Jailscraper

Submission 6,603

About

Jailscraper is a nickname given to a planned 305-foot-tall jail building in New York's Chinatown, which, when completed, could become the tallest jail in the world. A portmanteau of "jail" and "skyscraper," the Jailscraper became a subject of viral discussions and memes in April 2024 following a viral social media post about it.

Origin

On August 21st, 2023, The Guardian^[1]^[2] reported on the New York City government's plans to construct a new jail building that would replace the Manhattan Detention Complex, also known as The Tombs, and become one of four new borough-based jails, all parts of a new system to replace Riker's Island prison by 2027 (concept art and tweet shown below).

According to the jail's approved zoning permit, the building will extend two to three blocks in all directions and be up to 305 feet tall, making it the tallest jail in the world.

On August 22nd, 2023, X^[3] user @JeremyWard33 made the earliest notable humorous post about the planned building, which received over 910 reposts and 4,000 likes in eight months (shown below).

On April 1st, 2024, The New York Times^[4] published an article about the jail project. On April 4th, X^[5]^[6] accounts @AFpost and @TheCalvinCooli1 both reported on the project, writing that the building has been referred to as "jailscraper." The posts (shown below, left and right) received over 890 reposts and 570 likes and 2,600 reposts and 2,200 likes, respectively, in four days.

Spread

The posts were followed by viral discussions and memes about the New York City government ignoring popular demands in favor of the project, as well as memes imagining the Jailscraper being a setting for 1990s action films.

For example, on April 4th, 2024, X^[7] user @AltHistCody made a post that received over 4,000 reposts and 65,000 likes in four days (shown below, left). On April 5th, X^[8] user @shack_diesel posted a joke that garnered over 1,400 reposts and 10,000 likes in the same period (shown below, right).

Jailscraper remained a viral topic of discussions and memes on social media in the following days.