The video right out off the start said that America has the most people incarcerated in the world. Coming into this video I knew that we lead the world in incarceration. It also stated that we have over 2 million inmates a year. I did not know the exact number of inmates a year in America but I knew it was quite high. It amazed me that at rikers island alone they hold over 7,500 inmates, that is a large number, and it takes a lot of well trained staff and money to properly hold these inmates. 80 percent of inmates of Rikers Island have not been sentenced yet. Some stay 2 months, and some stay for 6 years while they are waiting trial. The way the inmates talk about Rikers island, is almost like a realistic version of hell. Just by the way the inmates talk about Rikers, you can tell that they fear for their lives while they are staying there. Fresh inmates have to initiate themselves, by standing up for themselves when they are being bullied. There is a hierarchy in the prison, and you need to know who is at the top. It amazed that 40 percent of the inmates at Rikers have some sort of mental illness, and will probably never get the right treatment due to the lack of money. Just from some of the inmates stories you can tell that the officers do not have much control. The people beat eachother up, they hid contraband, the hygiene is gross. It is not an environment that any person will cure themselves in. That is why our recidivism rates are so high, because the programs that are available to the inmates, are either not good enough, or the inmates don't get the proper treatment. I-Like-Cereal002
I-Like-Cereal002, you wrote, “It is not an environment that any person will cure themselves in.” This speaks nothing but truth. We expect the inmates to be fixed once their sentence is filled in jail. When in fact the environment is usually prohibiting positive growth for the detainees. Once they become returning citizens, they are more likely to reoffend. Hence the vicious cycle starts again. This friction between jail life and recidivism drastically increases due to mental illness. An individual cannot be cured by just being placed in a jail facility. That would be at large counterproductive. More and better programs should be in place, as this would affect long term recidivism rates. -CoalRoller003
This video truly is an eye-opener and provides some devastatingly shocking information/statistics that make me want to help be apart of the change that fixes our problem. Rikers Island is a 400-acre island that has 10 jails built on it, which is the main jailing complex for New York City. The jails include facilities for women, adolescents, an infirmary, a power plant, as well as a bakery. At the beginning of the video, a few minutes in, there is an african american man talking about his “introduction” to Rikers Island- he said he had just gotten there, been checked in and completed that whole process, when two guys approached him and his friend he was sitting next to with intentions of taking his sneakers. The two men attacked him and managed to get one of his sneakers, with him only receiving a black eye and a busted lip. He later asked his friend what happened- why hadn’t he helped stand up for him? His friend responded with, “I had to make sure you could stand up for yourself, before I stood up for you.” This already tells me that this is quite a bit like many other rougher prisons and jails across the country in the sense that you will be killed or taken advantage of daily if you cannot prove you can stand for yourself. Something that shocked me that was discussed in the video was that America has over 2 million people that come through our jails and prisons on an annual basis. I knew that America was the world’s leader in the number of incarcerated, but to see such a number actually expressed is seriously hard to swallow. After listening to several of the inmates talk about their time there, the way they were “introduced” by fellow inmates, and the experiences had in there, I am certain to say that I certainly never want to go there. One of the people in the video who had previously been incarcerated at Rikers said that one of the first thoughts on his mind, (after having JUST watched somebody come out of the infirmary all bloody and cut up), was how to get a weapon. Immediately after this, another inmate said it is, “just like gladiator school- if you don’t have a weapon, then you have a serious issue.” All of these reports and experiences tell me Rikers Island needs a serious update on security, more workers, and to reduce the number of incarcerated held there. As a whole, our country needs to do something about the mass incarceration as it is already as well. GMan003
The video is very eye opening during the whole video you are amazed by what is really going on. I like how you said "Gladiator school". We put men and women into Rickers Island and let them do what some did to get into prison and let it happen while they are serving time for doing that crime. It just amazes me how we as a country can let that happen. It very hard to swallow like you said to let this go on. Something needs to be put in place soon about this and mass incarceration. DirtTrack003
America has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. The average inmate per year for the past few years is over 2 million. On a Typical day, more than 7,500 are held in NYC’s Rikers Island jail, notorious for its culture of violence. Rikers island actually sits in the middle of a lake. Rikers is located in the East River, Rikers is connected to the mainland by a single bridge. These are some of the stories from inmates who have survived the long river there and back. They were talking about how long the drive is over the drive and how they thought it was a long drive. They thought they were going into the belly of the beast. Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. They are being held awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal. The average stay is less than two months, but some have waited to six years. Over half the detainees can not afford bail, often set below $1,000. No one liked being strip searched. Listening to these stories shows that these people do care about being arrested and live everyday life’s just like the average citizen. Some 40% of detainees at Rikers are diagnosed with a mental illness. When you are in jail, everything on the outside(meaning society) doesn’t matter one bit. When you are on the inside(meaning jail) everything you shouldn’t be doing means everything. 2-4 Imates run the day to day things so you have to get along with other inmates to survive. Listing to these story is very fascinating as to how bad the inside is. -chicubs003
America has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. The average inmate per year for the past few years is over 2 million. On a Typical day, more than 7,500 are held in NYC’s Rikers Island jail, notorious for its culture of violence. Rikers island actually sits in the middle of a lake. Rikers is located in the East River, Rikers is connected to the mainland by a single bridge. These are some of the stories from inmates who have survived the long river there and back. They were talking about how long the drive is over the drive and how they thought it was a long drive. They thought they were going into the belly of the beast. Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. They are being held awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal. The average stay is less than two months, but some have waited to six years. Over half the detainees can not afford bail, often set below $1,000. No one liked being strip searched. Listening to these stories shows that these people do care about being arrested and live everyday life’s just like the average citizen. Some 40% of detainees at Rikers are diagnosed with a mental illness. When you are in jail, everything on the outside(meaning society) doesn’t matter one bit. When you are on the inside(meaning jail) everything you shouldn’t be doing means everything. 2-4 Imates run the day to day things so you have to get along with other inmates to survive. Listing to these story is very fascinating as to how bad the inside is. -chicubs002
Its appalling to hear what some of the detainees have to do to survive. Appalling that these inmates were dehumanized to the point they had to fight like animals to survive. Appalling that correctional officers stooped to a level of murder, sexual assault and other various crimes that they themselves should be incarcerated. All because they want to express their authority. casket003
This was a fascinating documentary to watch. It was sad to hear the stories that these individuals told about their experiences on Rikers Island. The stories of what happened to them are sad. I did not realize that a jail could be so corrupt and awful. There were also some statistics that were shared during the documentary that I thought were interesting. It starts off the film by stating that America has more people locked up than any other country in the world. This is something we have talked about during class, so it was actually kind of cool to see it somewhere else also to drive home that fact. The number of inmates per year is 2 million. At Rikers Island, the average daily population is 7,500 inmates which is a lot. Rikers Island is known for its violent culture. I thought it was interesting that Rikers Island is connected to land by a single bridge. This makes sense because it is less of a security risk because they can focus on one bridge instead of multiple, so it makes it hard to escape. It also helps that it is an island so the inmates would have to swim to escape the island. 80% of inmates that are at Rikers Island have not been convicted of any crimes. This does and does not make sense it makes sense because a lot of people that are in jail are poor so they can not make bail, so they have to sit in prison until their trial, so technically they are not found guilty of any crimes, but they are sitting in jail even if they are innocent. This is sad because these people could be innocent but have to go through the horrors of Rikers Island like the violence that is inflicted by the other inmates and the Corrections Officers. -Legion001
Its so sad to hear about these different types of living conditions that people go through at Rikers. And the things that people see or hear about while there at Rikers is sad. It all makes since why most of them have some form of mental illness. You have to literally fight for your life from the time you wake up till the time you lay down and even while your sleep. Its like war fighting to death every single day in the opes that you will make it back home to your family or just back to change your life around. Batman003
There is one way in and one way out when going to Rikers Island, 80% of the men and women that go there are not convicted of a crime. In the begging of the video it states that the average stay is 2 weeks to 6 months, then not even a second later it says that some have stayed for 6 years, this then sets the mood and environment of Rikers. Of all the inmates there 40% of them have a mental disorder. Inmates that are interviewed talk about the owners of the “houses” the gangs and the sexual assault of inmates affects your time at Rikers. A lady was interviewed throughout most of the video and goes then into detail of her crime. She put her personal account on a trust she was working at the time for over 280.000 dollars and she was arrested while doing errands and was then sent to rikers. She was sexual assaulted by 4 inmates and she did not report it from what the inmates were stating you do not report anything or snitch because most correctional officers don’t care or know how the rikers protocol is. The amount of violence that happens in a place like that is insane to me. Correctional Officers they work at Rikers should be on rotation. The way rikers is ran needs to be looked into or watch very soon no one should have to go through that. Now, with that being said you are in there for a crime and need punished but not assaulted physically or sexual under any circumstances. I was not aware of Rikers Island or what is was till watching this video. Rikers Island is not a place to go for even Correctional officers it sounds like and yes America has the most incarcerated people in the world but if 80% aren’t committed for crime something needs to be done about it, Especially for the people that stay for such a short time. DirtTrack003
This video was very fascinating. I really enjoyed how it started off with ex-cons explaining what they had thought going across the bridge to Rikers. The fact that 80% of the inmates have not been convicted of a crime is befuddling. How can something like that happen? As the video continues, it starts to have a feeling of an older mental health hospital. The stories that people are telling and how most of them are diagnosed with a mental illness just proves to me that these people need some real help in a way prisons and jails can not deliver. This video gives me a strong feeling that pretrial detainees should not even be kept in the same building as convicts. The terror stories of being introduced to drugs in jail or watching people eat roaches is not fair to someone who could be completely innocent. This jail needs a complete overhaul in order to fix the problem presented so far in the video. It sounds like inmates run the jail more than the CO's would. It seems to come off as a type of gang affiliation when the ex-cons are talking about the "house," or the "program." One ex-con said "violence rules." That is just insane to me because we as a society do not believe that but people in jails or prisons it is still a very true reality for them. It is shocking how someone can go from one innocent day to day life then be plunged into a world of violence and insanity. It is interesting that we believe that jails should be a place where rehabilitation is plentiful and a place you can turn your life around but in Rikers it seems to be the opposite. Jackrabbit001
The video explain to us the viewers a broad generalization of what it is like to go to Rikers island, to live there, and about the hopes of one day leaving that place. The video touched on the intimates that had been there once upon a time and thee experiences that they seen or have been thru. It’s crazy to hear that people would run there sandwiches on the floor and eat them or the fact they would pick up roaches and eat them off the floor. In the media they try to show that jail is a rehabilitation to help prisoner turn around there lives. But how is this possible with conditions like this. Batman002
Rikers island is a jail that holds about 7500 inmates. Almost eighty percent of the inmates at Rikers have not been convicted of a crime. The inmates that talk about the bus ride on the bridge to get to Rikers Island describe its as a monster on the other side. They finally realize that it’s really happening and they hope they make it out. They describe Rikers island as this dirty and smelly place. Inmates would do the most disgusting things to each other or with each other. Most inmates say they have multiple types of mental illness. Forty percent of Rikers inmates are diagnosed with mental illnesses. In Rikers and many other jails or prisons there are different procedures how it runs. Which is ran by the inmates controlling the other people who can’t fight for there self of who are too scared to say anything. To be able to make it thru jails or prisons you have to have a certain type of attitude. You can’t show emotion cause it will make you seem weak. You have to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary with a weapon. Inmates will use anything they can find rather its blade to a fan or a knife. There violence that happens all day everyday where people are fighting or getting stab there’s always something happening. Most of the violence happens because of gang related. The normal inmate that goes to Rikers has been in foster most of their life and has been to Rikers before or been there multiple times. When correctional officers see the inmates fighting some try their best to stop it others wait a minute or two then try to break it up. There are good correctional officers that do try to help the inmates from coming back to Rikers by trying to talk to them while others could care less and just do their job and go home. Batman002
How we have been learning in class, people that commit violent crime are usually victims of it when they were younger. There was a man that was in and out of homes when he was younger, which taught him how to live the lifestyle of violence and being accustomed to it. A lot of people that's all they know and would probably be the hardest to rehabilitate. Also, most of the correctional officers in Rikers Island were corrupt and let the violence within gang control housing. That later Bloods was able to be established in the prison. dory002
Most inmates say they have multiple types of mental illness. Forty percent of Rikers inmates are diagnosed with mental illnesses. In Rikers and many other jails or prisons there are different procedures how it runs. Which is ran by the inmates controlling the other people who can’t fight for there self of who are too scared to say anything. To be able to make it thru jails or prisons you have to have a certain type of attitude. You can’t show emotion cause it will make you seem weak. You have to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary with a weapon. Inmates will use anything they can find rather its blade to a fan or a knife. There violence that happens all day everyday where people are fighting or getting stab there’s always something happening. Most of the violence happens because of gang related. Rikers island is a jail that holds about 7500 inmates. Almost eighty percent of the inmates at Rikers have not been convicted of a crime. The inmates that talk about the bus ride on the bridge to get to Rikers Island describe its as a monster on the other side. They finally realize that it’s really happening and they hope they make it out. They describe Rikers island as this dirty and smelly place. Inmates would do the most disgusting things to each other or with each other.The normal inmate that goes to Rikers has been in foster most of their life and has been to Rikers before or been there multiple times. When correctional officers see the inmates fighting some try their best to stop it others wait a minute or two then try to break it up. There are good correctional officers that do try to help the inmates from coming back to Rikers by trying to talk to them while others could care less and just do their job and go home. Batman003
Nearly 80% of those in Riker’s are awaiting trial. That is an astonishing amount of people. Half of the inmates there can’t afford bail forcing them to stay behind bars until they go on trial. There are a few who have been waiting for trial for 6 years. Many of the people in the jail suffer from various mental health issues. Some of them still are haunted by drug addiction. Being in jail is a totally different lifestyle, as the one lady said nobody talks in a normal voice everyone just screams. There is a hierarchy in jail that one must respect if they want to survive. The one guy being interviewed mentioned that he didn’t want anything to do with the system and was beaten for in, in front of a guard none the less. Not only are the inmates the ones who are hardened to jail life, the police are too. The guards know the system and how it works, and they know when to jump into a fight and when not to. Jail seems to change everyone involved in the process. The atmosphere is so violent that people who were good outside of jail have to turn into someone that they don’t want to be in order to survive. Many of the former inmates described how they had to be violent to get people to leave them alone. Many of them had to get weapons to protect themselves. This video opened my eyes to just how bad the violence gets behind bars. There are times when guards watch the fight happening but choose to do nothing. An inmate has to rely on their own strength to get through. It makes me angry to see how bad people get hurt in environments like this, but I don’t know of any way the justice system can fix it. Sexy_in_bikini001
You mentioned how being in jail changes people including the inmates and the correctional officers. In the video there are quite a few comments on how the officers contributed to the violence and it makes me wonder if the officers who do commit violent acts would have had it in them to do that before working at Rikers Island or even when they first started working there. If they didn't start out beating up inmates, was it ingrained in them through follow the examples of more experienced officers? It's awful that the inmates have to fight to survive in this environment and they can't trust or rely on the officers to properly do their jobs. -Smokeybear003
This by far gives one of the best views from a prison as harsh as Rikers Island. What these inmates have experienced inside this prison is similar to what goes on in other prisons as well but this prison just seems to have a much more evil presence on the inside. Hearing the one prior inmate speak about the treatment of mental health of the inmates was just sickening how the not only the other inmates treated the mentally ill but how the guards treated them. Professionalism is such a vital factor in any and every aspect of a jail and prison to ensure the safety of others. Hearing how the inmates run the cell blocks and take advantage of other prisoners with taking commissary and having to report to that "leader" before you can do anything else just sounds like there is not not enough of a presence of guards to control these prisoners. The professionalism came into play when I heard the one man speak about how a group of guys who ran the "house" who beat him down because he didn't want to follow their "rules" and the guard running the house just watched and broke it up after about a minute. The guard then asked the prisoner if he was going to just keep quiet and that just infuriates me that she was not acting professionally to take control of her housing unit while she was on shift. The returning citizens in this all talked about the importance of self protection and that if you didn't know how to protect yourself when you showed up, you would learn soon after because of the danger that was behind the walls. This entire place seems to lack every bit of professionalism needed to run an establishment correctly and seems like it is one of the most corrupt jail/prisons I have ever heard of from the stories of people who have been sentenced here. -Blues001
Starting off, I did not even know Riker’s Island was a thing and did not even know what it was. It is an interesting system, especially the location. I think that it is a smart idea to put a prison on an island. This limits the different ways prisoners could escape. The location and the set up of Riker’s remind me of Alcatraz. The only way you would enter Riker’s is from coming from the bridge. In comparison to Alcatraz, where the only way to get there is by boat. The prisoners described Riker’s Island to be under very harsh conditions. It had a specific smell of bleach and dirt and it wasn’t comfortable in any way. They had a system of hierarchy that they followed. First, there is the house, where one or two inmates are the “top dog.” They are in control of everything regarding to the inmates. After that there is the team, they enforce the rules that “the house” goes by. The other two important levels are the people in charge of the day room where the inmates get to have a little bit of free time. They control everything that goes on in there. Then, finally there are the people who have the “rockin’ spots.” These people are the type of people who don’t exactly want to be in charge of anything or anyone; they just want to be safe. While at prison I understand that there would be some type of set rules, but I wasn’t expecting the inmates to almost be in complete control with what goes on. One of the previous inmates talked about how the people in charge of the house asked him if he wanted to be a part of it somehow and the inmate politely said no and he got jumped. The officer on duty let it happen and after a few minutes told the people of the house to stop and asked the inmate who got jumped to not say anything to anyone about it. It’s almost like the inmates made an alliance with the officers and that’s not how prison is supposed to be. -lilbaby001
Rikers Island seems like a another world. Most people think that when people go to jail that they are going there to get help, and for structure, and to rehabilitate and enter back into the community. But Rikers island is the exact opposite of the that. It's absolute chaos, the guards do not take care of the inmates, and enforce the rules, and even the guards fight and abuse the inmates. It was very eye opening to hear all of the inmates stories, of how the hierarchies work in the prison. Who is in charge, who the enforcers are, who gets bullied. You basically have to fight to survive and prove yourself. If you disagree with the lead inmate of the house, you will get jumped you will get beat, you will have to beat up other inmates, so they leave you alone. The story that shocked me the most was when an inmate got hot water thrown on his face, and his face basically melted off. It makes you wonder, where are the guards, where is the structure. It doesn't surprise me that these people who get out of Rikers island end up going back, they fought on the streets, so it's no different in the jail. 40 percent of the inmates at Rikers Island have some sort of mental disability. They probably do not get the right treatment, or medicine for whatever their disability is. They hygiene is bad, the structure is bad. Rikers Island doesn't even sound like a jail it seems like a fight club behind bars. People being able to make shanks, sneak in razors and contraband, it makes you wonder if the guards even care. They just sit back and let it happen. I think Rikers Island should honestly be shut down after watching, and hearing about all these stories.
