said parolees could create "insurance and safety concerns" for nearby businesses, while Paul Basile of the merchants group Gowanus Alliance said traffic from the center could interfere with trucks loading and unloading in the area.

The rally was held down the block from 15 Second Ave., where the parole center is now under construction on a street that dead-ends into the Gowanus Canal.

Gowanus United, which is campaigning to halt construction on the office and move it elsewhere in Brooklyn, recently filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections.

A DOCCS spokeswoman declined to comment on Wednesday's rally, citing the pending litigation.

Gowanus United has collected about 1,900 signatures and nearly $2,000 in donations toward its efforts.

But the group has also been criticized for fighting a facility designed to help ex-prisoners rebuild their lives. Criminal defense attorney David Menschel, a Carroll Gardens resident, said arguments about the parole center being too close to schools don't make sense because the same could be said of nearly every neighborhood in Brooklyn.

"So much of what parole center opponents say is built upon false ideas about parolees," Menschel said in an email. "The truth is parolees are a whole lot like the rest of us. We should be welcoming these people who are trying to get their lives back together into our community."