The story of how the Godfather of Soul ended up performing at the New York jail involves a dogged Board of Correction employee who knitted her way to the musician’s attention. Source: New York Times
Posts published in “Prisons and Prisoners”
Unreported Rikers Island Beatings: ‘Disturbing and Unacceptable’
By Gotham Rex on March 8, 2022
Louis Molina, the correction commissioner, responded to a recent New York Times report that found serious injuries to at least two detainees were not reported. Source: New York Times
How Brutal Beatings on Rikers Island Were Hidden From Public View
By Gotham Rex on March 2, 2022
One man was paralyzed from the neck down. Another landed in a coma. Neither injury was documented properly in the New York City jail system awash in disorder. Source: New York Times
A Fall From the Society Pages to Prison Unsettles Greenwich
By Gotham Rex on February 18, 2022
The sealing of the case against Hadley Palmer, 53, who must register as a sex offender for secretly filming minors, has revived questions about judicial favoritism for the wealthy. Lawyers say they were trying to protect her victims. Source: New…
Jail Unions Gain a Powerful Supporter: Mayor Eric Adams
By Gotham Rex on January 14, 2022
Eric Adams has reversed some measures enacted to regain control over the crisis at Rikers Island, in an early victory for the correction officers’ unions. Source: New York Times
Hundreds at Rikers Protest Conditions, Citing Covid and the Cold
By Gotham Rex on January 11, 2022
Detainees in one jail at the Rikers Island complex are refusing to eat Correction Department meals. Source: New York Times
N.Y. Prisons Punished 1,600 Based on Faulty Drug Tests, Report Finds
By Gotham Rex on January 4, 2022
Incarcerated people were subjected to solitary confinement and denied family visits because of improperly administered tests, the state inspector general found. Source: New York Times
Behind the Violence at Rikers, Decades of Mismanagement and Dysfunction
By Gotham Rex on December 31, 2021
For years, New York City officials have presided over shortcuts and blunders that have led to chaos in one of America’s most expensive jail complexes. Source: New York Times
Covid Cases Spike in New York City Jails
By Gotham Rex on December 22, 2021
“The risks to the human beings in our custody are at a crisis level,” the correction commissioner wrote in a letter to lawyers and judges. Source: New York Times
Sniffling, Sneezing and Panicking
By Gotham Rex on December 20, 2021
Covid, or just a cold? It’s a quandary for anxious New Yorkers as cold and flu season closes in. Source: New York Times
Change Comes to Rikers Island, but Is It Too Late?
By Gotham Rex on December 17, 2021
The city’s reform-minded corrections commissioner, who introduced therapeutic programs for guards and detainees, is leaving. Source: New York Times
On Rikers Island, Two Deaths in Four Days Push Jails Toll to 16
By Gotham Rex on December 15, 2021
A Brooklyn man late Tuesday became the latest detainee to die as the Department of Correction grapples with a crisis at the city’s main jail complex. Source: New York Times
Another Death at Rikers Continues ‘Very Difficult Year’ at N.Y.C. Jails
By Gotham Rex on December 10, 2021
A Brooklyn man, who went into cardiac arrest on Friday, became the 15th person to die this year within New York City’s correction system. Source: New York Times
Joseph Gordon Says He's No Murderer. That’s Why He’s Still in Prison.
By Gotham Rex on December 2, 2021
Joseph Gordon has been locked up for nearly 30 years. A model inmate, he is eligible for parole — but only if he expresses remorse for a crime he says he did not commit. Source: New York Times
What New Documents Reveal About Jeffrey Epstein's Final Days
By Gotham Rex on November 23, 2021
Newly released records show the disgraced financier living a mundane existence in jail before his suicide, while also spinning deceptions until the very end. Source: New York Times