I agree that it seems that Rikers doesn't even seem that such a place could exsist. The place seems like it is chaos and that you have to fight for your life it seems almost everyday that you are in there. The mental disability part was indeed sad and you can see that some of the inmates suffer which is very upsetting. -CUBSFAN002
This video was very eye opening, and very sad to watch. It is hard to listen to these horror stories from these inmates. On any given day, nearly seventy-five hundred people are being incarcerated in Riker’s Island. Many of whom have not been convicted of a crime, but simply waiting to see the judge. When in jail, an inmate must never show fear. If fear is shown, then the inmate will be a target. His or her food, clothes, and phone cards will be stolen from them by other inmates. If in inmate puts a kite in to the Correctional Officers, he or she will be labeled as a snitch. The weak are preyed upon by those who have power. Many jails are ran by the inmates (gang member) and not the Correctional Officers. Many times, Correctional Officers will place bets on two inmates during a fight. And the video went on to say that the Officers would let the two inmates out to fight. It seems as though; many Correctional Officers are corrupt. Some officers will bring cigarettes into the jail, and allow inmates to buy them off of them. If officers are not doing that, they are using excessive force against inmates. The documentary spoke about a couple of men who sued and received a settlement. It is sad to see and or hear about how Correctional Officers are treating these inmates as if they were animals. Locked in a cage and housing them until their court dates. Many inmates are or have been diagnosed with mental disorders, and some simply need a shoulder to cry on. When inmates are sent to segregation, many of them loose their minds. You essentially lose your identity in who you are. You lose track of the day, time, and year. Many resort to self-help, which is harming themselves or committing suicide. Segregation ultimately hurts inmates, and inmates should not be in segregation for long periods of time. We as a society are not helping these inmates at all. Many need counseling, and counseling seems to not be offered. When inmates are released, they are thrown to the wolves. They are bussed off the Island, and dropped off. Many are repeat offenders, because they need help, and help is not available to them. Illinigurl002
On any given day on Rikers Island there could be as many as 7,500 inmates. That is just an insane number. Just at this jail there is more inmates than people in my town. I do not know if that is including all of the people that enter the jail or just the inmates that have been convicted of a crime. Either way their should be a better system in play so that number can decrease. Think of all the money that the state could save by just cutting that number in half. -ClarkKent002
This video showed me a new perspective on jail life. Through this video, they interviewed several people who were detained at Rikers Island. They shared their experiences, their thoughts and their feelings. With this kind of first-person perspective, I learned more. On Rikers Island 80% of the detainees are waiting for their trail. More than half have yet to be convicted of a crime. I am surprised this average is so high. Since some of the detainees may be innocent yet they are still are held in such a vlogger environment, the process should be quicker. I am not sure this method is just for the those who are innocent. They will forever be changed, as this environment is mentally and physically degrading on the detainees. On average the inmates stay is less than two months, but some have waited two to six years for their trail. I think this average waiting length of two months is fairly reasonable. As a third party I think this is a manageable time frame. However, for the individual waiting trail they would feel every second of the two months give or take. The time period did not change, just the perspective did. As a third party I think we should be aware of profound differences in perspectives. Forty percent of the detainees at Rikers Island have been diagnosed with a mental illness. More often than not, an induvial may have more than one mental illness. This adds to the every day stresses of jail life. One of the detainees said in an interview, to be successful in this environment you must manifest some form of wickedness. This kind of mind set is truly hard to understand in depth. One must experience it first hand to fully fathom this theory. Living in a jail daily will change a person physically and mentally weather they are guilty or innocent. What a sobering perspective. -CoalRoller003
I could not believe that the percentage of detainees was so high. That seems to be a waste of space in that jail. There should be a better way to hold these detainees. I like that you mention that some of these detainees are innocent and have to be held in the environment. The mental stress on that person has to be extremely high. An innocent person could easily get severely hurt. For example one of the inmates was talking to his mother on the phone and out of nowhere his face was slashed. -ClarkKent003
This video was really eye-opening and exposed the inhumane conditions and treatment that took place on Riker's Island. It was very interesting to hear the different stories of the inmates and get a first-person perspective on the abuse and mistreatment these people had to endure. It's very sad to know that these inmates had to go through all of this with the COs simply standing by and watching because they could have done something to stop what some of these people went through, but instead let it all happen. It is also alarming that some of the people who spent so much time on Riker's and experienced these injustices were not convicted of the crime they were serving time for. Another interesting thing that was addressed in this video was the fact that you could not show any weakness while at Riker's because then the other inmates would prey on you. One man said he willingly gave up his sneakers because he did not want any trouble, but that caused more trouble for him and he ended up getting everything taken from him. He eventually had to go back and fight the inmates to get his stuff back and earn his respect, which he did because he was a black belt. He was just raised to not hurt anyone, but he had to do that because it was them or him. Another lady talked about how people would get in fights over anything, even the smallest, most insignificant things and in one instance, she witnessed two ladies get into an argument and one took the other by the hair and smashed her head against the floor and metal bed frame to the point where the other was bleeding severely. It's really sad that all these things happened on Riker's Island up until just recently and now the prison is being considered for closing. -Reid001
Out of sight out of mind is what comes to mind when watching the “Rikers an American Jail”. This video shows the horrific result of what happens with mass incarceration. With Rikers having 7,500 inmates you are bound to have officers fall to corruption when over worked and under paid. You are also bound to have issues in such a large facility where 40 percent of their inmates have mental illness. As a jail supervisor I find this video very disturbing. Where officers are pissing on inmates, sexually assaulting inmates, allowing inmates to be beaten etc. Where is the integrity? You would also think that with all of the crime and brutality that goes on inside this facility there would be no turn around rate. Rikers Island has a 40 percent return rate within 3 years of release. This is where programs and education would be beneficial to lower the turn around rate. Not only for the betterment of the community but to reduce the mass incarceration. Cruel and inhumane is an understatement. I feel as though a lot of the issues that were described in this video could have been averted had there been some kind of accountability for the actions that were displayed by the officers who were hired to ensure the safety and security the inmates and other staff. I also agree that in environments like this as and officer you are doing time just like the inmates and even when you go home the affects of the prison environment linger so its and vicious cycle that some are not able to cope with. Jadist002
I love your opening line. Out of sight out of mind is a perfect sentence to describe Riker's Island. It is also crazy to me that more people don't think about the fact that many of the officers are far overworked, and very under paid so of course there will be corruption. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and when a person is stressed out to the max and surrounded by criminals, some are bound to fall into that trap. -psych001
Rikers Island reminds me of a larger Cook County Jail. With this facility one would think it would be a prison but it’s basically a holding facility for pre-trial inmates and sentenced inmates awaiting transfer to a long term facility. This to me is a large part of the issue. With having a population of over 7,000 inmates that are a mixture of sentenced and non-sentenced inmates you will have issues where some of the sentenced inmates have nothing to loose so they will cause issues whether it be riots, stabbings, fights etc. The video Rikers An American Jail is very disturbing. You can see that some of the individuals who spoke have long term affects from being incarcerated in this facility. Kathy Moore was only incarcerated for 10 months and during this time see what assaulted for being a snitch witnessed an inmate that had drugs hidden in her hair. To think this was all going on and no one did anything is frustrating as a jail superintendent. Where are the pat down searches, cell searches, and plain day to day monitoring and observation. No policies where being followed and everyone that was in authority that could have possibly done something either turned a blind eye or contributed to some of the brutality. With the amount of law suits that stem from just this facility New York City should be broke. You have officers pissing on inmates, allowing inmates to be raped, and beaten. There was no classifications of inmates. It appears as though everyone was just thrown in all together. Instead of taking over the facility the U. S Marshall's should have closed it down. Jadist003
In this video, we get to see the horrible conditions in Rikers Island. It is crazy to think that we allow people to live and suffer in such an inhumane environment. One of the most appalling things that I heard in this video was that there is extreme violence occurring from both inmates and correctional officers. Why do the inmates feel as though they need to be violent towards each other? Is it because they feel as though violence is an outlet for their frustrations or is it caused by the expectation that you have to be tough to survive? The correctional officers are there to maintain control over the environment and make sure everything is going how it is supposed to, but they are a huge problem in the facility by contributing to the chaos. Do they face any consequences for their actions and what do they gain from beating up inmates and just being awful towards them? The experiences that these people shared are very informative and concerning. It's absolutely heartbreaking to know some of the people in Rikers Island are innocent, but they still have to put up with the fear and chaos of the place. The jail is so unorganized and seems to almost be run by the inmates themselves. After watching this video, I am wondering what is being done to help inmates in prisons and jails to prepare them for their release and going back into society. Are there any programs to help with rehabilitation reentry or are prisons and jails just being treated as holding places? Our country needs to do something to help better these environments and ensure the safety of the inmates. In the end of the video, it says the federal government intervened and has started supervision there on Rikers which seems like a good idea, but it also says the violence is still going on. That jail either needs some extreme intervention or to be shut down entirely. -Smokeybear003
I agree that this jail needs to make some serious improvements or needs to be shut down. One thing that I think they should do is cut back on the amount of people they incarcerate there, perhaps the ones with drug charges. This money that they save should be used to hire more people to work at the prison. This should create a safer environment for these prisoners so that they don’t have to live their whole life in fear. I think that it’s pretty dumb that we punish people for a couple years of mistakes with a lifetime of fear and inhumane living. Celtics001
This video was eye opening to say the least. We send people to jail to help them, "fix" them, and turn them into law abiding citizens, right? At a place like Riker's though, that is not the case. Riker's Island holds 7,500 inmates by itself. For that many inmates, you would need just about as many staff that are properly trained, and qualified to be working with inmates. In a lot of cases, their is a lack of qualification in the people working at Riker's, which is detrimental to the whole system, prisoners to higher ups. In a place like Riker's it is every man for themselves, survival of the fittest, eat or get eaten. That means figuring out who the alpha inmates are, and deciding whether or not you are willing to step on their toes, or if you will do what you are told to stay on their good side. If you have to beat someone else up to get protection from the big wolves in the prison, then that is what you have to do. It is very much a street/gang like mentality. A wopping 40 percent of the inmates in Riker's suffer from some kind of mental disability that is probably not being treated due to lack of financial availability on the prisons end of things. The way the inmates describe Riker's island makes it seem like hell on earth. The violence, the fear, the hierarchy, it all seems unbearable. Recidivism is so high because of facilities like this. No one can come out of a place filled with violence, illegal contraband, and gangs and seriously be expected to just turn their lives around like it's nothing. The things that inmates of Riker's have seen, endured, or been apart of are not things easily forgotten or moved past. Unless Ryker's somehow completely reforms in the next year or so, it would seem to me that the best option would be to shut it down completely. A place like that can do nothing but further damage and harm people that we are wanting to be able to eventually let back into our communities,into our society. The terrible things that occur in Ryker's Island are not to be taken lightly, something needs to change. -psych001
One of the facts that stuck out the most to me was the fact that most people are sitting in there because they can not post bond that is set at under one thousand dollars. For a place that is so large that has a massive volume of inmates you would think that one of the biggest priorities would be staff. Also in a place where organized crime and gangs are very common you would think a priority would be maintaining a safe environment to where rivals would have no chance of interaction. It looks to be a place that is harsher than most and does not put up with a lot. Seeing the hierarchy that is established to where you are fighting for your life from the very beginning. I do not believe this place is based on rehabilitation. Which is hard to believe because it is also told that 40 percent suffer from some sort of mental illness, and you can almost guarantee that they are not receiving proper care for their illness.-Purdue001
According to the video, America has more people incarcerated than in any other country in the world. Over two million people a year are locked up. On an average day, over 7,500 inmates are held in New York City’s Rikers Island Jail. Located in the East river, between Queens and The Bronx, Rikers island is infamous for being the most violent jail. They also have a reputation for the abuse and neglect of their inmates. In the video, inmates described Rikers Island as “Dark”, “Grim”, or “Like a monster”. Also Rikers Island was described as not living, but merely just existing. They feel like no one cares, and that's that. In the video, I learned that almost eighty percent of the detianines in rikers island have yet to even be convicted of a crime. They are there awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal. The average stay is about six months. But there have been some cases when people have stayed there for up for up to six years. More than half of the detainees can not make bail, even ones set at less than 1000 dollars. Another inmate compared rikers to the bermuda triangle. It’s easy to get there, but hard to get out. The way the speakers in the video describe rikers, it sounds horrible. The conditions are bad, there’s violence around every corner. Around forty percent of detainees have a mental illness. Another detainee describes her experience and said they forced her to take medication for her depression when she just wanted someone to talk to.If she didn’t take the medication, she would get beat, and not allowed food. People with mental illness get treated to horrendously. Not only by the correctional officers, nd other employees, but by the other inmates as well.-pizza002
I think that it is crazy the amount of time a person has to wait in jail for a trial or sentences even if they did the crime or not. As it has always been stated that time in jail and affect the person for the better or worse. But some people become label at criminals and they tend to stay that way and reoffend, which leads to staying in the system. I think there is a problem with the system when it come to the caseloads for poor people compared to the wealthy that can hurry the process. taco001
This video was about Rikers Island and interviews people about their experiences in it. This video really opened my mind up to how prison life is. One man said that he would see guys just pee on random people when they’re sleeping. Another lady said that people in prison don’t talk, they scream. From what it sounds like prison is a very scary place for anyone to be, especially if you aren’t physically fit. Other people said that if you don’t have a weapon in prison then you’re in trouble. One guy said that he reached into a fan to snatch a blade off because he was so desperate to protect himself and needed something to do it with. A prison mate said that was the easiest way to get one so he did. I couldn’t imagine being in a place that I never would feel safe in. Every second, even when you’re sleeping, something could go down. It’s no wonder that these guys are so aggressive because even if that isn’t their natural image they can’t let the other prisoners think they’re easy to get to. I think that we can fix this problem in the prisons by creating more jobs in the prison system. If we can fund the prisons better to hire more people to work there then it can be safer. To get this money we need to stop incarcerating people at such a high rate for drug charges. If we do this, then we will cut down the number of people in prison significantly. This will lower the amount of money needed to keep the prison running, which can be used for more people to work within it. These guys made a mistake, they shouldn’t have to live their whole life in fear because of that.-Celtics001
Right off the bat this video is a real eye opener. The United States locks up more people than any other country. In a year there is as many as 2 million people arrested. Just at Rikers Island there is 7,500 inmates. At this jail there is more people locked up than people in my town, that is an unreal number to me. One of the facts that stood out to me is that 80 percent of all detainees on Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting trial, sentencing and dismissal. The average stay at Rikers Island is usually 2 months, but some have stayed for years. One of the reason why the stay at this jail is so long is that the inmates that go to this jail cannot afford bail. Around the middle of this video a story that stood out to me was when a guy was trying to do the right thing and got his face melted off. This man went to the CO asked to be moved because he did not want to fight with the other inmates. The CO said alright grab your stuff, as the inmate was packing up and leaving another inmate filled a cup with hot water and threw it at his face. The inmate who was leave got seriously hurt all because he did not want any trouble. The inmate who got hurt would have won the fight but he just wanted to stay out of trouble and serve his time. This is just one story of many that shows how harsh it is in the jail system. In just this jail 40 percent of the inmates have some kind of mental disorder. It would not surprise me if that percentage is wrong and the actual percentage is way higher than that. -ClarkKent002
Right off the bat this video is a real eye opener. The United States locks up more people than any other country. In a year there is as many as 2 million people arrested. Just at Rikers Island there is 7,500 inmates. At this jail there is more people locked up than people in my town, that is an unreal number to me. One of the facts that stood out to me is that 80 percent of all detainees on Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting trial, sentencing and dismissal. The average stay at Rikers Island is usually 2 months, but some have stayed for years. One of the reason why the stay at this jail is so long is that the inmates that go to this jail cannot afford bail. In just this jail 40 percent of the inmates have some kind of mental disorder. It would not surprise me if that percentage is wrong and the actual percentage is way higher than that. In this video there are many horror stories that these inmates have had, some of them are being knifed while talking on the phone another one was a lady watching someone getting their head bashed in. Around the middle of this video a story that stood out to me was when a guy was trying to do the right thing and got his face melted off. This man went to the CO asked to be moved because he did not want to fight with the other inmates. The CO said alright grab your stuff, as the inmate was packing up and leaving another inmate filled a cup with hot water and threw it at his face. The inmate who was leave got seriously hurt all because he did not want any trouble. The inmate who got hurt would have won the fight but he just wanted to stay out of trouble and serve his time. This is just one story of many that shows how harsh it is in the jail system. -ClarkKent003
I'm always floored when I hear about how many people are stuck in jail just because they can't afford bail. That to me is a failure of our system. Mental disorders are huge in prison, hopefully this is something in the future we can start working towards fixing that issue by providing better access to mental health treatment before it gets bad enough to where people are becoming criminals. Avatar003
Rikers Island is a jail in New York in which 80 percent of the prisoners there have not even been convicted of a crime. The average stay is less than 2 months, but some have remained there for 2 to 6 years. The video starts off as a young black man giving a story on how he was on his way to school, and was then arrested because he fit the description of a man who committed an armed robbery nearby. Little did they know, he was not the right guy. Over half of the inmates cannot afford their bail which is often less than $1000. This is wrong because many of these men are not even convicted of anything, then cannot afford bail when they are more often than not innocent. All of the former prisoners say the place is horrible. The cell condition is nasty, the smell is putrid, and the atmosphere is just awful. The inmates are strip searched in a room full of men. This is humiliating and disgusting, almost inhumane. Inmates are often inducted into the island with a physical initiation as it sounds. The police don’t seem to be much of a force to interfere and stop this here at this place. Another interesting fact is that over 40% of inmates at Rikers suffer from some form of mental illness. Mental illness patients were often abused mentally. A man in the video claims that a man urinated on a mental patient. There is no calmness or peace in this jail, as everyone describes it, it is like a horror scene with no escape. There is no getting away from trouble in this chilling place. The police in Rikers don’t enforce, rather they don’t want the inmates to “snitch”. They let the inmates act like animals, with a ranking system. “The strongest survive” is the mindset in this place. It is disgusting, and it sickens me that the “justice” system can be this way anywhere in America. -freckles001
