Rikers Island
| Rikers Island | ||
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| Waters | East River | |
| Geographical location | 40 ° 47 '26 " N , 73 ° 52' 55" W | |
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| length | 2 km | |
| width | 1.1 km | |
| surface | 1.672 km² | |
| Residents | 12,780 (2000) 7644 inhabitants / km² |
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Rikers Island is a prison island in the East River of New York . The island covers 1,672 square kilometers and is located between the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx in the port area near La Guardia Airport . The island is part of the Bronx but is administered by the Queens Community Board 1. At the 2000 census, a population of 12,780 was counted.
There are ten different prisons on the island under the supervision of the New York City Department of Correction , including the North Infirmary as a prison hospital and the West Facility for prisoners with infectious diseases. There are also churches of various denominations on the site. More than 7,000 law enforcement officers and 1,500 civilian employees work on Rikers Island. The island forms the largest prison complex in the world.
Rikers Island was also known as the "new Alcatraz". The entire complex extends over an area that is more than five times the size of Alcatraz in the Bay of San Francisco. The cells hold up to 17,000 men and women who cost the United States $ 860 million a year to support. Up to 130,000 prisoners are registered on Rikers Island annually.
Slightly less than 25 percent of the prisoners sit on the island for violent crimes , about 80 percent of the prisoners are drug addicts . Over 90 percent of prisoners are African American or Hispanic , although these races make up less than half of New York's population. A quarter of the prisoners receive psychiatric treatment, around a third of the prisoners are without a place of residence.
history
The name goes back to the 17th century Dutch settler Abraham Rycken . The island was sold to the City of New York by his descendants in 1885. Through land reclamation was of 0.36 square kilometers to more than 1.6 square kilometers expanded. The only access, the 1.2-kilometer Francis Buono Bridge , was inaugurated in 1966; previously there was only the possibility of getting to the island by ferry.
With the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center , Rikers Island has had a prison ship for around 800 inmates since 1992 .
In 2011, the island moved into European awareness when Dominique Strauss-Kahn , President of the International Monetary Fund , was transferred here as a prisoner on remand.
The imprisonment of the youngster Kalief Browder turned into a scandal. He had to wait for his trial in Rikers Island. During this time, he was mistreated, beaten by inmates, and spent much of the time in solitary confinement. He was only released after three years. The prosecution waived an indictment because the only witness had moved to Mexico at the beginning of Browder's detention; a trial never took place. Browder committed suicide after his release. The case reignited debates about Rikers Island and the judicial system in New York.
In 2017, Mayor de Blasio announced that he wanted to completely close Rikers Island. The New York City Parliament decided on October 17, 2019 to close the Rikers Island prison complex until 2026. Instead, four new and smaller prisons are to be built for $ 8.7 billion. The mayor de Blasio described this as "a historic day" after the decision in the city council. Residents of Brooklyn , Chinatown , Queens and the Bronx are already resisting new prisons being built in their neighborhoods. Proponents of the plan to close Rikers Island, however, argue that the new buildings would allow for more frequent visits by loved ones and facilitate reintegration projects. De Blasio also wants to significantly reduce the number of prisoners in New York. The aim is to reduce the number of prisoners to 3,300 by 2026. In January 2019 there were 7,790.
literature
- Jennifer Wynn: Inside Rikers. Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony . St. Martin's Press, New York City 2001, ISBN 0-312-26179-9 .
Movies
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story , six-part documentary by Jenner Furst (United States 2017)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Census 2000: New York, Bronx County, Census Tract 1. United States Census Bureau , 2000, accessed January 22, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Facilities Overview. An overview of NYC DOC facilities. (No longer available online.) New York City, archived from the original on April 20, 2014 ; Retrieved May 17, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Statement to New York City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services. (PDF (357 kB)) (No longer available online.) New York City , June 1, 2010, p. 1 , archived from the original on July 4, 2012 ; Retrieved May 17, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Statement to New York City Council Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services. (PDF (357 kB)) (No longer available online.) City of New York, June 1, 2010, p. 9 , archived from the original on July 4, 2012 ; Retrieved May 17, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kodi Barth: An Overview of Rikers Island. A City of Jails. (No longer available online.) NYC24.com , archived from the original September 8, 2006 ; Retrieved May 17, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Strauss-Kahn arrested. IMF head detained at Rikers Island. BBC News , accessed May 17, 2011 .
- ↑ Solitary confinement on prison island. (No longer available online.) In: Der Standard . May 17, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 17, 2011 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Yoav Gonen, Rebecca Rosenberg, Bruce Golding: New York City to close Rikers Island. In: New York Post . March 31, 2017, accessed April 6, 2017 .
- ↑ New York's Alcatraz closes. Luxembourg Word of October 18, 2019.
