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The Social Impact of Mass Incarceration in the Twenty-First Century
I first entered Rikers Island in 1991 as a journalist to interview a prisoner. Although Rikers Island lies just six miles from midtown Manhattan, it took me one subway ride, two buses, clearance through numerous metal detectors, and two pat frisks before I arrived in the visiting room of the world's largest penal colony-nearly two hours later. I swore I would never return.
But return I did, hundreds of times over the following years to teach a writing class to inmates and later to run a prisoner reentry program. Today, my work as a mitigation specialist on capital cases means I don't get out to Rikers much-New York abolished the death penalty in 2001. But there are things from my first trip to Rikers I'll never forget.
I remember the refashioned mailbox where visitors were encouraged to deposit contraband (drugs and weapons) before entering without fear of reprisal, and the fact that none of my colleagues, native New Yorkers all, knew how to get to Rikers, despite its housing more inmates than eight state prison systems combined.
But the most striking thing I noticed while waiting for my subject in the visiting room was that I was the only white person. This was astounding to me back then, when I believed that justice was color-blind.
Like most things New York, Rikers Island is big and expensive. There are 10 separate jails capable of housing up to 16,000 inmates.1 There's a jail for women, which contains a nursery, and a jail for boys 16 to 18 years old. Over 42,000 meals are prepared daily. Approximately 85,000 inmates are admitted and released annually. With a huge power plant, three high schools, a firehouse, a hospital, a courthouse, a tailor shop, and a bakery, Rikers Island could be its own city.2
A mile-long bridge separates the land of the free from the land of the jailed. The inmates say it takes five minutes to cross over but an eternity to cross back. Literally and figuratively, the bridge is a dividing line between the Big Apple's have's and have-not's. About two-thirds of Rikers inmates are pretrial detainees who have been charged but not yet convicted of a...