One of the quotes I found interesting early on in this video was a guy talking about how living in rikers island isn’t really living it’s just existing. This to me speaks volumes about how we treat prisoners in the United States. Though I don’t really pity the people who commit violent crimes nor do I believe we should “be soft” on people who commit crimes I do think we need to reevaluate our methods of incarceration so that people aren’t just merely existing. Honestly how do we expect people to improve and fit back into society if all they are doing is existing for a number or years in a cell. And this isn’t even taking into consideration that 80% of people at Rikers are awaiting trial. We just have these people locked up that haven’t actually been convicted of any crimes many of whom are waiting months or even years just to get a trial. They go on a little later talking about mental health issues. This to me is a huge aspect of our criminal justice system we should be dedicating more resources towards. I think we as a society often breeze over mental health issues because it’s difficult to relate to them if you don’t have one. When it comes to like getting sick or having a broken bone we can kind of understand that even if we haven’t had that exact thing happen to use. I think that’s more difficult with mental health and the reason I bring it up this way is because I think that if more people were empathetic to those suffering from mental disorders we might be able to push more resources towards helping those people so they don’t end up in the criminal justice system. I’m willing to bet a large percentage of those that commit crimes are suffering from a mental illness and who knows maybe if they had access to help early on in their life they might not have ended up committing crimes. It’s certainly not the only thing we need to worry about but I think it’s extremely important nonetheless. Avatar002
It is interesting to here inmates say that jail is awful. Many times, it is hard to show people compassion when they are incarcerated. But we also must remember they are human just like everybody else. Prisons are tough place to be. Many commit suicide, because they cannot take the day in day out (am I going to live or die). It is challenging to though to diagnose those who are suffering from mental illness. Yes, we need to funnel more resources to help diagnose those who are suffering mental illness. But where is the money going to come from? We as a society cannot even keep our heads above water right now. Illinigurl002
In the video about RIKERS, there different testimonies of people that went to prison and came back. A lot of the stories of these people started with violence and abuses as children in their own home. As if raised in the culture of violence and made to be in prison. In the video, a woman said that the worked with “returning citizens” instead of calling them ex offenders. I think that calling the returning citizens put a positive label that will help not only the offender rehabilitate and the community have open arms to help rehabilitate. Having the label as an ex offender puts a negative label that would most likely closed mind people to believe people can not changed. 80% of the inmates in Rikers island are not yet convicted of a crime, they are either awaiting trial, sentencing or dismissal. A lot of the arrest are petty crimes and could be handle quickly if the caseloads weren’t filled with it. 40% of inmates that are arrest have a mental illness. That can include both people that have it before being detained or even developing a mental illness in jail. I was stated by one the men talking that there are people on both sides of the wall with mental illness that caught my attention. That even though COs that take psychological test can even have a mental illness and not be able to properly care for the inmates. Which can lead to CO’s letting inmates become in charge and being a okay with it. taco001
I’ve heard people talk about Rikers Island and how bad it was but I never paid it enough attention and actually sat down a do research on it because i felt like it was like any other jail. Jail is jail they are all bad there's no good jails to me because they hold criminals and some of the people they hold are truly innocent. The system so messed up and nobody cares because they’re criminals so they treat them as so not knowing that’s not making them any better. When I was watching the Rikers Island video and hearing those people describe how it was and how they was treated is really sad. People come in there with the intentions to not bother nobody stay to their self and just their time in peace praying their time will fly by but theres men/women in there that decides otherwards and make everybody time hard. I heard one story when a guy told about a boy packing all his things and getting ready for them to call his name dor court so he sat in the corner not bothering anyone but a group of guys surrounded him and when they called his name to go to court as he was walking out one of the guys threw hot water in his face and he was screaming and next thing you know he wiped his own face off. It just really sad how mean someone to be to somebody that bleeds the same blood as them and breath the same air.-KenzieLand002
This video was an eye-opener for sure and provides some devastatingly information/statistics that make me look at the current problem of the jails. Rikers Island is a 400-acre island that has 10 jails built on it, which is the main jailing complex for New York City. The jails include facilities for women, adolescents, an infirmary, a power plant, as well as a bakery. At the beginning of the video there is an african american man talking about his “introduction” to Rikers Island- he said he had just gotten there, been checked in and completed that whole process, when two guys approached him and his friend he was sitting next to with intentions of taking his sneakers. The two men attacked him and managed to get one of his sneakers, with him only receiving a black eye and a busted lip. He later asked his friend what happened- why hadn’t he helped stand up for him? His friend responded with, “I had to make sure you could stand up for yourself, before I stood up for you.” This already tells me that this is quite a bit like many other rougher prisons and jails across the country in the sense that you will be killed or taken advantage of daily if you cannot prove you can stand for yourself. I found it interesting that Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. Something that shocked me that was discussed in the video was that America has over 2 million people that come through our jails and prisons on an annual basis. Coming in I knew that America was the world’s leader in the number of incarcerated, but to see such a number actually expressed was interesting to see. After listening to several of the inmates talk about their time there it paints a disturbing picture of what life is like there and how I never want to be a part of that place at all. -CUBSFAN002
They treat people inhumanly. I heard of some pretty bad places, but nothing like I saw in this documentary. I know that I would not survive. I took 4 pages of notes to write about this place and I didn’t write hardly any of it because I was so disturbed by how the people being interviewed talked about that place. I seriously almost got sick to my stomach 5 minutes into the documentary. They said near the end that they might fix whatever is going to there or close it down. Personally, I think that it should be closed down because there probably is no way to fix that place. –Adventureflight002
This video was a grim picture of what life is like at Rikers and it provides some shocking information/statistics that make me look at the current problem of the jails differently. Rikers Island is a 400-acre island that has 10 jails built on it, which is the main jailing complex for New York City. The jails include facilities for women, adolescents, an infirmary, a power plant, as well as a bakery. At the beginning of the video there is an african american man talking about his “introduction” to Rikers Island- he said he had just gotten there, been checked in and completed that whole process, when two guys approached him and his friend he was sitting next to with intentions of taking his sneakers. The two men attacked him and managed to get one of his sneakers, with him only receiving a black eye and a busted lip. He later asked his friend what happened- why hadn’t he helped stand up for him? His friend responded with, “I had to make sure you could stand up for yourself, before I stood up for you.” This already tells me that this is quite a bit like many other rougher prisons and jails across the country in the sense that you will be killed or taken advantage of daily if you cannot prove you can stand for yourself. I found it interesting that Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. Something that shocked me that was discussed in the video was that America has over 2 million people that come through our jails and prisons on an annual basis. Coming in I knew that America was the world’s leader in the number of incarcerated, but to see such a number actually expressed was interesting to see. After listening to several of the inmates talk about their time there it paints a disturbing picture of what life is like there and how I never want to be a part of that place at all. -CUBSFAN003
I agree that this is definitely one of the rougher jails ever. I think that the guards really need to be held accountable for everything that has happened in the jail. If the guards were doing their jobs and not letting the inmates do these things and weren’t abusing inmates then the place wouldn’t be such a crazy place. The only reason that the environment continued to exist in there is because the guards continued to let it happen. If the guards would of put their foot down and actually did their jobs by the book then most of what happened wouldn’t have happened. Celtics002
The Rikers Island Video really put into perspective how the people who go to Rikers feel. The video started with a perspective from people who have been there and got out. They described it as going into the belly of the beast. All of them stated that it is easy to get there but so hard to get out. The living conditions were described as horrible and something you just would not want to be in. For many people who grew up up in this, it is not just something you hear about in stories. It is just a way of life there. That is all some of the individuals know. Many of the individuals had some sort of mental health issue they were struggling with. These people truly did not received the help they needed. One story a previous offender had told was that a mental health patient was laying there in his cell and a guard came up and peed on the person's head. It is things like this that make the people there feel like they are below everyone else. It sets up a stigma for prisoners to feel like they can not be anything better than what they are at that facility. These people already grow up with this type of stigma surrounding them when they are kids and then it is just reinforced when they get to that point. Some of the inmates mentioned that in order to survive in a place like Rikers, you have to become a form of yourself that no one wants to be. Later in the video, the offenders were talking about how the guards were corrupt and did some things to them that were unthinkable. One female inmate talked about how the guards raped her when she first came into Rikers Island. -AS003
While watching this documentary I almost got sick to my stomach. The way these former inmates describe this place was very disturbing. I know that this is what reality is, but this is inhuman and discussing. In the video I read that violence is notorious here and is more a culture. The people who were being interviewed describe this place as grim when entering. That can happen at any jail or prison in the world, but still. One person said looking at it is not living but existing. I think what they meant was that you have to do anything to just survive this place. What I found most disturbing is that nearly 80 percent of detainees here have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal and the average stay is about two months, but some have waited two to six years here. Over ½ cannot afford bail. One person said that when you walk in it smells of a mix of blech, dirt, and grim. Another said that the bars are dirty and dusty and the cells are nasty. Being a person who is a germaphobe, such as myself, I would not survive at all. I also found it disturbing when one person said that one of the guards said when they first walked in they said, “For those who have been here before, you know what to expect. For those who haven’t tighten your pants”. One person who was interview said that, “it’s like being thrown to the wolves”. He also mentioned that he was scared. Another fact that I found disturbing is that about 40 percent of inmates there have some type of mental illness. Currently there is a debate whether to fix what is happening there or just close it down all together. Personally, I think it should be closed down because after watching this documentary I don’t think that anything can be fixed. –Adventureflight002
Everything you have stated is so true. The way these people have been treated and still are being treated is mind blowing. These individuals have grown up their whole lives with the thought that that's all they are going to amount to and ten to have that stigma attached to them when they are in their does not help. They are not being treated like human beings. The video mentioned there are some CO's that try to help the people and tell them what they need to to to not come back. Those are the CO's that are needed there to make a difference. -AS003
This documentary was very interesting. It started off by saying America has over two million inmates a year, and America has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. In New York City, more than 7,500 are held and are notorious for its culture of violence. Taking the bridge into Riker’s Island can be extremely dangerous. People compare it to when the sun is out, it’s really like it’s dark outside because of the high crime rate. Many people on Rikers have not been convicted of a crime but they wait on trial to be held for sentencing, they stay from anywhere to two months to six years awaiting trial. Majority of the detainees cannot afford bail which is normally set below $1,000. Many people that are arrested for crimes, did not actually commit the crimes. They fit the description and therefore are locked up because they look the same as the criminal. This is another reason we are running into the issue of mass incarceration. Officers are assuming and not just going through the proper arresting system to find the correct criminals. As people show up to Riker’s Island they are quickly confronted and either get beat up or they want to steal the new offenders clothes or shoes. To get accepted into the gang’s in Riker Island, you have to stand up to others in order for them to stand up to you. Most people in Riker’s Island have a mental illness, they then refuse the drugs because they think they are equivalent to street drugs. Or they think the government is giving something to harm them not help them. People in the cafeteria would spit in the food, or wipe the food on the floor before handing it to the other inmates. Some people would pick on others, like a sick mental ill person was laying on a bed and someone came over and peed on him just because. These inmates are so out of control it is hard to keep them controlled and well behaved. #notaplumber002
I agree that the inmates are so out of control that the guards can’t control them, but I would argue that it isn’t their fault at all. If I was put in Rikers jail I would act the same way because I know that if I don’t act in this crazy aggressive way then I will look weak. The problem is the guards. They don’t have rules that the inmates follow and don’t enforce anything at all. This means that if you wait for them to help you then it will already be too late. I think that the guards are the real ones that are out of control.
One of the things they spent a little time talking about in this video are the gangs that are in jail or prison. It was interesting to hear them talk about the latin kings and the formation of bloods and crips as a means of protection but what I thought was really thought provoking was the idea of the correctional officers themselves being a gang. Giving this idea some thought it really isn’t to far from the truth it’s just one is granted authority by the government and the other is basically the opposite in that their existence relies on breaking the law. That’s not to say that correctional officers are as bad as the bloods or anything but it’s an interesting way to look at life in prison and try to see from their perspective. Of course there are correctional officers who do engage in bad behavior, they also talked about how guards would interact with gangs by selling them contraband from the outside including drugs or cigarettes. It’s easy to see why they do this, one of the guys was talking about how much more it is in prison than it would be on the outside. For example a ten dollar pack of cigarettes on the outside would run around two hundred in prison. From the sounds of it the correctional officers could make an entirely separate salary just selling cigarettes to inmates. This to me is unacceptable, as correctional officers you are supposed to be held to a high standard and your concern should be the safety of those in your jail or prison not on making extra money selling narcotics to prisoners. This is yet just another example of how dysfunctional our criminal justice system can be. I’d like to see a system put in place holding correctional officers more accountable for these kinds of behaviors but I imagine it’s difficult because a lot of people are going to be losing a lot of money from this were it to happen. Avatar003
Rikers Island is definitely the worst jail that I have ever heard of. The things that go on in that jail sound like they should be in a movie or in North Korea. It’s basically an island with no supervision because all of the people supposed to be supervising are even worse than the inmates. From the sounds of it most of these things that went on were because the guards weren’t doing their jobs. Thousands of inmates were beaten by guards, one of them so bad that he didn’t even look like a human in the hospital bed. He had to be in a wheelchair for 2 months because he had so many broken bones that he was hardly alive. I think that this is just sick, and I really hope that every single one of these guards soon serves justice. The inmates said that they had to be violent or they would be taken advantage of. One guy said that he did stuff he didn’t even know he was capable of because if he didn’t he would be seen as weak. The worst thing is that even if something happened to you there would be no one to report it to because the guards just simply didn’t care. And if you did report it you would be beaten even worse when you came back. There is also a lot of gang activity within Rikers Island. If you aren’t apart of one of the two biggest gangs in the jail then you are at risk to be jumped. It’s pretty much every man for themselves, which is not what a jail should be. The guards are the whole reason that this happened because they made the message very clear that if you can’t fight then you will be taken advantage of. Celtics002
Over two million people are incarcerated a year. 80 % of the detainees in Rikers have yet to be convicted of a crime. Still waiting for a trial, dismissal or sentencing. Some of those detainees have waited for six years. That is six years of their life that they won’t get back. Six years to long! 40% of the detainees are there with a mental illness that have been undiagnosed. Those with mental illness were more subjected to abuse from all spectrums of the jail system including the guards and other detainees. When you go into the system you are basically stripped of your humanity. Forced to live a way that you wouldn’t live outside. Forced to adapt to either giving into crime inside of jail keeping your mouth shut when you see something wrong happening you are forced to let it go and watch whatever is going on. If you were new to the system you gave up your items your commissary and phone calls you had to either adapt or fight for your life to survive. There is a line of corruption through out Rikers multiple gangs and the correctional officers themselves were apart of their own gangs who would bring in supplies for a demand. Correctional officers who would sexually assault inmates. If the inmates said something or reported someone, they would get beat worse than what they were before. Once you are at Rikers CO or not you are all doing time the one thing that separates you from humanity is a bridge. I understand that some inmates are incarcerated for horrendous crimes and they should serve their time. But we should never stoop so slow and forget our morals and become an animal and beat someone when you stoop to a level that low you belong in the system as well our duty is to protect and serve. Not manipulate and beat. Casket003
Rikers Island is a really terrible place. One of the parts of the video that I found really interesting was the solitary confinement part. One guy was sent to solitary confinement for over 1000 days. That is just way too long to be in solitary confinement. That’s almost 4 years without any contact to anyone or anything but the food in the room. That will literally drive a person insane. I would be willing to bet that’s why the guy became a priest, because being in that cell for so long by yourself has to be torture. I think that God probably spoke to him in that cell or what he thought was God. One girl said that she resorted to cutting to relieve the physiological pain involved with being in there. I am very against solitary confinement for reasons like this. It can really cause you to lose your mind and it can have permanent mental affects on a person. I feel so bad for the guy that had to be in there for almost 4 years because I couldn’t imagine being in there for a week. I don’t know how he had the mindset in that first year to do three more years of that torture. I really liked the story about the milk jug and how he filled it with his bodily fluids and then threw it on a guard, because I feel like that guard had done so much that he deserved it. I really wish that Rikers Island would have been better supervised because the majority of the people in there aren’t even convicted of a crime yet (80%). That means that there are a lot of good people that are going through this living hell just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Celtics002
When it comes to serving time in prison for a crime that someone committed can be challenging but imagine someone that didn’t commit the crime and is still awaiting trial. It’s tormenting and seen as a way of unusual punishment how the correctional officers would treat these inmates. There is a problem with how things were handled in Rikers island. There was a lot of corruption within the correctional officer and the inmates. If being in jail is to serve time for a crime committed and later become an abiding citizen like nothing happen, is ridiculous after being held in Rikers Prison. The violence within the walls in order to protect yourself was so intense. That when an inmate was let out of prison into the community they would still use violence to make a point. In 2015, the “use of force” by guards were of to 4,000 documented reports. Yet, that doesn’t count the ones that were in secret, away from the cameras, and threaten to keep their mouth shut. Something I found interesting about this prison is how gang violence was at the top in how to handle the houses. The biggest gang controlled the house, which were “Latin Kings” at the time. That is when Bloods was created in order to overthrow the Latin Kings from being in control. Bloods accomplished it with fear, which came form violence for no reason. I think it was a good idea to condemned violence in Rikers because it wasn't doing any good with the relationship of inmates and officers. There would be no point in shutting down the facility if they are going to take those inmates somewhere else to create more violence with someone else. It needs to be fix with patience from the officers and rehabilitation for inmates to be returning citizen and not return to prison with 3 years like that 40%. dory002
