Above: digital copy of 1955 NYC Dept. of Public Works print of architect/artist's rendering of planned BkHDM.
HOW BROOKLYN HOUSE OF DETENTION FOR MEN
55 YEARS AGO CAME TO OPEN AS NYC’s 'INTERIM'
CENTRALIZED ADOLESCENT REMAND SHELTER.
'INTERIM' LASTED NEARLY 12 YEARS.

Above is a NYCHS graphic pen sketch based on a University of Pennsylvania Archives and Research Center photo of BkHDM architect Clarence B. Litchfield.

The NYT, in its Dec. 5, 1956 story of the Brooklyn jail's dedication, referred to him as "the man responsible for [its] eye-pleasing as well as sociologically modern features."

Highly regarded for his progressive approach to penal architecture, he also designed the Manhattan VA Hospital and the Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy.

Click image to access his UPenn archives web page. Use browser's "back" button to return.


Part 1 of 2 Parts: BkHDM & Commissioners Albert Williams and Anna M. Kross.

FEBRUARY, 2012 -- Originally intended to replace the ancient and thoroughly inadequate Raymond Street Jail as the holding facility for all unbailed male defendants awaiting adjudication in Kings County criminal cases, the much-needed but
Cover of this essay's text-only PDF version.
Unlike the 2-part web version you are looking at, the 14-page text-only PDF version does NOT include any images (or their captions) nor any copies of DOC annual report full pages. A link to access the essay's text-only PDF version is available at the bottom of Part 2 of the web version. Near that link are the links to the 24 individual DOC annual report full pages which are part of this web presentation.
long-delayed Brooklyn House of Detention for Men (BkHDM) was used instead as a remand shelter for adolescents from all five New York City boroughs during its first 11 years and eight months of operation -- from January 1957 into September 1968.

Before its actual construction in the mid-1950s, BkHDM existed years earlier on paper in various reports, capital budgets, blueprints, newspaper accounts, et al and existed in the minds of those involved in bringing about the related paper work.

This limited study of some of that paper work illustrates how a jail construction project can undergo zigzags before, during and even after it is built.

Enlarged from small photo on proof sheet .
The above proof sheet photo enlargement (no full size photo found with the proof sheet) resulted from an extremely high resolution digital scan. Actually it was only part of a proof sheet, a part not dated. If any reader out there is knowledgeable about vintage motor vehicles, perhaps he or she can identify from what decade are the cars below on the road at or near BkHDM: late '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, etc.? Let us know at NYCHS@NYC.RR.COM Click to enlarge. Use browser's "back" button to return.
The case in point: how a borough House of Detention for Men became the city’s Adolescent Remand Shelter.


1st of Many Plan 'Modifications'

Among the earliest recorded BkHDM references found in NYC Department of Correction (DOC) annual reports is a brief paragraph that appeared in Commissioner Albert Williams’ Jan. 1, 1949 cover letter formally submitting to Mayor William O’Dwyer the agency’s review of its operations during 1948 :

I am also pleased to report that the plans for the proposed City Prison Brooklyn and Remand Shelter are now approximately 95 percent completed.

As a result of constant study, we have been able to modify the original plans, thereby realizing a considerable savings for the city. [1948 DOC annual report, Page 2]

Additional details why modifications became necessary emerges in the Capital Program section of the 1948 report:

The Capital Budget Program of the Department of Correction has taken a pronounced step forward with the continued planning for the new City Prison Brooklyn and Remand Shelter -- estimated cost: $6,600,000. Due to conditions beyond our control, a change of site was ordered.

This change materially increased the functional value of the project. Final drawings are now underway, and the architect expects to file completed plans and specifications for the job by the end of February. [1948 DOC annual report, Page 18.]

A DOC photo from BkHDM dedication.
Above: Correction Commissioner Anna M. Kross, far right, on the scene of choir singing at BkHDM dedication in what appears an auditorium/chapel. Back-of-photo note: "Adolescents choir, Dec. 4, 1956 dedication ceremony. New Brooklyn Detention." Choir members not identified as inmates. Click above image for larger image of full scene. Use browser's "back" button to return.

Below: Detail spotlights WNYC radio mike. Click image for another detail view. That one shows what looks like a large wooden key (with "NYC" lettering) resting on what appears to a marble altar railing. Use browser's "back" button to return.

What change of site?

A New York Times story of Nov. 25, 1947 makes clear that originally the plans called for constructing the new jail on Boerum Place between State and Schemerhorn Streets about block away from its eventual location bounded by Atlantic Avenue, Boerum Place, State and Smith Streets.

Also the structure originally was to stand 12 stories, not 11.

