PostedSeptember 19, 2021, 07:51
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The city and state of New York took over the Rikers Island file after local authorities called it a “humanitarian crisis”. For former prisoners, prison is “a cancer to be eradicated”.
Aerial view of the Rikers Island prison.
–AFP
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“Cancer”, “rat hole”, “house of horror”: former inmates of the sinister New York prison of Rikers Island still tremble when they evoke this gigantic prison complex where the American stayed Harvey Weinstein and French Dominique Strauss-Kahnand where nine prisoners have died this year.
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Prison conditions at Rikers Island, hidden on the East River between the Bronx and Queens, have been known to be appalling for decades.
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But today, the local authorities are alarmed by a “humanitarian crisis” aggravated by the coronavirus epidemic, which he died in New York, its public services and in particular its prisons. While this week the city and state of New York – which have authority over Rikers Island – took up the case, three former detainees told AFP their terrible memories.
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«Far West»
“It’s really the Wild West there,” says Johnny Perez, who was incarcerated there several times between 1996 and 2001 for armed robbery. Glenn Martin was only 16 in the late 1980s when he spent three days shoplifting there. He was beaten up four times there and spoke of it more than 30 years later as a “rat hole”.
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Rikers Island is also “garbage everywhere, food infested with maggots, cockroaches, worms in the showers, feces and piss”, protested on Twitter Emily Gallagher, parliamentarian for the state of New York after a visit this week. The elected official denounced “a humanitarian crisis, a house of horror, aggression and ill-treatment”.
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“Torture” is legion there
In fact, recalls Glenn Martin, acts of violence and “torture” are legion there. For another former prisoner, Marvin Mayfield, “everyone loses a bit of their soul.” He spent a total of 22 months there between the 1980s and 2007 for burglaries.
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Everyone loses a bit of their soul.
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The prison opened in 1932 and earned a reputation as a cradle of violence. In the 1990s, Rikers Island had up to 20,000 inmates, or just under a third of the total prison population in France. They are 6000 today. Most are blacks and Hispanics awaiting trial.
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Celebrities
Celebrities are also sometimes locked up there before their possible trials. Former International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was dramatically jailed in May 2011 on charges of raping Manhattan Sofitel maid Nafissatou Diallo. The case ended in a financial transaction.
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Former all-powerful movie producer Harvey Weinstein also stayed on the island in the East River. He has been serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape in New York since 2020 and is appearing in Los Angeles for other rape charges.
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British Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and American rapper Tupac Shakur, both of whom have since died, also walked through the gates of Rikers Island.
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Inmate suicides
But for former inmates and specialists in the American penitentiary system, the “people” of Rikers Island have seen nothing of the reality of today’s prison: the insecurity and the health situation are “ten times worse than in the 1980s and 1990s and out of control for a few months.
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New York City Corrections has acknowledged that nine people have lost their lives there this year – ten according to local media – compared to seven in 2020 and three in 2019. Half of the deaths since January have been suicides, authorities say.
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Like other utilities in the city, Rikers Island Jail has been hit hard by the Covid-19 outbreak. According to unions, 2,700 prison guards – a third of all New York prison staff – are on sick leave. Either because of the coronavirus, or for violence by prisoners.
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Possibly closed in 2026
Incumbent New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio this week waved an emergency renovation plan and spoke again of a 2026 closure. francs). But nothing says that the next mayor, elected at the end of the year, will comply.
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For her part, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced Friday the early release of 191 detainees.
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It is a cancer (…) that must be eradicated,
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For the Rikers Island alumni, who now work in associations, the prison must close. “It is a cancer (…) which must be eradicated”, pleads Mr. Mayfield.
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(AFP)
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