The video about Rikers Island was very interesting how bad it was but I never paid it enough attention and actually sat down a do research about it when people talked about it because i felt like it was like any other jail. Jail is jail they are all bad there's no good jails to me because they hold criminals and some of the people they hold are truly innocent. The system so messed up and nobody cares because they’re criminals so they treat them as so not knowing that’s not making them any better. When I was watching the Rikers Island video and hearing those people describe how it was and how they was treated is really sad. People come in there with the intentions to not bother nobody stay to their self and just their time in peace praying their time will fly by but theres men/women in there that decides otherwards and make everybody time hard. I heard one story when a guy told about a boy packing all his things and getting ready for them to call his name for court so he sat in the corner not bothering anyone but a group of guys surrounded him and when they called his name to go to court as he was walking out one of the guys threw hot water in his face and he was screaming and next thing you know he wiped his own face off. It just really sad how mean someone to be to somebody that bleeds the same blood as them and breath the same air. one lady mention that it smelled like blood and rust in there.-KenzieLand003
Corruption in our correctional facilities is one of the main problem as to why the correctional system doesn’t work. For reasons that inmates are threatened not only by other inmates of power but also correctional officers that associate themselves with inmates that are gang-related. Inmates that are in gang in jail have a type of “protection” that helps them have control over people in the facility. Gangs bring violence and if there are gangs in jail that practice their power than that would mean that officers are letting it happen. For everyone that told their personal story about being held in Rikers Prison, it all basically had the same problem as to why they were intensely hurting or abused. Once someone is in jail they want to get out but for people who seriously just want to mind their own business and serve their time is nearly impossible. They would be seen as a weak link. Many of them said that it took strength not to commit even more crime in jail because of the negative environment. Later, it would result in being taken to solitary confinement. Not only would they keep them there for an amount of time to learn their lesson but an extremely long time like 100 days in confinement. The rooms were described as to “keep you down” the color and lighting that held the characteristic. Sanity would be chipped away and could later result to mental illness that would be difficult to rehabilitate. I think that many prisons across the country work in ways that doesn't help inmates become people that could return home and will be able to start a new life. Yet, most of these people’s stories were able to start a new life because of the things they encountered. yellow003
This documentary was very informal and gave information on how the inmates perceived things while in Rikers Island. The environment in Rikers Island seemed very harsh according to the people who were in there before. They said the correctional officers would beat them and watch other inmates fight and take other inmates things. That is not right at all and the correctional officers should not be able to do that and should get in trouble. The former inmates also said the correctional officers would have bets with who would win fights. They would then let them out and watch them fight with each other and tell them to stop or say things like “i've think they had enough”. The correctional officers would also sell the inmates drugs and cigarettes for almost 10 times as much as it would cost them in the streets. For example a 11 dollar box of cigarettes on the street would be 100 dollars in jail or prison. Seeing this documentary just informed me more and gave me more stories about things on Rikers Island. I first got informed with Rikers Island when I watched a documentary on Netflix called “The Kalief Browder Story”. This is a very good documentary about a boy named Kalief and he was accused of a crime he did not do and was sent to Rikers Island. When he was sent here he was mistreated a lot and was put into solitary confinement for a very long time. Once he fought his case and got out of Rikers after a few years, he could not function. After being out of Rikers for not that long of a time period he ended up committing suicide. This was a very sad story to here, especially since I use to live in Brooklyn New York. Hopefully one day Rikers Island will become better or shut down because the environment in there is not good at all and no one should have to go through that type of fear. -brooklyn003
I definitely think the correctional officers should get in trouble for all of the things they have done. When they showed a picture of what an inmate looked like after the correctional officers beat him up, it was very shocking. It also seems like the correctional officers are using unnecessary force. I have never seen The Kalief Browder Story but after you gave a brief summary about it I’m definitely going to watch it. I can't imagine the amount of anxiety that the people have that are released from there. No one deserves the treatment that was given there and I would not be surprised if the place shut down within the next few years. -Soccer003
The United States incarcerates the most people compared to any of the other countries. There is one bridge that takes you in and out. The people that are at Rikers Island are here for sentencing, awaiting trial, or dismissal. Someone described Rikers Island as having a certain smell, the bars were dirty, and the cells were nasty. When someone mentioned that there was bars, it reminded me of the first generation cells. The first generation cells was created in eighteenth century and Riker’s Island was established in 1932 and the design for the second generation jail did not come out till the 1960’s. The inside of Rikers Island probably doesn't look the same from when it was first built and there was probably some changes made over the years but there could still be some similar characteristics to the first generation jail style. One person described this place as medieval. I’m sure some prisons and jails still have bars today but in today’s society, they’re trying to shift to the second and third generation cells. If the cleanliness of jails or prisons are not taken into consideration, it can be a reproduction establishment for HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. If the place has mold and people are breathing that in, it can cause respiratory problems. The place had cockroaches and rats and they would watch them come into their cells. Cockroaches and rats can be carriers of infectious diseases. There would be maggots in the rice that the inmates were given and that can cause health problems. One person was talking about how you walked in and you were in between these two doors and you would see a gate and on the other side is a day room and the guy said that there was other adolescents on the other side. He said that he could hear them talking. When minors are being held in a jail facility that is also holding adults, they are suppose to have not sight or sound contact with adults. Minors in an adult jail could be at risk for physical, sexual, or mental abuse. The jail staff might not be trained very well at recognizing depression especially with minors because a jail staff normally deals with adults. -Soccer002
It said around forty percent of the detainees at Rikers are diagnosed with a mental illness. Jails have a lot of noise, bright lights, and a constant change in population. Jails don’t have the rest of relief that people with mental health disorders need. One person said “People that are incarcerated don’t talk, they scream at each other. There’s no normal talking.”. Placing someone in solitary confinement makes everything worse. It can create mental illnesses. Some people might become depressed or they might start hearing voices that aren't actually there. Jails and prisons are trying to control the amount of contraband that gets taken into these facilities. There is still a struggle with drugs in these facilities. There was a woman in Rikers Island that had crack hidden in her hair. There was 2-4 inmates that ran a house and they described it as a program. It was also described as a chain of command. You either did what they said or you got beat up. As I listened to all of these people’s stories, it sounded like you had to hurt people to gain respect. It shouldn't have to be that way. A lot of the violence at Rikers was gang related. You have to watch were you place people. If you place rival gang members in the same area, there is a higher chance for violent outbursts. Officers would bet on fights and sneak in contraband. If an officer snuck in a five dollar bag of weed, it would be worth one hundred dollars on Rikers Island. One of the inmates was raped by an officer and the people also talked about the beatings that they took from the officers. “Even when you think you’re secured, you’re really not secured”. This is not how this supposed to be. An officer is supposed to supervise the facility and keep things under control. They’re also supposed to keep inmates as safe as possible. They’re not suppose to be inflicting harm on inmates. These officers are using unnecessary force which is frowned upon. -Soccer003
It is extremely sad to see that it there are this many people locked up in Rikers island that suffer from some sort of mental disability. Especially when 80 some percent of the people that are locked up have not even been convicted of a crime. This is something that not only New York it needs to be aware of but also criminal justice around the country. This is extremely important that we have some sort of reform as to how many people we are looking up as a nation because you saw the startling numbers at the beginning of the video and even though we are a free country we take freedom from over 2 million people a year. -RHB003
I watched the Ted Talk video called “Why smart statistics are the key to fighting crime”. The speaker, Anne Milgram, became an attorney general in 2007 for the state of New Jersey. Before she was an attorney general, she was a criminal prosecutor. Originally for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and then for the United States Department of Justice. When she first became an attorney general, two things happened that made her change her outlook on criminal justice. The first one being she asked more essential and underlying questions. The who, what, where, and why’s essentially. Anne wanted to know who was getting arrested, charged, and put into the nation's prisons. The second thing that happened was that the speaker spent a day in Camden, New Jersey Police Department, which was one of the most dangerous cities in America at the time. Both of these things made her realize that fundamentally we are failing. We didn't know who was in our criminal justice system, there was no data, and no data or analysis was shared to help us make better decisions to reduce crime. Knowing all of this, Anne Milgram changed the way the criminal justice worked. She and her team were able to take Camden off of the list of the most dangerous cities in America. Murders were reduced by 41 percent, and overall crime was reduced by 26 percent. They went from doing low level drug crimes to doing cases that had statewide importance, on things like reducing violence, prosecuting street ganges, gun and drug trafficking, and political corruption. All of these changes matter, because public safety is one of the most important aspects of criminal justice. Overall, their goal is to get every judge in America to use a universal risk assessment tool. She wants the judges to use there instinct and experience, along with the risk assessment tools to change the criminal justice system. There’s a lot of work left for her and her team to do, but fortunately they know it works. It’s how we can make the world a safer and better place for everyone. It will change the criminal justice system in America. -pizza003
The video opens up with text saying that America has more incarcerated people than any other nation in the world with all of her 2 million inmates a year. It then says that on a typical day more than 7500 people are held in New York City Rikers island jail. Another astonishing was that of all the detainees on Rikers island nearly 80% of them have not been convicted of a crime. This means that they are either being held awaiting for their trial, sentencing, or dismissal. Some have stayed up to 6 years waiting. Most inmates say they have multiple types of mental illness. Forty percent of Rikers inmates are diagnosed with mental illnesses. inmates controlling the other people who can’t fight for there self of who are too scared to say anything. To be able to make it through jails or prisons you have to have a certain type of attitude. You can’t show emotion cause it will make you seem weak. You have to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary with a weapon. It is definitely a you or the other guy mentality and that is the only way that you are able to survive and you have to fight. There are times when guards watch the fight happening but choose to do nothing. An inmate has to rely on their own strength to get through. Many of the inmates in Rikers island have also been violated when they were younger. It is extremely sad to here all of the stories about how there was little to no safety provided in the jail by the correction officers. Obviously with the number of inmates at Rikers Island the officers are limited in how much control that they can have over the inmates and that is why we are needed such reform in how many people we lock up and what we are locking people up for. -RHB003
America has the largest amount of incarcerations across the world. Riker’s Island is the largest jail in America. It is extremely dangerous and a lot of crime happens. One example is a girl was laying on the floor, sleeping and when she turned all these little cubes came out and the other inmates were trying to pick them up as quickly as possible. They also didn’t want the guards to hear them because it was cubes of cocaine. Jail is so completely different from the outside world. You go back to being a child because there are so many rules and regulations. Or some inmates run the “program” and if you don’t listen to them than they will beat you up. Then they send you to a different jail, the people that have no authority are called “dayroom dummies.” They were expected to either give the inmates with authority their compensatory, phone calls, clean their underwear for them, and do whatever they asked. The guards even watch other inmates get beat up because they “decline” the program and they eventually break it up when they think the inmate has had enough. The term “hold it down” means that you aren’t going to say anything to anybody about getting beat up, especially because the guard knows about the situation. If you show any sort of weakness you won’t make it. You have to be able to stand up for yourself in order to prove to them that you have some sort of power and self respect. A lot of people can hurt or fight back but they don’t want too. They are there for minor crimes and to do their time, not to hurt others. People that pretend to be your friends are not your friends, they will manipulate you for everything you have. The guards are there to collect a paycheck, not to make sure everyone is alive. #notaplumber003
To know that the people on Rikers are not even really viewed as human. The guards there sound concerning. Not to say all guards there are bad because one bad seed can completely destroy the reputation for all the others there. The fact these people live in the fear of getting beaten up even by these guards. They even have these terminology statements in there between everyone to signify meanings. -holywaffles002
This video on Rikers Island was probably the most interesting blog that I have read on here. It was full of so many examples and and facts it was crazy. The first crazy fact to me was that most of the people, being around 80 percent of the people incarcerated in Rikers Island have not even been convicted of a crime but are awaiting their trials and court dates and other things like that. A fact that was surprising to me was that about 40 percent of the inmates in the correctional center were diagnosed with a mental disorder. Really, I thought that the number would be quite a bit higher than that. Something that was absolutely crazy to me was when one of the guys was talking about the fight that he got into where all of his roommates jumped him because he did not want to abide by the room rules, the correctional officer, someone who should be helping the inmate, just watched him get beat up by the entire room and then just asked him if he was alright and if he was going to just “hold it down” meaning not tell anyone about it so he would not be labeled as a snitch. After watching more of the video I am not sure if the correctional officer was or was not doing her job as to keeping the inmate safe. Obviously as an officer she should have to do something about it in order to try to keep the inmate safe, but maybe she was really watching out for him in the long run for not making him a snitch. It seems like a really hard situation to be in honestly, and I am sure that they run into things like this all of the time. This was a great video and it is crazy to think about ever being somewhere like Rikers Island. -Steel003
People do not understand how intense rikers island truly is. Rikers Island is a serious place to be. It is one of the hardest places to be incarcerated. They hold over 7,500 inmates. That number is absolutely ludicrous. That is comparable to a small town city. They really make it obvious unintentionally in the video how intense being here is and how they fear so heavily of their lives. You really do not know what the next day there will bring. It is 400 acres with 10 jails. To literally know this is a literal city, is unimaginable. They bring up how if you do not have a weapon while in there, you are already behind on the game and you should pretty much be concerned for your safety because you will 100% be the odd one out. They said at least 40% of the people on RIker's island have a mental illness. It really makes you wonder if these people had these illnesses prior to coming in or if they obtained the illnesses from the trauma of being locked up, especially here. The female that talked about how she was sexually assaulted but did not even feel comfortable saying anything to anyone and even the guards, this is quite upsetting to know it is as if she feels failed and so bothered but knows if she was to go forward she could not even trust the guards. Most of the violence here is gang related and it is almost too much for guards to keep up and there is a lot of unknown corruption but it is known to be present. This video is intense and the title is even misleading. -holywaffles002
The statement that 80% of inmates in Riker’s Island haven’t been convicted of a crime is, I think, demonstrative of the attitude of this entire video. It’s the first thing mentioned in both the video itself and in the video description. It’s meant to shock people. “Wow! 80% of people! That’s insane!” It’s intentionally provocative, meant to draw people in and get them to pay attention, but it’s also misleading. That is, after all, definitionally what jails are intended to do. They hold people before sentencing, and for misdemeanor crimes. Prisons are where convicts are sent after conviction. It’s not as if the very idea of offenders being locked up is so offensive to people, most people know that people who violate the law need to be contained. But this statement is meant to provoke the American love of procedural justice, while diverting people from the fact that the procedural justice that they love is taking place, and this is part of it. Being locked up with 7,499 of the cream of New York’s scum and villainy, of which it is perhaps the most wretched hive east of Chicago, is quite a punishment, but it’s not sufficient recompense to society for most crimes, at least not the six months until trial. Most people are not sentenced to time served, after all, but go on to other sentences. If we wish to term it adequate compensation to society at large for the crimes committed, we must commit to ending it via legislation, rather than by bemoaning an intentionally punitive institution for being punitive. – Arsenal002
After watching this video I realized what these inmates had to go through while being incarcerated. One thing that stuck out to me was when the statement was made that everywhere Berry Camble went there were people getting cut and hurt. It was crazy hearing his life story and his childhood. He lived a very difficult life and was very violent as a child. His own mother said she could not control him and he began getting in multiple fights at school. He ended up going to prison. One thing that one of the guys mentioned was when he was in a dorm someone tried taking this guys food. The guy did not want to fight. He wasnted to make it home and go to court. One guy didn’t like this guy trying to leave. He wanted to hurt him so he threw scalding hot water in his face and then took his hands and peeled his skin off. One thing that I thought was terrible was that the lady (Cathy) was sexually assaulted by multiple inmates. She said she wanted to die. One thing that I learned from watching this video was that these guys had to be hard and tough in the system. It is insane to think about what these inmates went through on a day to day basis. The fighting was out of control. Some people would become a gang member just for protection. Fighting was a must if you did not want to be owned in Rikers Island. It was interesting to listen to the Latin King and his story. Benny was second in command was was a big roller. He did a lot of bad and thought that fighting was always necessary. -Anchorman002
Right from the very beginning of the video it states that America is known for incarcerating people when they commit crimes. It said that we incarcerate more people in America than anywhere else on the globe. One thing that really stood out to me was the amount of inmates that they hold on Rikers Island. Over seven thousand five hundred inmates in this place is crazy. Hearing the statistics given in this video was insane to me. I found it interesting hearing these people explain their experiences. They would have higher people and lower people. When they would get into the house, they would be told to do certain jobs and if you did certain jobs you were almost owned and someone was in charge of you.I thought it was interesting how one person said that he gave these guys his sneakers and ended up losing all his belongings. One thing someone told him afterwards was you cannot show weakness. The first thing he did in return was beat up the people who took his stuff. Then he got his stuff back. I learned during this video that people cannot be soft in Rikers island. I thought it was also interesting to hear one man say that when he entered, he was told that he had to wash people’s underwear and that was his new job. The man slid a bucket of water toward him so he could get to work and he took the bucket and smashed it across his face. It is insane to me how people can treat one another. What I learned from this video was how intense it can be for inmates. -Anchorman003
The video right out off the start said that America has the most people incarcerated in the world. Coming into this video I knew that we lead the world in incarceration. It also stated that we have over 2 million inmates a year. I did not know the exact number of inmates a year in America but I knew it was quite high. It amazed me that at rikers island alone they hold over 7,500 inmates, that is a large number, and it takes a lot of well trained staff and money to properly hold these inmates. 80 percent of inmates of Rikers Island have not been sentenced yet. Some stay 2 months, and some stay for 6 years while they are waiting trial. The way the inmates talk about Rikers island, is almost like a realistic version of hell. Just by the way the inmates talk about Rikers, you can tell that they fear for their lives while they are staying there. Fresh inmates have to initiate themselves, by standing up for themselves when they are being bullied. There is a hierarchy in the prison, and you need to know who is at the top. It amazed that 40 percent of the inmates at Rikers have some sort of mental illness, and will probably never get the right treatment due to the lack of money. Just from some of the inmates stories you can tell that the officers do not have much control. The people beat eachother up, they hid contraband, the hygiene is gross. It is not an environment that any person will cure themselves in. That is why our recidivism rates are so high, because the programs that are available to the inmates, are either not good enough, or the inmates don't get the proper treatment.
