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NYC casts away floating jail, scorned by critics as 'modern-day slave ship'
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Nov 3, 2025
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Courtesy NYC Economic Development Corporation
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Published Nov 3, 2025
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New Yorkers on Monday morning said goodbye to a floating jail that lived off the coast of the South Bronx, marking the end of a facility that for many reformers symbolized problems with the city's criminal justice system.
The 625-foot-long, five-story Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center was unmoored after crews used torches to cut through steel attaching the structure to its dock, and was tugged away en route to Louisiana, where it will be scrapped for parts.
For three decades, the floating jail served as an overflow facility while Rikers Island grew overcrowded. Officials at the city’s Economic Development Corporation in October announced the jail would be dismantled and sold to steel mills and metal factories in the South.
Juval O. Scott, executive director of the Bronx Defenders, called the jail a “modern-day slave ship owned by the city of New York.”
“It leaves New York City 33 years later, having caged tens of thousands of people unable to afford bail – mostly Black and brown men – for months and sometimes years while awaiting trial,” Scott said in a statement. “The conditions of the boat were deplorable, leading to the deaths of multiple New Yorkers. Its removal closes this shameful chapter in our history.”
EDC officials said the barge was originally supposed to travel down the East River, but was rerouted eastward along the Long Island Sound due to weather and heavy vessel traffic in the waterway. Tugboats will take more than two weeks to move the jail to Louisiana, officials said.
With the jail gone, city officials will now use the space beside the Fulton Fish Market Cooperative as a future marine terminal that will process freight and cargo from shipping boats and barges traveling on the East River — part of the city’s “Blue Highways” initiative to move some of the city's freight traffic away from trucks and onto cargo boats.
“Today is a new day for the Hunts Point peninsula as we finally remove the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, a jail barge that has long overstayed on our city’s waterfront,” EDC President Andrew Kimball said in a statement.
The floating jail was opened in 1992 and cost the city $161 million to build, which received heavy criticism for its bloated price tag. As part of the city’s deal with Louisiana Scrap Metal Recycling to dismantle the prison, the contractor will pay New York City $1.5 million for the scraps. Hung on the jail’s facade was a banner from the contractor in purple with a QR code promoting the company.
Councilmember Rafael Salamanca Jr., whose district represents neighborhoods in the South Bronx, including Hunts Point and Mott Haven-Port Morris, celebrated the departure of the jail.
“After 33 years, the Vernon C. Bain floating jail is finally gone!” he said on X. “A barge that symbolized neglect, suffering, and the city’s failure to deliver justice now drifts into history. May its removal mark not just an ending — but a beginning for real change.”
Other than its high cost to build, the facility was also condemned by criminal justice groups after detainees died while in custody on the barge.
In 2017, the City Council voted to close Rikers Island and replace it with four new borough-based jails. That program is currently years behind schedule, and the construction costs for the new jails are billions more than earlier estimates by the city.
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new york city
public safety
transportation
Ramsey Khalifeh
Ramsey Khalifeh is a transportation reporter on the NYC Accountability desk covering the largest transit system in the country. He was previously a general assignment reporter at Gothamist and worked on the Boston Globe's metro and copy desk. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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