A floating jail barge, which holds 800 beds, was anchored at nearby Hunts Point in 1992.

But to construct a brand new jail barge is comparable in costs to a regular jail, and there are difficulties in finding mooring sites.

The city hopes to take delivery of a new 800-bed jail barge in February.

Such benefits should induce the Koch administration to jettison hastily conceived strategies like jail barges.

Now, city officials say, the jail barges would fetch only $900,000.

A city plan to place a jail barge off the Lower East Side, at least temporarily, has led to neighborhood protests.

New York City's plan to build a $130 million jail barge to house 800 inmates was approved last night by the Board of Estimate.

A final site for mooring the jail barge has not been selected.

Lawsuits, petitions and emotional political appeals by community groups have dogged the itineraries of the city's two existing jail barges.

That's peanuts compared with the $130 million Mr. Koehler wants for a new jail barge -which would provide only partial relief.