24 Facts About Rikers Island

Rikers Island is home to one of the world's largest correctional institutions and mental institutions, and has been described as New York's most well-known jail.

Rikers Island has a reputation for violence, both abuse and neglect of inmates, attracting increased press and judicial scrutiny that has resulted in numerous rulings against the New York City government, and numerous assaults by inmates on uniformed and civilian staff, often resulting in serious injuries.

In May 2013, Rikers Island ranked as one of the ten worst correctional facilities in the United States, based on reporting in Mother Jones magazine.

Rikers Island is therefore not a prison by US terminology, which typically holds offenders serving longer-term sentences.

North Infirmary Command, which used to be called the Rikers Island Infirmary, is used to house inmates requiring extreme protective custody, inmates with special health needs, mentally ill inmates, and inmates undergoing drug detoxification.

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Rikers Island has been referred to as the world's largest penal colony.

Rikers Island is named after Abraham Rycken, a Dutch settler who moved to Long Rikers Island in 1638 and took possession of the island in 1664.

Rikers Island was used as a military training ground during the Civil War.

The first regiment to use the Rikers Island was the 9th New York Infantry, known as Hawkins' Zouaves, which arrived there on May 15,1861.

Rikers Island was used by numerous other Civil War regiments, but the name "Camp Astor" was specific to the Anderson Zouaves and did not become a general name for the military encampment on the island.

Also, 200 acres were stripped from Rikers Island to help fill in the new North Beach Airport, which opened in 1939 and was later renamed LaGuardia Airport.

The population at Rikers Island would have to decrease from current average of 10,000 to approximately 5,000.

Rikers Island has become notorious in recent years for a "culture of abuse, " and has been subject to a number of investigations and rulings.

Rikers Island was brought to jail still dressed in formal wedding attire, locked in a cell, and forced to strip and expose her cavities for search in the hour it took for her daughter to arrive and post bail.

Village Voice article lists a roll call of 2008 scandals at Rikers Island, including the case of officers who allegedly passed accused cop killer Lee Woods marijuana, cigarettes, and alcohol; the February indictment of correctional officer Lloyd Nicholson who used inmates as "enforcers", and the April 27 suicide of 18-year-old Steven Morales in the high-security closed-custody unit.

Solitary confinement unit at Rikers Island is commonly referred to as "Bing", the inmates kept there known as "Bing monsters".

Rikers Island's family was unable to make his $3,000 bail, later being unable to post bail due to a probation violation.

Rikers Island was profiled in The New Yorker in October 2014 for being held for three years on Rikers Island without a trial.

Rikers Island signed an executive order banning solitary confinement of juveniles in federal prisons.

Inmates, correctional officers, the DOT, and the head doctor at Rikers Island warned that better precautionary measures should be put in place, and that non-violent inmates should be released, making arguments in the name of public health.

Rikers Island walked with a cane and wore a bracelet that read "risk of fall".

Rikers Island's cell was over 100 degrees, and he had taken prescription drugs which increase sensitivity to heat.

On November 2,2016, Castelle was sent to Rikers and was found dead six days later, at the Anna M Kross Center.

Conditions on Rikers Island have drastically deteriorated since the onset of COVID-19, due to a combination of viral outbreaks, staffing shortages, and exacerbated mental health crises among detainees.