Crain New York covers the growing calls for Lincoln in Harlem to be transformed into a Women’s Center for Justice.

Governor Kathy and Mayor Eric Adams are questioned about the actual cost of transferring the women at Rose M. Singer [also known as Rosie’s] and, by extension, their families to Kew Gardens. “Whether the 300 women incarcerated at Rosie’s on Rikers Island can be successfully housed together with male inmates once the Kew Gardens jail site in Queens opens later this decade.”

As per the letter endorsed by New York State legislators, “would share the same spaces and staff as men, would create the same or worse conditions than at Rikers.” Inevitably recreating Riker’s dilapidated conditions. 

Besides the dangerous proximity between the women and their abusers in the new facility, our report with the Justice Lab at Columbia University pinpoints critical reasons Lincoln in Harlem is the humane alternative for women and gender-expansive people detained at Rosie’s. 

To answer your question, Mr. Pascus, no, the women at Rosie’s could not successfully get the treatment and healing they need in the Kew Gardens facility. 

Note: Governor Hochul’s administration plans to review the letter. 

Disagree with creating a Riker’s 2.0? Add your name to our proposal to close Rosie’s and transform the Lincoln in Harlem into a Women’s Center for Justice!