My Three Week Vacation at New York City’s Worst Jail
Welcome to Rikers Island
Club Fed it ain’t. That’s for sure! But after spending a year at MCC federal prison, I was more or less ready for whatever Rikers had to throw at me.
Maybe I got lucky. Or maybe I’m street smart. But Rikers was not the completely threatening place many people think it is. In fact, there were several facets of Rikers life I found superior to serving time in a federal facility.
Unknown to virtually all people who haven’t been run through the judicial and penal systems, is the cold and harsh reality that many offenders get prosecuted in more than one jurisdiction for what is essentially the same crime. I was included in that exclusive club. And what that means is often, inmates will be ferried from one prison in one jurisdiction to another in a different prison to serve another term on a different but related arrest!
It’s a shit show for sure. My federal charge was tax fraud. But the feds knew how I’d made the money (as an advertising agency for escorts). As did the State. So the latter charged me with promotion of prostitution for running those ads. Why the State chose to prosecute me rather than targeting the Village Voice or New York Magazine (where those ads would be running) is a question you’d have to pose to the State.