ReplyDeleteI-Like-Cereal002
I-Like-Cereal002, you wrote, “It is not an environment that any person will cure themselves in.” This speaks nothing but truth. We expect the inmates to be fixed once their sentence is filled in jail. When in fact the environment is usually prohibiting positive growth for the detainees. Once they become returning citizens, they are more likely to reoffend. Hence the vicious cycle starts again. This friction between jail life and recidivism drastically increases due to mental illness. An individual cannot be cured by just being placed in a jail facility. That would be at large counterproductive. More and better programs should be in place, as this would affect long term recidivism rates. -CoalRoller003
DeleteThis video truly is an eye-opener and provides some devastatingly shocking information/statistics that make me want to help be apart of the change that fixes our problem. Rikers Island is a 400-acre island that has 10 jails built on it, which is the main jailing complex for New York City. The jails include facilities for women, adolescents, an infirmary, a power plant, as well as a bakery. At the beginning of the video, a few minutes in, there is an african american man talking about his “introduction” to Rikers Island- he said he had just gotten there, been checked in and completed that whole process, when two guys approached him and his friend he was sitting next to with intentions of taking his sneakers. The two men attacked him and managed to get one of his sneakers, with him only receiving a black eye and a busted lip. He later asked his friend what happened- why hadn’t he helped stand up for him? His friend responded with, “I had to make sure you could stand up for yourself, before I stood up for you.” This already tells me that this is quite a bit like many other rougher prisons and jails across the country in the sense that you will be killed or taken advantage of daily if you cannot prove you can stand for yourself. Something that shocked me that was discussed in the video was that America has over 2 million people that come through our jails and prisons on an annual basis. I knew that America was the world’s leader in the number of incarcerated, but to see such a number actually expressed is seriously hard to swallow. After listening to several of the inmates talk about their time there, the way they were “introduced” by fellow inmates, and the experiences had in there, I am certain to say that I certainly never want to go there. One of the people in the video who had previously been incarcerated at Rikers said that one of the first thoughts on his mind, (after having JUST watched somebody come out of the infirmary all bloody and cut up), was how to get a weapon. Immediately after this, another inmate said it is, “just like gladiator school- if you don’t have a weapon, then you have a serious issue.” All of these reports and experiences tell me Rikers Island needs a serious update on security, more workers, and to reduce the number of incarcerated held there. As a whole, our country needs to do something about the mass incarceration as it is already as well. GMan003
ReplyDeleteThe video is very eye opening during the whole video you are amazed by what is really going on. I like how you said "Gladiator school". We put men and women into Rickers Island and let them do what some did to get into prison and let it happen while they are serving time for doing that crime. It just amazes me how we as a country can let that happen. It very hard to swallow like you said to let this go on. Something needs to be put in place soon about this and mass incarceration. DirtTrack003
DeleteAmerica has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. The average inmate per year for the past few years is over 2 million. On a Typical day, more than 7,500 are held in NYC’s Rikers Island jail, notorious for its culture of violence. Rikers island actually sits in the middle of a lake. Rikers is located in the East River, Rikers is connected to the mainland by a single bridge. These are some of the stories from inmates who have survived the long river there and back. They were talking about how long the drive is over the drive and how they thought it was a long drive. They thought they were going into the belly of the beast. Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. They are being held awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal. The average stay is less than two months, but some have waited to six years. Over half the detainees can not afford bail, often set below $1,000. No one liked being strip searched. Listening to these stories shows that these people do care about being arrested and live everyday life’s just like the average citizen. Some 40% of detainees at Rikers are diagnosed with a mental illness. When you are in jail, everything on the outside(meaning society) doesn’t matter one bit. When you are on the inside(meaning jail) everything you shouldn’t be doing means everything. 2-4 Imates run the day to day things so you have to get along with other inmates to survive. Listing to these story is very fascinating as to how bad the inside is. -chicubs003
ReplyDeleteAmerica has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. The average inmate per year for the past few years is over 2 million. On a Typical day, more than 7,500 are held in NYC’s Rikers Island jail, notorious for its culture of violence. Rikers island actually sits in the middle of a lake. Rikers is located in the East River, Rikers is connected to the mainland by a single bridge. These are some of the stories from inmates who have survived the long river there and back. They were talking about how long the drive is over the drive and how they thought it was a long drive. They thought they were going into the belly of the beast. Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. They are being held awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal. The average stay is less than two months, but some have waited to six years. Over half the detainees can not afford bail, often set below $1,000. No one liked being strip searched. Listening to these stories shows that these people do care about being arrested and live everyday life’s just like the average citizen. Some 40% of detainees at Rikers are diagnosed with a mental illness. When you are in jail, everything on the outside(meaning society) doesn’t matter one bit. When you are on the inside(meaning jail) everything you shouldn’t be doing means everything. 2-4 Imates run the day to day things so you have to get along with other inmates to survive. Listing to these story is very fascinating as to how bad the inside is. -chicubs002
ReplyDeleteIts appalling to hear what some of the detainees have to do to survive. Appalling that these inmates were dehumanized to the point they had to fight like animals to survive. Appalling that correctional officers stooped to a level of murder, sexual assault and other various crimes that they themselves should be incarcerated. All because they want to express their authority.
Deletecasket003
This was a fascinating documentary to watch. It was sad to hear the stories that these individuals told about their experiences on Rikers Island. The stories of what happened to them are sad. I did not realize that a jail could be so corrupt and awful. There were also some statistics that were shared during the documentary that I thought were interesting. It starts off the film by stating that America has more people locked up than any other country in the world. This is something we have talked about during class, so it was actually kind of cool to see it somewhere else also to drive home that fact. The number of inmates per year is 2 million. At Rikers Island, the average daily population is 7,500 inmates which is a lot. Rikers Island is known for its violent culture. I thought it was interesting that Rikers Island is connected to land by a single bridge. This makes sense because it is less of a security risk because they can focus on one bridge instead of multiple, so it makes it hard to escape. It also helps that it is an island so the inmates would have to swim to escape the island. 80% of inmates that are at Rikers Island have not been convicted of any crimes. This does and does not make sense it makes sense because a lot of people that are in jail are poor so they can not make bail, so they have to sit in prison until their trial, so technically they are not found guilty of any crimes, but they are sitting in jail even if they are innocent. This is sad because these people could be innocent but have to go through the horrors of Rikers Island like the violence that is inflicted by the other inmates and the Corrections Officers. -Legion001
ReplyDeleteIts so sad to hear about these different types of living conditions that people go through at Rikers. And the things that people see or hear about while there at Rikers is sad. It all makes since why most of them have some form of mental illness. You have to literally fight for your life from the time you wake up till the time you lay down and even while your sleep. Its like war fighting to death every single day in the opes that you will make it back home to your family or just back to change your life around. Batman003
DeleteThere is one way in and one way out when going to Rikers Island, 80% of the men and women that go there are not convicted of a crime. In the begging of the video it states that the average stay is 2 weeks to 6 months, then not even a second later it says that some have stayed for 6 years, this then sets the mood and environment of Rikers. Of all the inmates there 40% of them have a mental disorder. Inmates that are interviewed talk about the owners of the “houses” the gangs and the sexual assault of inmates affects your time at Rikers. A lady was interviewed throughout most of the video and goes then into detail of her crime. She put her personal account on a trust she was working at the time for over 280.000 dollars and she was arrested while doing errands and was then sent to rikers. She was sexual assaulted by 4 inmates and she did not report it from what the inmates were stating you do not report anything or snitch because most correctional officers don’t care or know how the rikers protocol is. The amount of violence that happens in a place like that is insane to me. Correctional Officers they work at Rikers should be on rotation. The way rikers is ran needs to be looked into or watch very soon no one should have to go through that. Now, with that being said you are in there for a crime and need punished but not assaulted physically or sexual under any circumstances. I was not aware of Rikers Island or what is was till watching this video. Rikers Island is not a place to go for even Correctional officers it sounds like and yes America has the most incarcerated people in the world but if 80% aren’t committed for crime something needs to be done about it, Especially for the people that stay for such a short time. DirtTrack003
ReplyDeleteThis video was very fascinating. I really enjoyed how it started off with ex-cons explaining what they had thought going across the bridge to Rikers. The fact that 80% of the inmates have not been convicted of a crime is befuddling. How can something like that happen? As the video continues, it starts to have a feeling of an older mental health hospital. The stories that people are telling and how most of them are diagnosed with a mental illness just proves to me that these people need some real help in a way prisons and jails can not deliver. This video gives me a strong feeling that pretrial detainees should not even be kept in the same building as convicts. The terror stories of being introduced to drugs in jail or watching people eat roaches is not fair to someone who could be completely innocent. This jail needs a complete overhaul in order to fix the problem presented so far in the video. It sounds like inmates run the jail more than the CO's would. It seems to come off as a type of gang affiliation when the ex-cons are talking about the "house," or the "program." One ex-con said "violence rules." That is just insane to me because we as a society do not believe that but people in jails or prisons it is still a very true reality for them. It is shocking how someone can go from one innocent day to day life then be plunged into a world of violence and insanity. It is interesting that we believe that jails should be a place where rehabilitation is plentiful and a place you can turn your life around but in Rikers it seems to be the opposite. Jackrabbit001
ReplyDeleteThe video explain to us the viewers a broad generalization of what it is like to go to Rikers island, to live there, and about the hopes of one day leaving that place. The video touched on the intimates that had been there once upon a time and thee experiences that they seen or have been thru. It’s crazy to hear that people would run there sandwiches on the floor and eat them or the fact they would pick up roaches and eat them off the floor. In the media they try to show that jail is a rehabilitation to help prisoner turn around there lives. But how is this possible with conditions like this. Batman002
DeleteRikers island is a jail that holds about 7500 inmates. Almost eighty percent of the inmates at Rikers have not been convicted of a crime. The inmates that talk about the bus ride on the bridge to get to Rikers Island describe its as a monster on the other side. They finally realize that it’s really happening and they hope they make it out. They describe Rikers island as this dirty and smelly place. Inmates would do the most disgusting things to each other or with each other. Most inmates say they have multiple types of mental illness. Forty percent of Rikers inmates are diagnosed with mental illnesses. In Rikers and many other jails or prisons there are different procedures how it runs. Which is ran by the inmates controlling the other people who can’t fight for there self of who are too scared to say anything. To be able to make it thru jails or prisons you have to have a certain type of attitude. You can’t show emotion cause it will make you seem weak. You have to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary with a weapon. Inmates will use anything they can find rather its blade to a fan or a knife. There violence that happens all day everyday where people are fighting or getting stab there’s always something happening. Most of the violence happens because of gang related. The normal inmate that goes to Rikers has been in foster most of their life and has been to Rikers before or been there multiple times. When correctional officers see the inmates fighting some try their best to stop it others wait a minute or two then try to break it up. There are good correctional officers that do try to help the inmates from coming back to Rikers by trying to talk to them while others could care less and just do their job and go home. Batman002
ReplyDeleteHow we have been learning in class, people that commit violent crime are usually victims of it when they were younger. There was a man that was in and out of homes when he was younger, which taught him how to live the lifestyle of violence and being accustomed to it. A lot of people that's all they know and would probably be the hardest to rehabilitate. Also, most of the correctional officers in Rikers Island were corrupt and let the violence within gang control housing. That later Bloods was able to be established in the prison. dory002
DeleteMost inmates say they have multiple types of mental illness. Forty percent of Rikers inmates are diagnosed with mental illnesses. In Rikers and many other jails or prisons there are different procedures how it runs. Which is ran by the inmates controlling the other people who can’t fight for there self of who are too scared to say anything. To be able to make it thru jails or prisons you have to have a certain type of attitude. You can’t show emotion cause it will make you seem weak. You have to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary with a weapon. Inmates will use anything they can find rather its blade to a fan or a knife. There violence that happens all day everyday where people are fighting or getting stab there’s always something happening. Most of the violence happens because of gang related. Rikers island is a jail that holds about 7500 inmates. Almost eighty percent of the inmates at Rikers have not been convicted of a crime. The inmates that talk about the bus ride on the bridge to get to Rikers Island describe its as a monster on the other side. They finally realize that it’s really happening and they hope they make it out. They describe Rikers island as this dirty and smelly place. Inmates would do the most disgusting things to each other or with each other.The normal inmate that goes to Rikers has been in foster most of their life and has been to Rikers before or been there multiple times. When correctional officers see the inmates fighting some try their best to stop it others wait a minute or two then try to break it up. There are good correctional officers that do try to help the inmates from coming back to Rikers by trying to talk to them while others could care less and just do their job and go home. Batman003
ReplyDeleteNearly 80% of those in Riker’s are awaiting trial. That is an astonishing amount of people. Half of the inmates there can’t afford bail forcing them to stay behind bars until they go on trial. There are a few who have been waiting for trial for 6 years. Many of the people in the jail suffer from various mental health issues. Some of them still are haunted by drug addiction. Being in jail is a totally different lifestyle, as the one lady said nobody talks in a normal voice everyone just screams. There is a hierarchy in jail that one must respect if they want to survive. The one guy being interviewed mentioned that he didn’t want anything to do with the system and was beaten for in, in front of a guard none the less. Not only are the inmates the ones who are hardened to jail life, the police are too. The guards know the system and how it works, and they know when to jump into a fight and when not to. Jail seems to change everyone involved in the process. The atmosphere is so violent that people who were good outside of jail have to turn into someone that they don’t want to be in order to survive. Many of the former inmates described how they had to be violent to get people to leave them alone. Many of them had to get weapons to protect themselves. This video opened my eyes to just how bad the violence gets behind bars. There are times when guards watch the fight happening but choose to do nothing. An inmate has to rely on their own strength to get through. It makes me angry to see how bad people get hurt in environments like this, but I don’t know of any way the justice system can fix it. Sexy_in_bikini001
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how being in jail changes people including the inmates and the correctional officers. In the video there are quite a few comments on how the officers contributed to the violence and it makes me wonder if the officers who do commit violent acts would have had it in them to do that before working at Rikers Island or even when they first started working there. If they didn't start out beating up inmates, was it ingrained in them through follow the examples of more experienced officers? It's awful that the inmates have to fight to survive in this environment and they can't trust or rely on the officers to properly do their jobs. -Smokeybear003
DeleteThis by far gives one of the best views from a prison as harsh as Rikers Island. What these inmates have experienced inside this prison is similar to what goes on in other prisons as well but this prison just seems to have a much more evil presence on the inside. Hearing the one prior inmate speak about the treatment of mental health of the inmates was just sickening how the not only the other inmates treated the mentally ill but how the guards treated them. Professionalism is such a vital factor in any and every aspect of a jail and prison to ensure the safety of others. Hearing how the inmates run the cell blocks and take advantage of other prisoners with taking commissary and having to report to that "leader" before you can do anything else just sounds like there is not not enough of a presence of guards to control these prisoners. The professionalism came into play when I heard the one man speak about how a group of guys who ran the "house" who beat him down because he didn't want to follow their "rules" and the guard running the house just watched and broke it up after about a minute. The guard then asked the prisoner if he was going to just keep quiet and that just infuriates me that she was not acting professionally to take control of her housing unit while she was on shift. The returning citizens in this all talked about the importance of self protection and that if you didn't know how to protect yourself when you showed up, you would learn soon after because of the danger that was behind the walls. This entire place seems to lack every bit of professionalism needed to run an establishment correctly and seems like it is one of the most corrupt jail/prisons I have ever heard of from the stories of people who have been sentenced here. -Blues001
ReplyDeleteStarting off, I did not even know Riker’s Island was a thing and did not even know what it was. It is an interesting system, especially the location. I think that it is a smart idea to put a prison on an island. This limits the different ways prisoners could escape. The location and the set up of Riker’s remind me of Alcatraz. The only way you would enter Riker’s is from coming from the bridge. In comparison to Alcatraz, where the only way to get there is by boat. The prisoners described Riker’s Island to be under very harsh conditions. It had a specific smell of bleach and dirt and it wasn’t comfortable in any way. They had a system of hierarchy that they followed. First, there is the house, where one or two inmates are the “top dog.” They are in control of everything regarding to the inmates. After that there is the team, they enforce the rules that “the house” goes by. The other two important levels are the people in charge of the day room where the inmates get to have a little bit of free time. They control everything that goes on in there. Then, finally there are the people who have the “rockin’ spots.” These people are the type of people who don’t exactly want to be in charge of anything or anyone; they just want to be safe. While at prison I understand that there would be some type of set rules, but I wasn’t expecting the inmates to almost be in complete control with what goes on. One of the previous inmates talked about how the people in charge of the house asked him if he wanted to be a part of it somehow and the inmate politely said no and he got jumped. The officer on duty let it happen and after a few minutes told the people of the house to stop and asked the inmate who got jumped to not say anything to anyone about it. It’s almost like the inmates made an alliance with the officers and that’s not how prison is supposed to be. -lilbaby001
