Parole Facility Planned Next Door to St. Ann's School
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is planning to open a major parole facility at 147 Pierrepont Street, a Ratner-owned property located between the lower and middle school buildings of St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights. The new center, which would consolidate two existing parole offices in the Downtown area, is slated to serve 1,700 Federal parolees…
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is planning to open a major parole facility at 147 Pierrepont Street, a Ratner-owned property located between the lower and middle school buildings of St. Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights. The new center, which would consolidate two existing parole offices in the Downtown area, is slated to serve 1,700 Federal parolees and be manned by armed guards, according to an email from a member of the school community. A call to Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez’s office revealed that she and other public officials are trying to schedule a press conference at some point in the future to protest the location of the new facility. They better get moving: The new space (pictured on the jump) is supposed to be open for business as early as mid-August, just in time to welcome the kids back to school. UPDATE: This statement just in from Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez: Locating a parole office just steps away from a school is extremely troubling. Anything that puts the security of our children at risk is unacceptable. Before all other considerations, their safety must be the top priority.GMAP
ahhh, Ratner … WHAT A PRICK!!!
I suppose it should not surprise me that the concern over a parole office set right in the middle of a school should engender such resentful comments because it is a private school. And I repeat- this parole facility will be surrounded by the school- the high school, languages department, computer department and the lower school will surround the parole facility. There are one thousand students here- from three year olds to 12th grade and that means the foot traffic along Pierrepont and Clinton Street is already constant- full of energetic and not always focussed kids travelling to class and to Cadman Plaza. And I am tired of the smarmy comments about the stereotypical “druggy” Saint Ann’s kids- they are no different than any other high schoolers- some do stuff we don’t approve of and some put a lot of energy into serving their communities, creating art and puzzling over the world. Like any other kids they deserve our thoughtful protection. They do not deserve to be ridiculed and derided by people who do not know them and have their own agenda that has little to do with the new parole facility.
Know your limits, accept your fate. If this doesn’t suit you then change it.
If it wasn’t for the wealthty parents that attend St Anns staying in NYC, the tax base would suffer considerably as would your public school. Try to see the forest through the trees for once in your life.
Private school patrons should consider doing some of their outreach efforts to the public schools, you know, homeless shelters, meals on wheels, PSXXX or maybe I should pay even more because I’m a doctor that works 70 hours a week and needs the hassle free environment of a Private School – nasty me – I should pay more so that you can hang out all day in the Park gossiping about complete bullcrap and trying to fix a system that is unfixable. But it makes you feel good because you are an artist and not a corporate drone…right.
Why doesn’t anybody seem to care about the continued difficult state of the public schools in our community? Sure the budget cuts have been restored. But that is only for 1 year. In my child’s school they were going to have to get rid of teachers, and afterschool tutoring and summer school and ALL school supplies with the exception of paper. Now we are surely going to have to worry about budget cuts to school food programs and the like. The fact is that there are some good schools out there that are public. And the rich may feel like they aren’t good enough for their kids. But the rich have the power and obviously the money. And if they invested their time and money to lobby our public officials a lot more could be done. The school’s chancellor basically said that he thinks parents that can afford it should send their kids to private schools. And the Mayor has no interest in improving city schools whatsoever, other than to pay off outside consulting firms to test, test, test — and for what? The tests never result in anything but more classroom time gearing up for test prep. Never for actual learning based on a child’s understanding and needs. So please parents of St. Ann’s children, realize that while we don’t want your kids to be in harm’s way, we would like to ask for your support as well for our public schools. There are critical issues that affect us all citywide. And this is true whether you have kids or you don’t. And I assume that brownstoner has children at St. Ann’s or wanting to be at St. Ann’s. Please Jon, for everybody’s sake, also get to know the issues facing the public schools as well. Thanks.
Senator Martin Connor has learned about the proposed parole office next to the St. Ann’s School and has sent the following letter to United States Attorney Campbell:
July 11, 2008
Hon. Benton J. Campbell
United Sates Attorney
Eastern District of New York
271 Cadman Plaza East
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Dear U.S. Attorney Campbell:
I have just learned of your office’s plans to open a parole office at 147 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights. This location is across the street from the main building of the St. Ann’s School. There are also classrooms in 147 Pierrepont Street and St. Ann’s Lower School is immediately adjacent to this location.
Frankly, I cannot imagine a more inappropriate location for such a facility. I have been told that up to 1,700 federal parolees will be reporting to this office and that armed security guards will be staffing this location. This seems to me, to raise a possibly of an unsafe situation for young school children.
Brooklyn Heights and the Downtown Brooklyn area is home to the regional offices of many city, state and federal agencies. With the presence of these offices comes traffic, crowding on the sidewalks and subway stations, and the possibility of dangerous people frequently being transported to the courthouses and other facilities. A Parole office may add an additional element of danger to the neighborhood.
While I understand that your office is in need a facility to process parolees, I urge you to reconsider this location. Certainly, there are more appropriate sites in the Eastern District for this office.
I respectfully request a meeting with your office to discuss alternate locations for this parole facility.
Sincerely,
Senator Martin Connor
For More information please contact Sen. Connor’s Office at (212)298-5565
Or e-mail Oscar Jonas of his staff at
Ojonas@senate.state.ny.us
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=21791
Brooklyn Eagle reports among other nice harmless white collar previous offenders…
What Types of Probationers Will Be There?
The probation office will also serve sex offenders, says Garoppolo. The sex crimes are specifically related to the use of computers to download and exchange child pornography – a federal crime. “Most of our offenders have committed no violent offenses,†he says.
“I’d be surprised if St Ann’s or any but its wackiest parents get up in arms about the parole office moving 2 blocks over.”
Sadly, “wackiest parents” encompasses a good 70% of Brooklyn Heights.
WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN! — Maude Flanders.