Rikers Island

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Rikers Island is the name of New York City's largest jail facility, as well as the name of the 413.17-acre (1.672 km²) island on which it sits, in the East River between the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx (40°47′28″N, 73°52′58″W), adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The jail complex, operated by the New York City Department of Correction, has a budget of $860 million a year, a staff of 10,000 officers and 1,500 civilians to control a yearly inmate population of up to 130,000. The official permanent population of the island, as reported by the United States Census Bureau, was 12,780 as of the 2000 census.

The island is named after Abraham Rycken, a Dutch settler who moved to Long Island in 1638 and whose descendants owned Rikers Island until 1884, when it was sold to the city for $180,000 and has been used as a jail in one form or another ever since.

An inmate at Riker's Island is informally called a Riker.^{[verification needed]}^{[citation needed]}

1 Rikers Island jail
2 History
3 Cultural references
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Rikers Island jail

The facility generally holds about 15,000 inmates at a time, although the daytime population (including staff) can be 20,000 or more.

The facility, which consists of ten jails, holds local offenders who are awaiting trial and cannot afford or cannot obtain bail, those serving sentences of one year or less, and those temporarily placed there pending transfer to another facility which does not have space.

The only access to the facility is from Queens, over the unmarked 4,200-foot (1.28 km) three-lane Francis Buono Bridge, dedicated on November 22, 1966, by Mayor John Lindsay.^[1] Before the bridge was constructed, the only access to the island was by ferry. Transportation is also provided by the Q101R Limited stop bus service, also serving the Riker's Island Parking Lot, the 21st Street-Queensbridge F subway station, and the Queensboro Plaza 7 N W subway station at Queensboro Plaza, providing around-the-clock service. There are also privately-operated shuttles that connect the parking lot at the south end to the island. Bus service within the island for visitors visiting inmates is provided by the New York City Department of Correction.

The North Infirmary Command, which used to be called the Rikers Island Infirmary, is used to house inmates requiring extreme protective custody, as well as some regular inmates. The rest of the facilities, all built in the last 67 years, make up this city of jails. Two of these are floating jails. Originally Staten Island ferries, the two floating detention centers are docked off the northern tip of Rikers Island. Each of them has an inmate capacity of 162 and serves as an annex to one of the other jails on the island. There is also the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, a floating barge (described below). If an inmate were to become seasick by being confined on a ferry, he/she could sue.^{[citation needed]} New York City's jail system has become something of a small town. There are schools, medical clinics, ball fields, chapels, gyms, drug rehab programs, grocery stores, barbershops, a bakery, a laundromat, a power plant, a track, a tailor shop, a print shop, a bus depot and even a car wash. Rikers Island is the world's largest penal colony.[1]

[edit] History

The island was used as a military training ground for both white and African-American regiments during the Civil War. The first regiment to use the Island was the Ninth New York Infantry, also known as Hawkin's Zouaves, which arrived there on May 15, 1861. Hawkins' Zouaves was followed by the 36th New York State Volunteers on June 23, which was followed by the Anderson Zouaves on July 15, 1861. The Anderson Zouaves were commanded by John Lafayette Riker who was related to the owners of the island. The camp of the Anderson Zouaves was named Camp Astor in complement to millionaire John Jacob Astor Jr. who provided funding for the army, and who appears to have made a significant contribution to the raising of the Anderson Zouaves in particular with the Astor Ladies being credited with the manufacture of the zouave uniforms worn by the recruits of this regiment. Despite the fact that Riker's Island was subsequently used by numerous Civil War regiments, the name "Camp Astor" was specific to the Anderson Zouaves and did not become a general name for the military encampment on the island.

The island was bought by New York City from the Ryker family in 1884 for $180,000 and was used as a jail farm.

In 1932, the city opened a jail for men on the island to replace its dilapidated jail on Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island). Landfill was added to the island in 1954. It enlarged the area of the island to 415 acres, enabling the jail facilities to expand. The original penitentiary building, completed in 1935, is now a maximum security facility called James A. Thomas Center.

During Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's term as mayor of New York, the jail filled to overflowing, and an 800-bed barge was installed on the East River to accommodate the extra inmates. The barge is called the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, or V.C.B.C./ VCBC, and was formerly known as MTF3 (for Maritime Facility #3). VCBC is located at 1 Halleck St, Bronx, NY 10474, at the end of Hunts Point, near the recently relocated Fulton Fish Market.

A drawing by artist Salvador Dalí, done as an apology because he was unable to attend a talk about art for the prisoners at Rikers Island, hung in the inmate dining room from 1965 to 1981, when it was moved to the prison lobby for safekeeping. The drawing was stolen in March 2003 and replaced with a fake: three Correction Officers, and an Assistant Deputy Warden were arrested and charged, and though three later pled guilty and one was acquitted, the drawing has not been recovered.

[edit] Cultural references

In the movie Carlito's Way, Sean Penn's character is involved in a plot to assist in the escape of the New York Italian Mob boss from Riker's Island via boat.

A fictional prison in the Marvel Comics universe, Ryker's Island is a stronghold for containing both human and superhuman detainees. It is based on the real life location.

In the Marvel video game The Punisher, Jigsaw is imprisoned at Ryker's. The main character, Frank Castle, later infiltrates the prison, which leads to a large shoot-out and riot in which Jigsaw is eventually battled.

In Futurama's 4th season episode Three Hundred Big Boys, Kif is sent to 'Commander Riker's Island', an obvious play on Rikers Island. The name is a reference to the character Commander William Riker, from the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, played by Jonathan Frakes.

In the Law and Order television franchise convicts are many times sent to Rikers Island for sex crimes and homicides. In many episodes, the detectives will visit Rikers to question an inmate. Of course, these scenes are produced on a set rather than the actual island.

In Stephen Adly Guirgis' play Jesus Hopped the "A" Train, the character Lucius Jenkins is detained at Riker's Island.

In an Season 1 episode of Chappelle's Show, during the sketch "PopCopy", a store clerk (played by Michael Rapaport) references that he doesn't care about his reputation and that he'll go to Riker's for three or four years.

In the 2006 theatrical film "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints" the character of Antonio (based on a real person) is sent to Riker's Island after he murderers a street hood. His friends are told to visit him there, which they never do.

[edit] References

^ "'Bridge of Hope' to Rikers Island Is Dedicated Here", The New York Times, November 23, 1966. pg. 41.

[edit] External links

Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 40.790563° -73.882078°
- Satellite image from WikiMapia, Google Maps or Windows Live Local
- Street map from MapQuest or Google Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image from TerraServer-USA

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