ReplyDeleteRikers Island seems like a another world. Most people think that when people go to jail that they are going there to get help, and for structure, and to rehabilitate and enter back into the community. But Rikers island is the exact opposite of the that. It's absolute chaos, the guards do not take care of the inmates, and enforce the rules, and even the guards fight and abuse the inmates. It was very eye opening to hear all of the inmates stories, of how the hierarchies work in the prison. Who is in charge, who the enforcers are, who gets bullied. You basically have to fight to survive and prove yourself. If you disagree with the lead inmate of the house, you will get jumped you will get beat, you will have to beat up other inmates, so they leave you alone. The story that shocked me the most was when an inmate got hot water thrown on his face, and his face basically melted off. It makes you wonder, where are the guards, where is the structure. It doesn't surprise me that these people who get out of Rikers island end up going back, they fought on the streets, so it's no different in the jail. 40 percent of the inmates at Rikers Island have some sort of mental disability. They probably do not get the right treatment, or medicine for whatever their disability is. They hygiene is bad, the structure is bad. Rikers Island doesn't even sound like a jail it seems like a fight club behind bars. People being able to make shanks, sneak in razors and contraband, it makes you wonder if the guards even care. They just sit back and let it happen. I think Rikers Island should honestly be shut down after watching, and hearing about all these stories.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it seems that Rikers doesn't even seem that such a place could exsist. The place seems like it is chaos and that you have to fight for your life it seems almost everyday that you are in there. The mental disability part was indeed sad and you can see that some of the inmates suffer which is very upsetting. -CUBSFAN002
DeleteThis video was very eye opening, and very sad to watch. It is hard to listen to these horror stories from these inmates. On any given day, nearly seventy-five hundred people are being incarcerated in Riker’s Island. Many of whom have not been convicted of a crime, but simply waiting to see the judge. When in jail, an inmate must never show fear. If fear is shown, then the inmate will be a target. His or her food, clothes, and phone cards will be stolen from them by other inmates. If in inmate puts a kite in to the Correctional Officers, he or she will be labeled as a snitch. The weak are preyed upon by those who have power. Many jails are ran by the inmates (gang member) and not the Correctional Officers. Many times, Correctional Officers will place bets on two inmates during a fight. And the video went on to say that the Officers would let the two inmates out to fight. It seems as though; many Correctional Officers are corrupt. Some officers will bring cigarettes into the jail, and allow inmates to buy them off of them. If officers are not doing that, they are using excessive force against inmates. The documentary spoke about a couple of men who sued and received a settlement. It is sad to see and or hear about how Correctional Officers are treating these inmates as if they were animals. Locked in a cage and housing them until their court dates. Many inmates are or have been diagnosed with mental disorders, and some simply need a shoulder to cry on. When inmates are sent to segregation, many of them loose their minds. You essentially lose your identity in who you are. You lose track of the day, time, and year. Many resort to self-help, which is harming themselves or committing suicide. Segregation ultimately hurts inmates, and inmates should not be in segregation for long periods of time. We as a society are not helping these inmates at all. Many need counseling, and counseling seems to not be offered. When inmates are released, they are thrown to the wolves. They are bussed off the Island, and dropped off. Many are repeat offenders, because they need help, and help is not available to them. Illinigurl002
ReplyDeleteOn any given day on Rikers Island there could be as many as 7,500 inmates. That is just an insane number. Just at this jail there is more inmates than people in my town. I do not know if that is including all of the people that enter the jail or just the inmates that have been convicted of a crime. Either way their should be a better system in play so that number can decrease. Think of all the money that the state could save by just cutting that number in half. -ClarkKent002
DeleteThis video showed me a new perspective on jail life. Through this video, they interviewed several people who were detained at Rikers Island. They shared their experiences, their thoughts and their feelings. With this kind of first-person perspective, I learned more. On Rikers Island 80% of the detainees are waiting for their trail. More than half have yet to be convicted of a crime. I am surprised this average is so high. Since some of the detainees may be innocent yet they are still are held in such a vlogger environment, the process should be quicker. I am not sure this method is just for the those who are innocent. They will forever be changed, as this environment is mentally and physically degrading on the detainees. On average the inmates stay is less than two months, but some have waited two to six years for their trail. I think this average waiting length of two months is fairly reasonable. As a third party I think this is a manageable time frame. However, for the individual waiting trail they would feel every second of the two months give or take. The time period did not change, just the perspective did. As a third party I think we should be aware of profound differences in perspectives. Forty percent of the detainees at Rikers Island have been diagnosed with a mental illness. More often than not, an induvial may have more than one mental illness. This adds to the every day stresses of jail life. One of the detainees said in an interview, to be successful in this environment you must manifest some form of wickedness. This kind of mind set is truly hard to understand in depth. One must experience it first hand to fully fathom this theory. Living in a jail daily will change a person physically and mentally weather they are guilty or innocent. What a sobering perspective. -CoalRoller003
ReplyDeleteI could not believe that the percentage of detainees was so high. That seems to be a waste of space in that jail. There should be a better way to hold these detainees. I like that you mention that some of these detainees are innocent and have to be held in the environment. The mental stress on that person has to be extremely high. An innocent person could easily get severely hurt. For example one of the inmates was talking to his mother on the phone and out of nowhere his face was slashed. -ClarkKent003
DeleteThis video was really eye-opening and exposed the inhumane conditions and treatment that took place on Riker's Island. It was very interesting to hear the different stories of the inmates and get a first-person perspective on the abuse and mistreatment these people had to endure. It's very sad to know that these inmates had to go through all of this with the COs simply standing by and watching because they could have done something to stop what some of these people went through, but instead let it all happen. It is also alarming that some of the people who spent so much time on Riker's and experienced these injustices were not convicted of the crime they were serving time for. Another interesting thing that was addressed in this video was the fact that you could not show any weakness while at Riker's because then the other inmates would prey on you. One man said he willingly gave up his sneakers because he did not want any trouble, but that caused more trouble for him and he ended up getting everything taken from him. He eventually had to go back and fight the inmates to get his stuff back and earn his respect, which he did because he was a black belt. He was just raised to not hurt anyone, but he had to do that because it was them or him. Another lady talked about how people would get in fights over anything, even the smallest, most insignificant things and in one instance, she witnessed two ladies get into an argument and one took the other by the hair and smashed her head against the floor and metal bed frame to the point where the other was bleeding severely. It's really sad that all these things happened on Riker's Island up until just recently and now the prison is being considered for closing.
ReplyDelete-Reid001
Out of sight out of mind is what comes to mind when watching the “Rikers an American Jail”. This video shows the horrific result of what happens with mass incarceration. With Rikers having 7,500 inmates you are bound to have officers fall to corruption when over worked and under paid. You are also bound to have issues in such a large facility where 40 percent of their inmates have mental illness. As a jail supervisor I find this video very disturbing. Where officers are pissing on inmates, sexually assaulting inmates, allowing inmates to be beaten etc. Where is the integrity? You would also think that with all of the crime and brutality that goes on inside this facility there would be no turn around rate. Rikers Island has a 40 percent return rate within 3 years of release. This is where programs and education would be beneficial to lower the turn around rate. Not only for the betterment of the community but to reduce the mass incarceration. Cruel and inhumane is an understatement. I feel as though a lot of the issues that were described in this video could have been averted had there been some kind of accountability for the actions that were displayed by the officers who were hired to ensure the safety and security the inmates and other staff. I also agree that in environments like this as and officer you are doing time just like the inmates and even when you go home the affects of the prison environment linger so its and vicious cycle that some are not able to cope with. Jadist002
ReplyDeleteI love your opening line. Out of sight out of mind is a perfect sentence to describe Riker's Island. It is also crazy to me that more people don't think about the fact that many of the officers are far overworked, and very under paid so of course there will be corruption. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and when a person is stressed out to the max and surrounded by criminals, some are bound to fall into that trap. -psych001
DeleteRikers Island reminds me of a larger Cook County Jail. With this facility one would think it would be a prison but it’s basically a holding facility for pre-trial inmates and sentenced inmates awaiting transfer to a long term facility. This to me is a large part of the issue. With having a population of over 7,000 inmates that are a mixture of sentenced and non-sentenced inmates you will have issues where some of the sentenced inmates have nothing to loose so they will cause issues whether it be riots, stabbings, fights etc. The video Rikers An American Jail is very disturbing. You can see that some of the individuals who spoke have long term affects from being incarcerated in this facility. Kathy Moore was only incarcerated for 10 months and during this time see what assaulted for being a snitch witnessed an inmate that had drugs hidden in her hair. To think this was all going on and no one did anything is frustrating as a jail superintendent. Where are the pat down searches, cell searches, and plain day to day monitoring and observation. No policies where being followed and everyone that was in authority that could have possibly done something either turned a blind eye or contributed to some of the brutality. With the amount of law suits that stem from just this facility New York City should be broke. You have officers pissing on inmates, allowing inmates to be raped, and beaten. There was no classifications of inmates. It appears as though everyone was just thrown in all together. Instead of taking over the facility the U. S Marshall's should have closed it down. Jadist003
ReplyDeleteIn this video, we get to see the horrible conditions in Rikers Island. It is crazy to think that we allow people to live and suffer in such an inhumane environment. One of the most appalling things that I heard in this video was that there is extreme violence occurring from both inmates and correctional officers. Why do the inmates feel as though they need to be violent towards each other? Is it because they feel as though violence is an outlet for their frustrations or is it caused by the expectation that you have to be tough to survive? The correctional officers are there to maintain control over the environment and make sure everything is going how it is supposed to, but they are a huge problem in the facility by contributing to the chaos. Do they face any consequences for their actions and what do they gain from beating up inmates and just being awful towards them? The experiences that these people shared are very informative and concerning. It's absolutely heartbreaking to know some of the people in Rikers Island are innocent, but they still have to put up with the fear and chaos of the place. The jail is so unorganized and seems to almost be run by the inmates themselves. After watching this video, I am wondering what is being done to help inmates in prisons and jails to prepare them for their release and going back into society. Are there any programs to help with rehabilitation reentry or are prisons and jails just being treated as holding places? Our country needs to do something to help better these environments and ensure the safety of the inmates. In the end of the video, it says the federal government intervened and has started supervision there on Rikers which seems like a good idea, but it also says the violence is still going on. That jail either needs some extreme intervention or to be shut down entirely. -Smokeybear003
ReplyDeleteI agree that this jail needs to make some serious improvements or needs to be shut down. One thing that I think they should do is cut back on the amount of people they incarcerate there, perhaps the ones with drug charges. This money that they save should be used to hire more people to work at the prison. This should create a safer environment for these prisoners so that they don’t have to live their whole life in fear. I think that it’s pretty dumb that we punish people for a couple years of mistakes with a lifetime of fear and inhumane living. Celtics001
DeleteThis video was eye opening to say the least. We send people to jail to help them, "fix" them, and turn them into law abiding citizens, right? At a place like Riker's though, that is not the case. Riker's Island holds 7,500 inmates by itself. For that many inmates, you would need just about as many staff that are properly trained, and qualified to be working with inmates. In a lot of cases, their is a lack of qualification in the people working at Riker's, which is detrimental to the whole system, prisoners to higher ups. In a place like Riker's it is every man for themselves, survival of the fittest, eat or get eaten. That means figuring out who the alpha inmates are, and deciding whether or not you are willing to step on their toes, or if you will do what you are told to stay on their good side. If you have to beat someone else up to get protection from the big wolves in the prison, then that is what you have to do. It is very much a street/gang like mentality. A wopping 40 percent of the inmates in Riker's suffer from some kind of mental disability that is probably not being treated due to lack of financial availability on the prisons end of things. The way the inmates describe Riker's island makes it seem like hell on earth. The violence, the fear, the hierarchy, it all seems unbearable. Recidivism is so high because of facilities like this. No one can come out of a place filled with violence, illegal contraband, and gangs and seriously be expected to just turn their lives around like it's nothing. The things that inmates of Riker's have seen, endured, or been apart of are not things easily forgotten or moved past. Unless Ryker's somehow completely reforms in the next year or so, it would seem to me that the best option would be to shut it down completely. A place like that can do nothing but further damage and harm people that we are wanting to be able to eventually let back into our communities,into our society. The terrible things that occur in Ryker's Island are not to be taken lightly, something needs to change. -psych001
ReplyDeleteOne of the facts that stuck out the most to me was the fact that most people are sitting in there because they can not post bond that is set at under one thousand dollars. For a place that is so large that has a massive volume of inmates you would think that one of the biggest priorities would be staff. Also in a place where organized crime and gangs are very common you would think a priority would be maintaining a safe environment to where rivals would have no chance of interaction. It looks to be a place that is harsher than most and does not put up with a lot. Seeing the hierarchy that is established to where you are fighting for your life from the very beginning. I do not believe this place is based on rehabilitation. Which is hard to believe because it is also told that 40 percent suffer from some sort of mental illness, and you can almost guarantee that they are not receiving proper care for their illness.-Purdue001
ReplyDeleteAccording to the video, America has more people incarcerated than in any other country in the world. Over two million people a year are locked up. On an average day, over 7,500 inmates are held in New York City’s Rikers Island Jail. Located in the East river, between Queens and The Bronx, Rikers island is infamous for being the most violent jail. They also have a reputation for the abuse and neglect of their inmates. In the video, inmates described Rikers Island as “Dark”, “Grim”, or “Like a monster”. Also Rikers Island was described as not living, but merely just existing. They feel like no one cares, and that's that. In the video, I learned that almost eighty percent of the detianines in rikers island have yet to even be convicted of a crime. They are there awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal. The average stay is about six months. But there have been some cases when people have stayed there for up for up to six years. More than half of the detainees can not make bail, even ones set at less than 1000 dollars. Another inmate compared rikers to the bermuda triangle. It’s easy to get there, but hard to get out. The way the speakers in the video describe rikers, it sounds horrible. The conditions are bad, there’s violence around every corner. Around forty percent of detainees have a mental illness. Another detainee describes her experience and said they forced her to take medication for her depression when she just wanted someone to talk to.If she didn’t take the medication, she would get beat, and not allowed food. People with mental illness get treated to horrendously. Not only by the correctional officers, nd other employees, but by the other inmates as well.-pizza002
ReplyDeleteI think that it is crazy the amount of time a person has to wait in jail for a trial or sentences even if they did the crime or not. As it has always been stated that time in jail and affect the person for the better or worse. But some people become label at criminals and they tend to stay that way and reoffend, which leads to staying in the system. I think there is a problem with the system when it come to the caseloads for poor people compared to the wealthy that can hurry the process. taco001
DeleteThis video was about Rikers Island and interviews people about their experiences in it. This video really opened my mind up to how prison life is. One man said that he would see guys just pee on random people when they’re sleeping. Another lady said that people in prison don’t talk, they scream. From what it sounds like prison is a very scary place for anyone to be, especially if you aren’t physically fit. Other people said that if you don’t have a weapon in prison then you’re in trouble. One guy said that he reached into a fan to snatch a blade off because he was so desperate to protect himself and needed something to do it with. A prison mate said that was the easiest way to get one so he did. I couldn’t imagine being in a place that I never would feel safe in. Every second, even when you’re sleeping, something could go down. It’s no wonder that these guys are so aggressive because even if that isn’t their natural image they can’t let the other prisoners think they’re easy to get to. I think that we can fix this problem in the prisons by creating more jobs in the prison system. If we can fund the prisons better to hire more people to work there then it can be safer. To get this money we need to stop incarcerating people at such a high rate for drug charges. If we do this, then we will cut down the number of people in prison significantly. This will lower the amount of money needed to keep the prison running, which can be used for more people to work within it. These guys made a mistake, they shouldn’t have to live their whole life in fear because of that.-Celtics001
ReplyDeleteRight off the bat this video is a real eye opener. The United States locks up more people than any other country. In a year there is as many as 2 million people arrested. Just at Rikers Island there is 7,500 inmates. At this jail there is more people locked up than people in my town, that is an unreal number to me. One of the facts that stood out to me is that 80 percent of all detainees on Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting trial, sentencing and dismissal. The average stay at Rikers Island is usually 2 months, but some have stayed for years. One of the reason why the stay at this jail is so long is that the inmates that go to this jail cannot afford bail. Around the middle of this video a story that stood out to me was when a guy was trying to do the right thing and got his face melted off. This man went to the CO asked to be moved because he did not want to fight with the other inmates. The CO said alright grab your stuff, as the inmate was packing up and leaving another inmate filled a cup with hot water and threw it at his face. The inmate who was leave got seriously hurt all because he did not want any trouble. The inmate who got hurt would have won the fight but he just wanted to stay out of trouble and serve his time. This is just one story of many that shows how harsh it is in the jail system. In just this jail 40 percent of the inmates have some kind of mental disorder. It would not surprise me if that percentage is wrong and the actual percentage is way higher than that. -ClarkKent002
ReplyDeleteRight off the bat this video is a real eye opener. The United States locks up more people than any other country. In a year there is as many as 2 million people arrested. Just at Rikers Island there is 7,500 inmates. At this jail there is more people locked up than people in my town, that is an unreal number to me. One of the facts that stood out to me is that 80 percent of all detainees on Rikers Island have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting trial, sentencing and dismissal. The average stay at Rikers Island is usually 2 months, but some have stayed for years. One of the reason why the stay at this jail is so long is that the inmates that go to this jail cannot afford bail. In just this jail 40 percent of the inmates have some kind of mental disorder. It would not surprise me if that percentage is wrong and the actual percentage is way higher than that. In this video there are many horror stories that these inmates have had, some of them are being knifed while talking on the phone another one was a lady watching someone getting their head bashed in. Around the middle of this video a story that stood out to me was when a guy was trying to do the right thing and got his face melted off. This man went to the CO asked to be moved because he did not want to fight with the other inmates. The CO said alright grab your stuff, as the inmate was packing up and leaving another inmate filled a cup with hot water and threw it at his face. The inmate who was leave got seriously hurt all because he did not want any trouble. The inmate who got hurt would have won the fight but he just wanted to stay out of trouble and serve his time. This is just one story of many that shows how harsh it is in the jail system. -ClarkKent003
ReplyDeleteI'm always floored when I hear about how many people are stuck in jail just because they can't afford bail. That to me is a failure of our system. Mental disorders are huge in prison, hopefully this is something in the future we can start working towards fixing that issue by providing better access to mental health treatment before it gets bad enough to where people are becoming criminals.
