Rikers Island

Enabling corrupt prison guards — I had to laugh yesterday upon hearing a local news feature revealing that a Rikers Island prison guard had just been indicted for accepting $6000 in bribes from a prisoner in exchange for muling drugs into the facility. The detainee would then deal the smuggled marijuana to his incarcerated homies…

The easiest way for a suicidal inmate to kill himself — I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. Montes, one of my fellow suicide watchers at MCC federal prison, went berserk. “Call the CO! Call the CO!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. …

Does it really exist? — If there’s a worse place to be incarcerated — or a more poorly-run jail or prison in the United States — I, as an ex-felon who was imprisoned at both Rikers Island and the now-shuttered and infamous MCC federal prison, would be hard-put to find one. In a utopian world…

Still alive and well — It was one of the coldest nights of the season when I entered a Rikers Island dormitory for the last 14 days of a yearlong stay I suffered at three different New York city penal institutions. While the heaters buzzed overhead and were functioning as designed, the dorm windows would…

It’s a rough row to hoe — Let’s say a corrections officer runs the kitchen at a facility that serves food for 1000 inmates. That guard’s job first and foremost, is to take convicted felons and motivate them to prepare the meals efficiently and with a smile on their faces — both while the government pays those…