For those of us who are not intrigued by the inner workings of the justice system, it may be shocking to know that America is undergoing a period called mass incarceration. This means that more and more people have been arrested for low-level crimes due to punitive sentencing laws, which has led to an influx of jail populations, hence the term “mass incarceration.”
You may wonder what this has to do with the Close Rikers Campaign, so I will let you in on a secret that is in fact, not so secret. Rikers Island is located in the state of New York and is considered to be one of the most notorious jails in all of America. I can hear the gears turning in your minds as you connect the dots between “Rikers” and “mass incarceration,” and I’m quite proud that you are thinking about it because this is the first step in criminal justice reform: awareness and rational contemplation.
Rikers Island has been fraught with violence, criminality and corruption since it was settled, and it seems that its reputation has only become worse over time. According to an article by Vice, a wealthy Dutch family, The Rycken Family, purchased and settled the island in the 1660s during British rule. The name was Anglicized and it became Riker. The patriarch of the family, Richard Riker, who acted as the municipal officer who oversaw New York City’s criminal court, has been linked to a cruel slave legacy. During the years of 1815-1838, he would deem handfuls of free black men, women, and children as fugitive slaves without trial, allowing them to be kidnapped and sold in the South. According to historical accounts, Riker received a kickback from kidnappers and was so well known that he was labeled a part of the “Kidnapping Club” by abolitionists, along with two other policemen who had the primary goal of catching slaves.
In 1884, years after the passing of Riker, the city bought his estate, but it wasn’t until 1897 that Riker’s Island became an island for the incarcerated. The current prisons at the time: Tombs and Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary, were both too overcrowded to sustain their current populations. The year 1932 was when Rikers officially opened. The transfer of prisoners was supposed to be gradual and partial; however, a corruption scandal was unveiled at Blackwell’s after which it was permanently closed. All of its inhabitants were transferred to Rikers in 1935. The jail was not even open for five years and was already determined to be unlivable due to its cramped cells, unhygienic conditions, and a rumor of contraband being smuggled in. Despite this, Rikers began expanding from the mid-1960’s and through the 1970’s. In 1991 under mayor Rudy Giuliani, low-level infractions were targeted with force, and the result was hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers behind bars for petty crimes. During the 1990s, there were nearly 24,000 people on Rikers Island at one time (which is a lot, because a state prison was only capable of hosting around 2,200 inmates). Due to this overcrowding problem, makeshift jail tents which were prone to flooding began to be used, and dorms were stacked with beds. Even worse, correctional officers would send inmates to solitary confinement just to open a bed in general population.
Although this overcrowding is unimaginable, Rikers had more than just an overcrowding problem, the influx of bodies contributed to uncontrollable violence. Through the 80s and 90s, women correctional officers were objectified and requested to perform sexual favors in exchange for the shifts they preferred. Inmates were constantly abused to impress female coworkers and display power. There were very little resources available for rehabilitative services, the healthcare which was provided was not adequate, and suicides and abuse of mentally ill patients rose. Overall, Rikers became, and still is, a hellhole, especially for those who haven’t even been determined to be guilty yet. Many of these issues were finally brought to the attention of the public after the suicide of Kalief Browder in 2015, a former inmate of Rikers Island who was incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. Browder had endured so much hardship while on Rikers that he committed suicide after being released.
Courtesy: Buzzfeed
It is for all these reasons, that the Close Rikers Campaign was formed in 2016, with the hope of closing one of the most notorious jails in the nation. Led by JustLeadershipUSA, and with the goal of “breaking the political gridlock and achieve real solutions guided by impacted communities”. With the closing of Rikers, New York can focus on healing and rebuilding the affected communities. However, on a larger scale, the closing of Rikers allows New Yorkers and other people around the nation to reimagine the city’s failed criminal justice system and begin to end the era of mass incarceration.
The current mayor has already created and announced a ten-year plan to close Rikers; however, the campaign leaders are arguing that ten years is too long. Communities are in need of restoration immediately, and many people are in need of rehabilitative services. Although this movement is happening in New York City, this is an important and transformative movement across the nation. If New York City can reduce its incarcerated population successfully, then so can other districts, and overall other states. This would reduce government spending on incarcerated populations, help rebuild communities everywhere, and provide services for those who are mentally ill or addicted. The progress for which the Close Rikers Campaign is striving for would create a reality which is more just than the current institution of justice.