DeleteAvatar003
Rikers Island is a jail in New York in which 80 percent of the prisoners there have not even been convicted of a crime. The average stay is less than 2 months, but some have remained there for 2 to 6 years. The video starts off as a young black man giving a story on how he was on his way to school, and was then arrested because he fit the description of a man who committed an armed robbery nearby. Little did they know, he was not the right guy. Over half of the inmates cannot afford their bail which is often less than $1000. This is wrong because many of these men are not even convicted of anything, then cannot afford bail when they are more often than not innocent. All of the former prisoners say the place is horrible. The cell condition is nasty, the smell is putrid, and the atmosphere is just awful. The inmates are strip searched in a room full of men. This is humiliating and disgusting, almost inhumane. Inmates are often inducted into the island with a physical initiation as it sounds. The police don’t seem to be much of a force to interfere and stop this here at this place. Another interesting fact is that over 40% of inmates at Rikers suffer from some form of mental illness. Mental illness patients were often abused mentally. A man in the video claims that a man urinated on a mental patient. There is no calmness or peace in this jail, as everyone describes it, it is like a horror scene with no escape. There is no getting away from trouble in this chilling place. The police in Rikers don’t enforce, rather they don’t want the inmates to “snitch”. They let the inmates act like animals, with a ranking system. “The strongest survive” is the mindset in this place. It is disgusting, and it sickens me that the “justice” system can be this way anywhere in America. -freckles001
ReplyDeleteOne of the quotes I found interesting early on in this video was a guy talking about how living in rikers island isn’t really living it’s just existing. This to me speaks volumes about how we treat prisoners in the United States. Though I don’t really pity the people who commit violent crimes nor do I believe we should “be soft” on people who commit crimes I do think we need to reevaluate our methods of incarceration so that people aren’t just merely existing. Honestly how do we expect people to improve and fit back into society if all they are doing is existing for a number or years in a cell. And this isn’t even taking into consideration that 80% of people at Rikers are awaiting trial. We just have these people locked up that haven’t actually been convicted of any crimes many of whom are waiting months or even years just to get a trial. They go on a little later talking about mental health issues. This to me is a huge aspect of our criminal justice system we should be dedicating more resources towards. I think we as a society often breeze over mental health issues because it’s difficult to relate to them if you don’t have one. When it comes to like getting sick or having a broken bone we can kind of understand that even if we haven’t had that exact thing happen to use. I think that’s more difficult with mental health and the reason I bring it up this way is because I think that if more people were empathetic to those suffering from mental disorders we might be able to push more resources towards helping those people so they don’t end up in the criminal justice system. I’m willing to bet a large percentage of those that commit crimes are suffering from a mental illness and who knows maybe if they had access to help early on in their life they might not have ended up committing crimes. It’s certainly not the only thing we need to worry about but I think it’s extremely important nonetheless.
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It is interesting to here inmates say that jail is awful. Many times, it is hard to show people compassion when they are incarcerated. But we also must remember they are human just like everybody else. Prisons are tough place to be. Many commit suicide, because they cannot take the day in day out (am I going to live or die). It is challenging to though to diagnose those who are suffering from mental illness. Yes, we need to funnel more resources to help diagnose those who are suffering mental illness. But where is the money going to come from? We as a society cannot even keep our heads above water right now. Illinigurl002
DeleteIn the video about RIKERS, there different testimonies of people that went to prison and came back. A lot of the stories of these people started with violence and abuses as children in their own home. As if raised in the culture of violence and made to be in prison. In the video, a woman said that the worked with “returning citizens” instead of calling them ex offenders. I think that calling the returning citizens put a positive label that will help not only the offender rehabilitate and the community have open arms to help rehabilitate. Having the label as an ex offender puts a negative label that would most likely closed mind people to believe people can not changed. 80% of the inmates in Rikers island are not yet convicted of a crime, they are either awaiting trial, sentencing or dismissal. A lot of the arrest are petty crimes and could be handle quickly if the caseloads weren’t filled with it. 40% of inmates that are arrest have a mental illness. That can include both people that have it before being detained or even developing a mental illness in jail. I was stated by one the men talking that there are people on both sides of the wall with mental illness that caught my attention. That even though COs that take psychological test can even have a mental illness and not be able to properly care for the inmates. Which can lead to CO’s letting inmates become in charge and being a okay with it. taco001
ReplyDeleteI’ve heard people talk about Rikers Island and how bad it was but I never paid it enough attention and actually sat down a do research on it because i felt like it was like any other jail. Jail is jail they are all bad there's no good jails to me because they hold criminals and some of the people they hold are truly innocent. The system so messed up and nobody cares because they’re criminals so they treat them as so not knowing that’s not making them any better. When I was watching the Rikers Island video and hearing those people describe how it was and how they was treated is really sad. People come in there with the intentions to not bother nobody stay to their self and just their time in peace praying their time will fly by but theres men/women in there that decides otherwards and make everybody time hard. I heard one story when a guy told about a boy packing all his things and getting ready for them to call his name dor court so he sat in the corner not bothering anyone but a group of guys surrounded him and when they called his name to go to court as he was walking out one of the guys threw hot water in his face and he was screaming and next thing you know he wiped his own face off. It just really sad how mean someone to be to somebody that bleeds the same blood as them and breath the same air.-KenzieLand002
ReplyDeleteThis video was an eye-opener for sure and provides some devastatingly information/statistics that make me look at the current problem of the jails. Rikers Island is a 400-acre island that has 10 jails built on it, which is the main jailing complex for New York City. The jails include facilities for women, adolescents, an infirmary, a power plant, as well as a bakery. At the beginning of the video there is an african american man talking about his “introduction” to Rikers Island- he said he had just gotten there, been checked in and completed that whole process, when two guys approached him and his friend he was sitting next to with intentions of taking his sneakers. The two men attacked him and managed to get one of his sneakers, with him only receiving a black eye and a busted lip. He later asked his friend what happened- why hadn’t he helped stand up for him? His friend responded with, “I had to make sure you could stand up for yourself, before I stood up for you.” This already tells me that this is quite a bit like many other rougher prisons and jails across the country in the sense that you will be killed or taken advantage of daily if you cannot prove you can stand for yourself. I found it interesting that Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. Something that shocked me that was discussed in the video was that America has over 2 million people that come through our jails and prisons on an annual basis. Coming in I knew that America was the world’s leader in the number of incarcerated, but to see such a number actually expressed was interesting to see. After listening to several of the inmates talk about their time there it paints a disturbing picture of what life is like there and how I never want to be a part of that place at all. -CUBSFAN002
ReplyDeleteThey treat people inhumanly. I heard of some pretty bad places, but nothing like I saw in this documentary. I know that I would not survive. I took 4 pages of notes to write about this place and I didn’t write hardly any of it because I was so disturbed by how the people being interviewed talked about that place. I seriously almost got sick to my stomach 5 minutes into the documentary. They said near the end that they might fix whatever is going to there or close it down. Personally, I think that it should be closed down because there probably is no way to fix that place. –Adventureflight002
DeleteThis video was a grim picture of what life is like at Rikers and it provides some shocking information/statistics that make me look at the current problem of the jails differently. Rikers Island is a 400-acre island that has 10 jails built on it, which is the main jailing complex for New York City. The jails include facilities for women, adolescents, an infirmary, a power plant, as well as a bakery. At the beginning of the video there is an african american man talking about his “introduction” to Rikers Island- he said he had just gotten there, been checked in and completed that whole process, when two guys approached him and his friend he was sitting next to with intentions of taking his sneakers. The two men attacked him and managed to get one of his sneakers, with him only receiving a black eye and a busted lip. He later asked his friend what happened- why hadn’t he helped stand up for him? His friend responded with, “I had to make sure you could stand up for yourself, before I stood up for you.” This already tells me that this is quite a bit like many other rougher prisons and jails across the country in the sense that you will be killed or taken advantage of daily if you cannot prove you can stand for yourself. I found it interesting that Nearly 80% of the detainees on Rikers Have not been convicted of a crime. Something that shocked me that was discussed in the video was that America has over 2 million people that come through our jails and prisons on an annual basis. Coming in I knew that America was the world’s leader in the number of incarcerated, but to see such a number actually expressed was interesting to see. After listening to several of the inmates talk about their time there it paints a disturbing picture of what life is like there and how I never want to be a part of that place at all. -CUBSFAN003
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is definitely one of the rougher jails ever. I think that the guards really need to be held accountable for everything that has happened in the jail. If the guards were doing their jobs and not letting the inmates do these things and weren’t abusing inmates then the place wouldn’t be such a crazy place. The only reason that the environment continued to exist in there is because the guards continued to let it happen. If the guards would of put their foot down and actually did their jobs by the book then most of what happened wouldn’t have happened. Celtics002
DeleteThe Rikers Island Video really put into perspective how the people who go to Rikers feel. The video started with a perspective from people who have been there and got out. They described it as going into the belly of the beast. All of them stated that it is easy to get there but so hard to get out. The living conditions were described as horrible and something you just would not want to be in. For many people who grew up up in this, it is not just something you hear about in stories. It is just a way of life there. That is all some of the individuals know. Many of the individuals had some sort of mental health issue they were struggling with. These people truly did not received the help they needed. One story a previous offender had told was that a mental health patient was laying there in his cell and a guard came up and peed on the person's head. It is things like this that make the people there feel like they are below everyone else. It sets up a stigma for prisoners to feel like they can not be anything better than what they are at that facility. These people already grow up with this type of stigma surrounding them when they are kids and then it is just reinforced when they get to that point. Some of the inmates mentioned that in order to survive in a place like Rikers, you have to become a form of yourself that no one wants to be. Later in the video, the offenders were talking about how the guards were corrupt and did some things to them that were unthinkable. One female inmate talked about how the guards raped her when she first came into Rikers Island. -AS003
ReplyDeleteWhile watching this documentary I almost got sick to my stomach. The way these former inmates describe this place was very disturbing. I know that this is what reality is, but this is inhuman and discussing. In the video I read that violence is notorious here and is more a culture. The people who were being interviewed describe this place as grim when entering. That can happen at any jail or prison in the world, but still. One person said looking at it is not living but existing. I think what they meant was that you have to do anything to just survive this place. What I found most disturbing is that nearly 80 percent of detainees here have not been convicted of a crime. They are awaiting trial, sentencing, or dismissal and the average stay is about two months, but some have waited two to six years here. Over ½ cannot afford bail. One person said that when you walk in it smells of a mix of blech, dirt, and grim. Another said that the bars are dirty and dusty and the cells are nasty. Being a person who is a germaphobe, such as myself, I would not survive at all. I also found it disturbing when one person said that one of the guards said when they first walked in they said, “For those who have been here before, you know what to expect. For those who haven’t tighten your pants”. One person who was interview said that, “it’s like being thrown to the wolves”. He also mentioned that he was scared. Another fact that I found disturbing is that about 40 percent of inmates there have some type of mental illness. Currently there is a debate whether to fix what is happening there or just close it down all together. Personally, I think it should be closed down because after watching this documentary I don’t think that anything can be fixed. –Adventureflight002
ReplyDeleteEverything you have stated is so true. The way these people have been treated and still are being treated is mind blowing. These individuals have grown up their whole lives with the thought that that's all they are going to amount to and ten to have that stigma attached to them when they are in their does not help. They are not being treated like human beings. The video mentioned there are some CO's that try to help the people and tell them what they need to to to not come back. Those are the CO's that are needed there to make a difference. -AS003
DeleteThis documentary was very interesting. It started off by saying America has over two million inmates a year, and America has more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. In New York City, more than 7,500 are held and are notorious for its culture of violence. Taking the bridge into Riker’s Island can be extremely dangerous. People compare it to when the sun is out, it’s really like it’s dark outside because of the high crime rate. Many people on Rikers have not been convicted of a crime but they wait on trial to be held for sentencing, they stay from anywhere to two months to six years awaiting trial. Majority of the detainees cannot afford bail which is normally set below $1,000. Many people that are arrested for crimes, did not actually commit the crimes. They fit the description and therefore are locked up because they look the same as the criminal. This is another reason we are running into the issue of mass incarceration. Officers are assuming and not just going through the proper arresting system to find the correct criminals. As people show up to Riker’s Island they are quickly confronted and either get beat up or they want to steal the new offenders clothes or shoes. To get accepted into the gang’s in Riker Island, you have to stand up to others in order for them to stand up to you. Most people in Riker’s Island have a mental illness, they then refuse the drugs because they think they are equivalent to street drugs. Or they think the government is giving something to harm them not help them. People in the cafeteria would spit in the food, or wipe the food on the floor before handing it to the other inmates. Some people would pick on others, like a sick mental ill person was laying on a bed and someone came over and peed on him just because. These inmates are so out of control it is hard to keep them controlled and well behaved. #notaplumber002
ReplyDeleteI agree that the inmates are so out of control that the guards can’t control them, but I would argue that it isn’t their fault at all. If I was put in Rikers jail I would act the same way because I know that if I don’t act in this crazy aggressive way then I will look weak. The problem is the guards. They don’t have rules that the inmates follow and don’t enforce anything at all. This means that if you wait for them to help you then it will already be too late. I think that the guards are the real ones that are out of control.
DeleteCeltics003^^^
DeleteOne of the things they spent a little time talking about in this video are the gangs that are in jail or prison. It was interesting to hear them talk about the latin kings and the formation of bloods and crips as a means of protection but what I thought was really thought provoking was the idea of the correctional officers themselves being a gang. Giving this idea some thought it really isn’t to far from the truth it’s just one is granted authority by the government and the other is basically the opposite in that their existence relies on breaking the law. That’s not to say that correctional officers are as bad as the bloods or anything but it’s an interesting way to look at life in prison and try to see from their perspective. Of course there are correctional officers who do engage in bad behavior, they also talked about how guards would interact with gangs by selling them contraband from the outside including drugs or cigarettes. It’s easy to see why they do this, one of the guys was talking about how much more it is in prison than it would be on the outside. For example a ten dollar pack of cigarettes on the outside would run around two hundred in prison. From the sounds of it the correctional officers could make an entirely separate salary just selling cigarettes to inmates. This to me is unacceptable, as correctional officers you are supposed to be held to a high standard and your concern should be the safety of those in your jail or prison not on making extra money selling narcotics to prisoners. This is yet just another example of how dysfunctional our criminal justice system can be. I’d like to see a system put in place holding correctional officers more accountable for these kinds of behaviors but I imagine it’s difficult because a lot of people are going to be losing a lot of money from this were it to happen.