Neither the annual report nor the NYT story explained what had prompted the change of site. But a close look at the 1956 annual report Page 41 map for the site actually used reveals lines indicating a tunnel under State Street. If the site switch involved enabling DOC to transport BkHDM prisoners through a tunnel directly to and from the court building across the street, certainly that would have "materially increased the functional value of the project."

All but $52,500 of the agency’s Capital Budget for 1948 -- $280,896 -- went into furthering the “New City Prison Brooklyn and Remand Shelter.”


From Moving Forward to Marching in Place

The following year’s annual report likewise spoke optimistically about the project’s progress. Commissioner Williams’ Jan. 1, 1950 transmittal letter covering the 1949 report’s submission to the mayor declared:

I am further pleased to report that on October 1, 1949, the architect completed final contract drawings and specifications for the erection of the New City Prison Brooklyn and Remand Shelter.

Undated DOC photo.
"Atl. Ave" hand-written in red on back of photo that shows Commissioner Anna M. Kross, whose escort was probably the warden, visiting the inmate exercise room as youths work out on gym equipment. "Alt. Ave" presumably stands for Atlantic Avenue, the street location for the Interim Adolescent Remand Shelter aka BkHDM. Click for larger image. Use browser's "back" button to return.
Demolition of existing buildings on the site is almost completed and construction should commence next spring. [1949 DOC annual report, Page 3.]

The report’s Bureau of Engineering section provided additional details:

The final contracts, plans and specifications for the erection of the New City Prison for Male Adults and Remand Shelter, Brooklyn, have been submitted for the approval of the Board of Estimate by the Department of Public Works.

The site has been purchased, demolition contracts awarded, and clearance of the site practically completed.

Construction of the new prison is scheduled to start in the early part of 1950. [1949 DOC annual report, Page 22.]

Of the $3,287,604 allocated in the 1949 Capital Budget for the estimated $6.6 million project, only $476,438 was actually expended in 1949.

But only six months after Commissioner Williams’ Jan. 1, 1950 expression of optimism that BkHDM construction would begin soon an event took place half way around the globe that put the project on hold.

Undated DOC photo.
"Atl. Ave" hand-written in red on back of photo that shows young inmate artists working on their paintings. "Alt. Ave" presumably stands for Atlantic Avenue, the street location for the Interim Adolescent Remand Shelter aka BkHDM. Click for larger image. Use browser's "back" button to return.
The Cold War turned hot with the invasion of South Korea by North Koreans, backed by Communist China and the Soviet Union.

Led by the U.S., the United Nations came to South Korea’s defense.

In addition to the tragic human toll (lives lost, injuries suffered, families devastated), that war/police action also resulted in vast governmental disruptions of different kinds -- some major, some minor -- throughout the world. One such disruption was postponement of BkHDM.

DOC’s 1950 annual report, submitted to Mayor Vincent R. Impellitteri by Commissioner Williams Jan. 1, 1951, declared:

Final plans, specifications, proposed contracts and estimates of costs have been approved by the Board of Estimate for the erection of the new City Prison Brooklyn for Male Adults and Remand Shelter. The site for this construction has been cleared and operations were scheduled to start in the early part of 1950. However, in view of the National Defense situation, this project has been held in abeyance and tentatively postponed. When complete this new City Prison will symbolize “Modern Penology in Action.” [1950 DOC annual report, Page 6.]

Undated DOC photo.
Above: Protestant minister holds counseling session with group of adolescent inmates at interim remand shelter (aka BkHDM). Click for larger image. Use browser "back" button to return.

Below: Information on back of photo, but no date. "S.M. Badian" refers to Samuel M. Badian, former editor of the American Journal of Correction, who circa 1961 was appointed NYD DOC's deputy director of operations. His duties included editing the department newsletter. Click for larger image. Use browser "back" button to return.

The very next sentences in the report dealt with establishment of a Civil Defense Unit within the Department.

Further on in the report, the Capital Budget section noted, referring to City Prison Brooklyn, aka C-58:

This project adopted by the City Planning Commission for 1950 has been tentatively postponed for the 1952 Capital Budget because of the National Defense situation. The estimated costs have been revised upward, based on bids received. [1950 DOC annual report, Page 22.]

The total estimated cost for C-58 rose from $6,370,755 to $7,181,240. Appropriated as of Dec. 27, 1950: $511,239 city funds; $216,000 federal funds. Actual expenditure 1950: $15,500.

Concerning BkHDM, nothing was notable in DOC’s 1951 annual report -- quite literally. A zero -- 0 -- sat in the 1951 Capital Budget column on the Project C-58 line on Page 22 in that report submitted to Mayor Impellitteri by Commissioner Williams Jan. 1, 1952.

Ten days later the Commissioner issued yet another department document, somewhat similar in style to the annual reports. But this one covered his heading DOC since Dec. 26, 1946. Williams entitled this opus “Five Years of Progress.”

