Rikers Jail Replacement Plan Pits Chinatown Against New York City
Many residents in Manhattan’s Chinatown believe their neighborhood has been treated as a “dumping ground for failed incarceration policies.”
At the annual Lunar New Year parade in February 2022, Chinatown residents protest against plans to build a new jail in the neighborhood.
Photographer: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis NewsIn November 1982, some 12,000 residents of Manhattan Chinatown marched to New York City Hall to protest a proposed juvenile detention center, which was to be built next to the existing Manhattan Detention Complex in the neighborhood. Nicknamed the Tombs, the 500-bed adult jail on White Street had only recently been renovated, the third incarnation of the Egyptian revival-style prison complex first built in 1838.
Protesters argued then that the historic immigrant enclave already had a disproportionate share of the courthouses and correctional facilities in Manhattan, and that it was harming both businesses and residents.