Rikers Island Jail

History

The City of New York purchased Rikers Island in 1884 for $180,000. At that time, the island measured 87 acres. Before it became the penal colony it is today, Rikers, along with Hart Island, was used as a base for the U.S. Colored Troops, the African American soldiers who fought during the Civil War. In the 1930s, Rikers Island became the headquarters for the New York City Department of Corrections, replacing the department's antiquated facilities at Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island).

Rikers opened as a jail in 1933 with only two facilities: the Rikers Island Penitentiary and the Rikers Island Hospital. During the 1930s and into the 1940s, the inmates housed at Rikers, many of whom were there because of problems with narcotics, worked as farm laborers on the island. The theory at Rikers was that hard work and fresh air would help prisoners reform. Consequently, inmates worked at jobs such as growing farm produce for other institutions, raising the numerous [Page 852]pigs that also lived on Rikers Island, and unloading coal and other materials from barges that came to the island. Prisoners also laid railroad tracks and waterlines, and expanded the island to 415 acres through landfill.

The Rikers Island Bridge

In 1966, the Rikers Island Bridge was constructed under Mayor John Lindsay. The 5,500-foot bridge cost the city more than $9,000,000. Previously, the only access to the island was by ferry. The bridge allowed easier access for staff, prison visitors, other agency personnel, lawyers, emergency staff and equipment, professional service staff, college and university staff engaged in research, and the many civic groups interested in correctional agency operation. The bridge, located at the foot of Hazen Street and 19th Avenue in Astoria, connected Queens to the southern portion of Rikers Island. It provided both lanes for cars and buses and a walk-way for pedestrian traffic. The bridge was seen as much more economical than ferry service, despite its initial cost, because of money saved on ferry maintenance.

Rikers Island Today

The Rikers Island complex is made up of 10 separate jails. Five Division One facilities are maintained on the island. The first is the James A. Thomas Center, which is the original Rikers Island Penitentiary, built in 1933. Previously referred to as the House of Detention for Men, this facility was recently renamed in honor of the DOC's first African American warden, James A. Thomas. Today it serves as a maximum-security, single-cell facility, with a maximum capacity of 1,200.

The second jail, the George Motchan Detention Center, opened in 1971. Originally known as the Correctional Institution for Women, this building housed women and the nation's first jail-based nursery. In 1988, with the opening of a new women's facility, the building was converted to a facility for men. Another Division One jail is the Adolescent Reception and Detention Center, opened in 1972 with a maximum capacity of 2,500 inmates. It currently houses adolescent male detainees ages 16 to 18.

A fourth jail, the Rose M. Singer Center, opened in June 1988, with a maximum capacity of 800 inmates. This center replaced the Correctional Institution for Women. It was later expanded through the use of modular housing and now can hold up to 1,700 female detainees and sentenced inmates. Like its predecessor, this women's facility has a nursery, which houses up to 25 newborns. The fifth Division One facility is the George V. Vierno Center, opened in 1991 with a total capacity of 850. With an addition in 1993, its maximum capacity was expanded by 500. This facility houses detainees awaiting trial.

...