GOWANUS — State officials planning to open a 55,000-square-foot parole office at 15 Second Ave. will discuss the details of the facility at a public meeting on Monday.
Representatives from the State Department of Corrections and Community Services are expected to explain more about the controversial office at the Sept. 15 meeting called by Community Board 6, City Councilman Brad Lander and State Sen. Velmanette Montgomery.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the 78th Precinct at 65 Sixth Ave.
News of the new parolee reporting center — where ex-cons from across Brooklyn will meet with their parole officers — caught locals by surprise in July.
The brand new facility, overlooking the Gowanus Canal, will accommodate parole operations that were previously housed on Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. DOCCS was forced to find a new parole headquarters after the Livingston Street building was sold, the owner of 15 Second Ave. said in a letter to Community Board 6 in July.
Property owner Chaim Simkowitz wrote that the parole office "fulfills a critical community need."
But Community Board 6 District Manager Craig Hammerman questioned the need for the new building. In a July letter to DOCCS, Hammerman asked why the agency is paying to build the new office at time when New York has seen a steady decline in the need for prison facilities.
Hammerman told DOCCS that there were "many unanswered questions" about the facility.