Undated DOC photo.
"Atl. Ave" hand-written in red on back of photo that shows young inmate artists working on their paintings. "Alt. Ave" presumably stands for Atlantic Avenue, the street location for the Interim Adolescent Remand Shelter aka BkHDM. Click for larger image. Use browser's "back" button to return.
2 Commissioners, 2 Different Views

Interestingly, the only mention of the postponed BkHDM was buried on Page 66 of the 70-page document that Williams described in his Foreword as “a record of achievement of the Department of Correction under the administration of the present Commissioner.”

The one paragraph reference to BkHDM reviewed the project’s history up that point and expressed the “hope that national conditions will improve sufficiently to permit resumption of the necessary [construction] work.”

In the 1952 annual report, submitted Jan. 1, 1953, Williams happily declared:

However, we were fortunate during the year in having this [BkHDM] project restored to the 1953 Capital Budget of the Department. This gives indication that work on this greatly needed project will commence during 1953. The new institution, estimated to cost $9,666,214 will replace the century-old “Raymond Street Jail” which is a relic of the era when prisons functioned as houses of retribution.

Images scanned from 1956 DOC annual report Page 40
1956 Caption for Image Above: "A spacious and airy cell block area at the new Brooklyn House of Detention for Men. On the various floors (4th to 9th inclusive) there are four such quadrants, each containing two tiers of cells (15 on the upper level and 15 on the lower level), a total of 120 cells on each floor."

1956 Caption for Image Below: "The measurement of a typical cell in the new Brooklyn House of Detention for Men 5 feet 8 inches wide by 7 feet 10 inches deep and 7 feet 11 inches high on the flats (8 feet 5 inches on the mezzanine section)."

It will include all features of modern prison construction, being the result of long and careful study and planning, and will accommodate 817 prisoners awaiting court action, with possibilities of further expansion should the need arise. [1952 DOC annual report, Page 2.]

Anna M. Kross (AMK) took quite a different view of the planning which had gone into BkHDM project. In the 1953 annual report, submitted to Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. Jan. 1, 1954, the first of a dozen during her long tenure, AMK wrote:

Overcrowding will, to some extent, be ameliorated when the new City Prisons in Brooklyn and in Queens are completed.

It should be stressed, however, that the original plans for these institutions, neither took adequate cognizance of the rising trend of crime and commitment to prisons, nor even the normal prison population increase concomitant with the increase in the population.

We are asking, therefore, that the plans for both prisons -- that for Brooklyn prison within the limits imposed by the late stage of its construction planning -- and that for the Queens prison, be reconsidered in every aspect as regards to capacity, costs as affected by maximum security cellular construction, and provision for inmate education, recreation and occupation . . . .

We are requesting inclusion in the Capital Outlay of two new projects, a remand shelter for adolescents from all courts in all Boroughs, in order to remove them from the jails for adults and to make possible the initiation of a program of rehabilitation from the first day of their incarceration, and an institution for sentenced women, to remove them from the overcrowded House of Detention for Women. [1953 DOC annual report, Page iv.]

The report, in a Capital Outlay Projects section paragraph tagged “In Progress,” noted concerning New City Prison for Male Adults and Remand Shelter, Brooklyn, that:

The contract for the foundations and structural steel was let for the sum of $1,049,497. The date set for commencement of this work was Dec. 15, 1953 . . . It represents some advances in penal architecture but makes no provision for relieving idleness among prisoners awaiting trial and sentence.

Images scanned from 1956 DOC annual report Page 41
The images and illustration texts above and below are from Page 41 of the 1956 DOC annual report. Click to access full page image (96 dpi, 229Kb). Once accessed, use "+" option to enlarge. Use "back" button to return.
Plans for the unit were too far advanced by January 1, 1954, to permit inclusion of “all” necessary modifications deemed important by this Administration.

This Administration is concerned with the high proportion of maximum security cell construction planned with its consequent high costs and is reviewing this aspect of the architectural plans. [1953 DOC annual report, Page 8.]

To appreciate more fully the striking contrast between Commissioner Williams’ 1953 remarks praising the BkHDM project’s plans and Commissioner Kross’ highly critical comments concerning its plans, mention must be made of the larger political context.

Williams’ wrote his comments in 1953, the year Mayor Impellitteri was seeking re-election, again as an independent candidate backed by neither major party. His Tammany Hall-backed Democratic Party opponent Wagner eventually won.

Kross, as Wagner’s appointee to head DOC, therefore had the freedom from Day 1 as Commissioner (Jan. 1, 1954) to criticize the prior city administration’s planning of her agency’s facilities already on the drawing boards and in contract. Besides, AMK was not known for reticence. The 1953 annual report, on which she signed off Jan.1, 1954, evidently after much personal in-put, covered the last year Williams served as Correction Commissioner under Impellitteri.

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