ReplyDeleteAvatar003
Rikers Island is definitely the worst jail that I have ever heard of. The things that go on in that jail sound like they should be in a movie or in North Korea. It’s basically an island with no supervision because all of the people supposed to be supervising are even worse than the inmates. From the sounds of it most of these things that went on were because the guards weren’t doing their jobs. Thousands of inmates were beaten by guards, one of them so bad that he didn’t even look like a human in the hospital bed. He had to be in a wheelchair for 2 months because he had so many broken bones that he was hardly alive. I think that this is just sick, and I really hope that every single one of these guards soon serves justice. The inmates said that they had to be violent or they would be taken advantage of. One guy said that he did stuff he didn’t even know he was capable of because if he didn’t he would be seen as weak. The worst thing is that even if something happened to you there would be no one to report it to because the guards just simply didn’t care. And if you did report it you would be beaten even worse when you came back. There is also a lot of gang activity within Rikers Island. If you aren’t apart of one of the two biggest gangs in the jail then you are at risk to be jumped. It’s pretty much every man for themselves, which is not what a jail should be. The guards are the whole reason that this happened because they made the message very clear that if you can’t fight then you will be taken advantage of. Celtics002
ReplyDeleteOver two million people are incarcerated a year. 80 % of the detainees in Rikers have yet to be convicted of a crime. Still waiting for a trial, dismissal or sentencing. Some of those detainees have waited for six years. That is six years of their life that they won’t get back. Six years to long! 40% of the detainees are there with a mental illness that have been undiagnosed. Those with mental illness were more subjected to abuse from all spectrums of the jail system including the guards and other detainees. When you go into the system you are basically stripped of your humanity. Forced to live a way that you wouldn’t live outside. Forced to adapt to either giving into crime inside of jail keeping your mouth shut when you see something wrong happening you are forced to let it go and watch whatever is going on. If you were new to the system you gave up your items your commissary and phone calls you had to either adapt or fight for your life to survive. There is a line of corruption through out Rikers multiple gangs and the correctional officers themselves were apart of their own gangs who would bring in supplies for a demand. Correctional officers who would sexually assault inmates. If the inmates said something or reported someone, they would get beat worse than what they were before. Once you are at Rikers CO or not you are all doing time the one thing that separates you from humanity is a bridge. I understand that some inmates are incarcerated for horrendous crimes and they should serve their time. But we should never stoop so slow and forget our morals and become an animal and beat someone when you stoop to a level that low you belong in the system as well our duty is to protect and serve. Not manipulate and beat. Casket003
ReplyDeleteRikers Island is a really terrible place. One of the parts of the video that I found really interesting was the solitary confinement part. One guy was sent to solitary confinement for over 1000 days. That is just way too long to be in solitary confinement. That’s almost 4 years without any contact to anyone or anything but the food in the room. That will literally drive a person insane. I would be willing to bet that’s why the guy became a priest, because being in that cell for so long by yourself has to be torture. I think that God probably spoke to him in that cell or what he thought was God. One girl said that she resorted to cutting to relieve the physiological pain involved with being in there. I am very against solitary confinement for reasons like this. It can really cause you to lose your mind and it can have permanent mental affects on a person. I feel so bad for the guy that had to be in there for almost 4 years because I couldn’t imagine being in there for a week. I don’t know how he had the mindset in that first year to do three more years of that torture. I really liked the story about the milk jug and how he filled it with his bodily fluids and then threw it on a guard, because I feel like that guard had done so much that he deserved it. I really wish that Rikers Island would have been better supervised because the majority of the people in there aren’t even convicted of a crime yet (80%). That means that there are a lot of good people that are going through this living hell just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Celtics002
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to serving time in prison for a crime that someone committed can be challenging but imagine someone that didn’t commit the crime and is still awaiting trial. It’s tormenting and seen as a way of unusual punishment how the correctional officers would treat these inmates. There is a problem with how things were handled in Rikers island. There was a lot of corruption within the correctional officer and the inmates. If being in jail is to serve time for a crime committed and later become an abiding citizen like nothing happen, is ridiculous after being held in Rikers Prison. The violence within the walls in order to protect yourself was so intense. That when an inmate was let out of prison into the community they would still use violence to make a point. In 2015, the “use of force” by guards were of to 4,000 documented reports. Yet, that doesn’t count the ones that were in secret, away from the cameras, and threaten to keep their mouth shut. Something I found interesting about this prison is how gang violence was at the top in how to handle the houses. The biggest gang controlled the house, which were “Latin Kings” at the time. That is when Bloods was created in order to overthrow the Latin Kings from being in control. Bloods accomplished it with fear, which came form violence for no reason. I think it was a good idea to condemned violence in Rikers because it wasn't doing any good with the relationship of inmates and officers. There would be no point in shutting down the facility if they are going to take those inmates somewhere else to create more violence with someone else. It needs to be fix with patience from the officers and rehabilitation for inmates to be returning citizen and not return to prison with 3 years like that 40%. dory002
ReplyDeleteThe video about Rikers Island was very interesting how bad it was but I never paid it enough attention and actually sat down a do research about it when people talked about it because i felt like it was like any other jail. Jail is jail they are all bad there's no good jails to me because they hold criminals and some of the people they hold are truly innocent. The system so messed up and nobody cares because they’re criminals so they treat them as so not knowing that’s not making them any better. When I was watching the Rikers Island video and hearing those people describe how it was and how they was treated is really sad. People come in there with the intentions to not bother nobody stay to their self and just their time in peace praying their time will fly by but theres men/women in there that decides otherwards and make everybody time hard. I heard one story when a guy told about a boy packing all his things and getting ready for them to call his name for court so he sat in the corner not bothering anyone but a group of guys surrounded him and when they called his name to go to court as he was walking out one of the guys threw hot water in his face and he was screaming and next thing you know he wiped his own face off. It just really sad how mean someone to be to somebody that bleeds the same blood as them and breath the same air. one lady mention that it smelled like blood and rust in there.-KenzieLand003
ReplyDeleteCorruption in our correctional facilities is one of the main problem as to why the correctional system doesn’t work. For reasons that inmates are threatened not only by other inmates of power but also correctional officers that associate themselves with inmates that are gang-related. Inmates that are in gang in jail have a type of “protection” that helps them have control over people in the facility. Gangs bring violence and if there are gangs in jail that practice their power than that would mean that officers are letting it happen. For everyone that told their personal story about being held in Rikers Prison, it all basically had the same problem as to why they were intensely hurting or abused. Once someone is in jail they want to get out but for people who seriously just want to mind their own business and serve their time is nearly impossible. They would be seen as a weak link. Many of them said that it took strength not to commit even more crime in jail because of the negative environment. Later, it would result in being taken to solitary confinement. Not only would they keep them there for an amount of time to learn their lesson but an extremely long time like 100 days in confinement. The rooms were described as to “keep you down” the color and lighting that held the characteristic. Sanity would be chipped away and could later result to mental illness that would be difficult to rehabilitate. I think that many prisons across the country work in ways that doesn't help inmates become people that could return home and will be able to start a new life. Yet, most of these people’s stories were able to start a new life because of the things they encountered. yellow003
ReplyDeleteThis documentary was very informal and gave information on how the inmates perceived things while in Rikers Island. The environment in Rikers Island seemed very harsh according to the people who were in there before. They said the correctional officers would beat them and watch other inmates fight and take other inmates things. That is not right at all and the correctional officers should not be able to do that and should get in trouble. The former inmates also said the correctional officers would have bets with who would win fights. They would then let them out and watch them fight with each other and tell them to stop or say things like “i've think they had enough”. The correctional officers would also sell the inmates drugs and cigarettes for almost 10 times as much as it would cost them in the streets. For example a 11 dollar box of cigarettes on the street would be 100 dollars in jail or prison. Seeing this documentary just informed me more and gave me more stories about things on Rikers Island. I first got informed with Rikers Island when I watched a documentary on Netflix called “The Kalief Browder Story”. This is a very good documentary about a boy named Kalief and he was accused of a crime he did not do and was sent to Rikers Island. When he was sent here he was mistreated a lot and was put into solitary confinement for a very long time. Once he fought his case and got out of Rikers after a few years, he could not function. After being out of Rikers for not that long of a time period he ended up committing suicide. This was a very sad story to here, especially since I use to live in Brooklyn New York. Hopefully one day Rikers Island will become better or shut down because the environment in there is not good at all and no one should have to go through that type of fear. -brooklyn003
ReplyDeleteI definitely think the correctional officers should get in trouble for all of the things they have done. When they showed a picture of what an inmate looked like after the correctional officers beat him up, it was very shocking. It also seems like the correctional officers are using unnecessary force. I have never seen The Kalief Browder Story but after you gave a brief summary about it I’m definitely going to watch it. I can't imagine the amount of anxiety that the people have that are released from there. No one deserves the treatment that was given there and I would not be surprised if the place shut down within the next few years. -Soccer003
DeleteThe United States incarcerates the most people compared to any of the other countries. There is one bridge that takes you in and out. The people that are at Rikers Island are here for sentencing, awaiting trial, or dismissal. Someone described Rikers Island as having a certain smell, the bars were dirty, and the cells were nasty. When someone mentioned that there was bars, it reminded me of the first generation cells. The first generation cells was created in eighteenth century and Riker’s Island was established in 1932 and the design for the second generation jail did not come out till the 1960’s. The inside of Rikers Island probably doesn't look the same from when it was first built and there was probably some changes made over the years but there could still be some similar characteristics to the first generation jail style. One person described this place as medieval. I’m sure some prisons and jails still have bars today but in today’s society, they’re trying to shift to the second and third generation cells. If the cleanliness of jails or prisons are not taken into consideration, it can be a reproduction establishment for HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. If the place has mold and people are breathing that in, it can cause respiratory problems. The place had cockroaches and rats and they would watch them come into their cells. Cockroaches and rats can be carriers of infectious diseases. There would be maggots in the rice that the inmates were given and that can cause health problems. One person was talking about how you walked in and you were in between these two doors and you would see a gate and on the other side is a day room and the guy said that there was other adolescents on the other side. He said that he could hear them talking. When minors are being held in a jail facility that is also holding adults, they are suppose to have not sight or sound contact with adults. Minors in an adult jail could be at risk for physical, sexual, or mental abuse. The jail staff might not be trained very well at recognizing depression especially with minors because a jail staff normally deals with adults. -Soccer002
ReplyDeleteIt said around forty percent of the detainees at Rikers are diagnosed with a mental illness. Jails have a lot of noise, bright lights, and a constant change in population. Jails don’t have the rest of relief that people with mental health disorders need. One person said “People that are incarcerated don’t talk, they scream at each other. There’s no normal talking.”. Placing someone in solitary confinement makes everything worse. It can create mental illnesses. Some people might become depressed or they might start hearing voices that aren't actually there. Jails and prisons are trying to control the amount of contraband that gets taken into these facilities. There is still a struggle with drugs in these facilities. There was a woman in Rikers Island that had crack hidden in her hair. There was 2-4 inmates that ran a house and they described it as a program. It was also described as a chain of command. You either did what they said or you got beat up. As I listened to all of these people’s stories, it sounded like you had to hurt people to gain respect. It shouldn't have to be that way. A lot of the violence at Rikers was gang related. You have to watch were you place people. If you place rival gang members in the same area, there is a higher chance for violent outbursts. Officers would bet on fights and sneak in contraband. If an officer snuck in a five dollar bag of weed, it would be worth one hundred dollars on Rikers Island. One of the inmates was raped by an officer and the people also talked about the beatings that they took from the officers. “Even when you think you’re secured, you’re really not secured”. This is not how this supposed to be. An officer is supposed to supervise the facility and keep things under control. They’re also supposed to keep inmates as safe as possible. They’re not suppose to be inflicting harm on inmates. These officers are using unnecessary force which is frowned upon. -Soccer003
ReplyDeleteIt is extremely sad to see that it there are this many people locked up in Rikers island that suffer from some sort of mental disability. Especially when 80 some percent of the people that are locked up have not even been convicted of a crime. This is something that not only New York it needs to be aware of but also criminal justice around the country. This is extremely important that we have some sort of reform as to how many people we are looking up as a nation because you saw the startling numbers at the beginning of the video and even though we are a free country we take freedom from over 2 million people a year.
Delete-RHB003
I watched the Ted Talk video called “Why smart statistics are the key to fighting crime”. The speaker, Anne Milgram, became an attorney general in 2007 for the state of New Jersey. Before she was an attorney general, she was a criminal prosecutor. Originally for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and then for the United States Department of Justice. When she first became an attorney general, two things happened that made her change her outlook on criminal justice. The first one being she asked more essential and underlying questions. The who, what, where, and why’s essentially. Anne wanted to know who was getting arrested, charged, and put into the nation's prisons. The second thing that happened was that the speaker spent a day in Camden, New Jersey Police Department, which was one of the most dangerous cities in America at the time. Both of these things made her realize that fundamentally we are failing. We didn't know who was in our criminal justice system, there was no data, and no data or analysis was shared to help us make better decisions to reduce crime. Knowing all of this, Anne Milgram changed the way the criminal justice worked. She and her team were able to take Camden off of the list of the most dangerous cities in America. Murders were reduced by 41 percent, and overall crime was reduced by 26 percent. They went from doing low level drug crimes to doing cases that had statewide importance, on things like reducing violence, prosecuting street ganges, gun and drug trafficking, and political corruption. All of these changes matter, because public safety is one of the most important aspects of criminal justice. Overall, their goal is to get every judge in America to use a universal risk assessment tool. She wants the judges to use there instinct and experience, along with the risk assessment tools to change the criminal justice system. There’s a lot of work left for her and her team to do, but fortunately they know it works. It’s how we can make the world a safer and better place for everyone. It will change the criminal justice system in America. -pizza003
ReplyDeleteThe video opens up with text saying that America has more incarcerated people than any other nation in the world with all of her 2 million inmates a year. It then says that on a typical day more than 7500 people are held in New York City Rikers island jail. Another astonishing was that of all the detainees on Rikers island nearly 80% of them have not been convicted of a crime. This means that they are either being held awaiting for their trial, sentencing, or dismissal. Some have stayed up to 6 years waiting. Most inmates say they have multiple types of mental illness. Forty percent of Rikers inmates are diagnosed with mental illnesses. inmates controlling the other people who can’t fight for there self of who are too scared to say anything. To be able to make it through jails or prisons you have to have a certain type of attitude. You can’t show emotion cause it will make you seem weak. You have to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary with a weapon. It is definitely a you or the other guy mentality and that is the only way that you are able to survive and you have to fight. There are times when guards watch the fight happening but choose to do nothing. An inmate has to rely on their own strength to get through. Many of the inmates in Rikers island have also been violated when they were younger. It is extremely sad to here all of the stories about how there was little to no safety provided in the jail by the correction officers. Obviously with the number of inmates at Rikers Island the officers are limited in how much control that they can have over the inmates and that is why we are needed such reform in how many people we lock up and what we are locking people up for.
ReplyDelete-RHB003
America has the largest amount of incarcerations across the world. Riker’s Island is the largest jail in America. It is extremely dangerous and a lot of crime happens. One example is a girl was laying on the floor, sleeping and when she turned all these little cubes came out and the other inmates were trying to pick them up as quickly as possible. They also didn’t want the guards to hear them because it was cubes of cocaine. Jail is so completely different from the outside world. You go back to being a child because there are so many rules and regulations. Or some inmates run the “program” and if you don’t listen to them than they will beat you up. Then they send you to a different jail, the people that have no authority are called “dayroom dummies.” They were expected to either give the inmates with authority their compensatory, phone calls, clean their underwear for them, and do whatever they asked. The guards even watch other inmates get beat up because they “decline” the program and they eventually break it up when they think the inmate has had enough. The term “hold it down” means that you aren’t going to say anything to anybody about getting beat up, especially because the guard knows about the situation. If you show any sort of weakness you won’t make it. You have to be able to stand up for yourself in order to prove to them that you have some sort of power and self respect. A lot of people can hurt or fight back but they don’t want too. They are there for minor crimes and to do their time, not to hurt others. People that pretend to be your friends are not your friends, they will manipulate you for everything you have. The guards are there to collect a paycheck, not to make sure everyone is alive. #notaplumber003
ReplyDeleteTo know that the people on Rikers are not even really viewed as human. The guards there sound concerning. Not to say all guards there are bad because one bad seed can completely destroy the reputation for all the others there. The fact these people live in the fear of getting beaten up even by these guards. They even have these terminology statements in there between everyone to signify meanings. -holywaffles002
DeleteThis video on Rikers Island was probably the most interesting blog that I have read on here. It was full of so many examples and and facts it was crazy. The first crazy fact to me was that most of the people, being around 80 percent of the people incarcerated in Rikers Island have not even been convicted of a crime but are awaiting their trials and court dates and other things like that. A fact that was surprising to me was that about 40 percent of the inmates in the correctional center were diagnosed with a mental disorder. Really, I thought that the number would be quite a bit higher than that. Something that was absolutely crazy to me was when one of the guys was talking about the fight that he got into where all of his roommates jumped him because he did not want to abide by the room rules, the correctional officer, someone who should be helping the inmate, just watched him get beat up by the entire room and then just asked him if he was alright and if he was going to just “hold it down” meaning not tell anyone about it so he would not be labeled as a snitch. After watching more of the video I am not sure if the correctional officer was or was not doing her job as to keeping the inmate safe. Obviously as an officer she should have to do something about it in order to try to keep the inmate safe, but maybe she was really watching out for him in the long run for not making him a snitch. It seems like a really hard situation to be in honestly, and I am sure that they run into things like this all of the time. This was a great video and it is crazy to think about ever being somewhere like Rikers Island. -Steel003
ReplyDeletePeople do not understand how intense rikers island truly is. Rikers Island is a serious place to be. It is one of the hardest places to be incarcerated. They hold over 7,500 inmates. That number is absolutely ludicrous. That is comparable to a small town city. They really make it obvious unintentionally in the video how intense being here is and how they fear so heavily of their lives. You really do not know what the next day there will bring. It is 400 acres with 10 jails. To literally know this is a literal city, is unimaginable. They bring up how if you do not have a weapon while in there, you are already behind on the game and you should pretty much be concerned for your safety because you will 100% be the odd one out. They said at least 40% of the people on RIker's island have a mental illness. It really makes you wonder if these people had these illnesses prior to coming in or if they obtained the illnesses from the trauma of being locked up, especially here. The female that talked about how she was sexually assaulted but did not even feel comfortable saying anything to anyone and even the guards, this is quite upsetting to know it is as if she feels failed and so bothered but knows if she was to go forward she could not even trust the guards. Most of the violence here is gang related and it is almost too much for guards to keep up and there is a lot of unknown corruption but it is known to be present. This video is intense and the title is even misleading. -holywaffles002
ReplyDeleteThe statement that 80% of inmates in Riker’s Island haven’t been convicted of a crime is, I think, demonstrative of the attitude of this entire video. It’s the first thing mentioned in both the video itself and in the video description. It’s meant to shock people. “Wow! 80% of people! That’s insane!” It’s intentionally provocative, meant to draw people in and get them to pay attention, but it’s also misleading. That is, after all, definitionally what jails are intended to do. They hold people before sentencing, and for misdemeanor crimes. Prisons are where convicts are sent after conviction. It’s not as if the very idea of offenders being locked up is so offensive to people, most people know that people who violate the law need to be contained. But this statement is meant to provoke the American love of procedural justice, while diverting people from the fact that the procedural justice that they love is taking place, and this is part of it. Being locked up with 7,499 of the cream of New York’s scum and villainy, of which it is perhaps the most wretched hive east of Chicago, is quite a punishment, but it’s not sufficient recompense to society for most crimes, at least not the six months until trial. Most people are not sentenced to time served, after all, but go on to other sentences. If we wish to term it adequate compensation to society at large for the crimes committed, we must commit to ending it via legislation, rather than by bemoaning an intentionally punitive institution for being punitive. – Arsenal002
ReplyDeleteAfter watching this video I realized what these inmates had to go through while being incarcerated. One thing that stuck out to me was when the statement was made that everywhere Berry Camble went there were people getting cut and hurt. It was crazy hearing his life story and his childhood. He lived a very difficult life and was very violent as a child. His own mother said she could not control him and he began getting in multiple fights at school. He ended up going to prison. One thing that one of the guys mentioned was when he was in a dorm someone tried taking this guys food. The guy did not want to fight. He wasnted to make it home and go to court. One guy didn’t like this guy trying to leave. He wanted to hurt him so he threw scalding hot water in his face and then took his hands and peeled his skin off. One thing that I thought was terrible was that the lady (Cathy) was sexually assaulted by multiple inmates. She said she wanted to die. One thing that I learned from watching this video was that these guys had to be hard and tough in the system. It is insane to think about what these inmates went through on a day to day basis. The fighting was out of control. Some people would become a gang member just for protection. Fighting was a must if you did not want to be owned in Rikers Island. It was interesting to listen to the Latin King and his story. Benny was second in command was was a big roller. He did a lot of bad and thought that fighting was always necessary. -Anchorman002
ReplyDeleteRight from the very beginning of the video it states that America is known for incarcerating people when they commit crimes. It said that we incarcerate more people in America than anywhere else on the globe. One thing that really stood out to me was the amount of inmates that they hold on Rikers Island. Over seven thousand five hundred inmates in this place is crazy. Hearing the statistics given in this video was insane to me. I found it interesting hearing these people explain their experiences. They would have higher people and lower people. When they would get into the house, they would be told to do certain jobs and if you did certain jobs you were almost owned and someone was in charge of you.I thought it was interesting how one person said that he gave these guys his sneakers and ended up losing all his belongings. One thing someone told him afterwards was you cannot show weakness. The first thing he did in return was beat up the people who took his stuff. Then he got his stuff back. I learned during this video that people cannot be soft in Rikers island. I thought it was also interesting to hear one man say that when he entered, he was told that he had to wash people’s underwear and that was his new job. The man slid a bucket of water toward him so he could get to work and he took the bucket and smashed it across his face. It is insane to me how people can treat one another. What I learned from this video was how intense it can be for inmates. -Anchorman003
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