Talk:Rikers Island

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Escapes, History
Does anyone have more information about this island? Feel free to share your knowlage - and live forever and ever on the world wide web and write some history. For more escapes, check out these four interestuing articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/01/nyregion/two-rikers-island-inmates-caught-and-a-third-is-sought-in-escapes.html

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-06-14/news/18164456_1_rikers-island-sewer-pipe-career-burglar

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-06-15/news/18165507_1_rikers-island-correction-department-boats

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2001-06-18/news/18171401_1_sewer-pipe-rikers-island-escape--

Cre8peace13 (talk) 16:57, 26 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Createpeace, that is our mission as humans beging on this magical existence for a while. 2A02:A446:B676:1:818:53D7:11C7:F387 (talk) 07:54, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Subway
Why is Subway service included in this article? The stations listed don't even seem to be relatively close to the prison at all. The article makes it sound like the stations are located on the island. J.reed 02:42, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

What you say is true, but the subway stations listed are the nearest to Rikers. This may not be as significant to you if you haven't been jailed in Rikers, but for the several hundred people cycling through the system daily, the out take process involves the jail giving you a one ride NYC metro card. Most people being released get on the Q100 bus mentioned, head to the Queensboro Plaza station, and transfer to their ultimate destination there. Flyingmonkeyairlines (talk) 00:31, 9 February 2009 (UTC)


 * J.reed and Flyingmonkeyairlines thanks for sharing this great information. Thats all for now... just wanted to leave my 'world wide web signiture' over here. - And it feels wierd, as i'm typing feel how im dead and the future generations will read this. Brrr scary tbh hope you guys are doing well and no worldwars destroyed our pride. Hugs from 2024. 2A02:A446:B676:1:818:53D7:11C7:F387 (talk) 08:04, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Borough Location
According to some Internet website including the NYDOC website the addresses for the various complexes at Rikers Island is Elmhust, New York which is in the Borough of Queens so I have to disagree that Rikers Island is part of Bronx County when it is clearly part of Queens County. 151.198.130.177 04:03, 27 July 2007 (UTC) Legally, Rikers Island is part of the borough of the Bronx. When a crime occurs in Rikers, it is investigated by the NYPD's 42 Precinct from the Bronx and all criminal cases that originate on Rikers Island is prosecuted by the Bronx District Attorney Office. But for mailing purposes, it is listed as East Elmhurst, Queens. It has the zip code for East Elmhurst and plus the Francis Buono Bridge connects Rikers Island to Queens.--Cre8peace13 (talk) 01:45, 26 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Mailing address is a rather poor means to determine borough; the ZIP Code and post office assignments are made for the convenience of the United States Postal Service, and have no obligation to hew to or respect municipal boundaries. The USPS has decided, quite logically, that it's easier to deliver mail to Rikers Island via Queens. See Tax Block & Tax Lot Base Map Files on CD-ROM at the New York City web site addresses the fact that Rikers Island is part of the Bronx, despite the fact that it is included as part of Queens Community Board 1, and also addresses the oft-contentious "Marble Hill, Manhattan is part of the Bronx" issue (another case where geography, ZIP Codes and Community Board representation can make it seem to belong elsewhere). Alansohn 04:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Riker's Island is in The Bronx. The bridge crosses the Queens-Bronx line into Steinway, which is why you might think it's in Queens. I've made the same mistake of thinking it was in Queens before myself, so you're not alone in making that mistake. DanTD (talk) 23:21, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Largest what?
The phrase "world's largest penal colony" may need to be parsed a bit. Rikers is definitely not the biggest jail -- That is the combination of LA County Central Jail/Twin Towers Corrections that generally runs a population of slightly over 20,000, on a much smaller piece of land tucked between freeways and rail lines. Rikers also does not seem to fit the definition set out in the article Penal colony: "a settlement used to detain prisoners and generally use them for penal labor in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's (usually colonial) territories, and on a far larger scale than a prison farm." One issue is that Rikers seems to exist primarily for incarceration, as opposed to being a prison farm such as Angola, Louisiana.ClaudeMuncey (talk) 19:24, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

More thoughts on "Largest what?"
According to Merriam Webster, the word "penal" is from Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin "poenalis", from "poena" or "punishment". The definition says nothing about labor:

1 : of, relating to, or involving punishment, penalties, or punitive institutions

2 : liable to punishment (a penal offense)

3 : used as a place of confinement and punishment (a penal colony)

Of course if you add the word "labor" to penal, then you're talking about work farms. But penal doesn't automatically mean labor camp. Of course you are absolutely right in making the link because punishment has historically often involved forced labor.

Regarding jail sizes, Wiki seems to be all over the map on this one. Cook County Jail has Cook County Jail as one of the "largest" in the U.S. with 9,000 inmates. While that is therefore true, Rikers often has 16,000 although it seems to average around 15,000.

Searching around the web, USA Today has Cook County in Chicago with 10,000 and calls it the US's "largest single-site county jail". This (as in the case of Twin Towers which has 1.5 million sq ft), seems to be a reference to land area or floor space, not inmate population.

To me the phrase "world's largest penal colony" clearly suggests the size of the inmate population not land area, as becomes more obvious when you remove the adjective and render the phrase as, 'world's largest....colony.'

Twin Towers seems to have about 10,000 inmates if you start hunting around the Internet. I haven't found a reference for it having more.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department states that there are "20,000 inmates across all of its facilities". (bottom of page 1).

The same document states that "TTCF (ie Twin Towers) is located at 450 Bauchet Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012 and has a current average daily inmate population of 2,329 inmates."

There are other references to the "Inmate Reception Center (IRC)" at 450 Bauchet Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Is this a synonym for Twin Towers? It's an intake and release facility that you can't visit. According to the Sheriff, "The Inmate Reception Center is the primary intake and release facility of male inmates for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Jail **System** which currently houses approximately 18,000 inmates" but they're talking about all the LASD's facilities, and there are something like seven.

Same story with the LA County Jail. I am imagining you mean the Men’s Central Jail (MCJ) at 441 Bauchet Street, Los Angeles, California, 90012? According to that same document, this jail "has a current average daily inmate population of 6,174 inmates". Even both of those together don't reach over 10,000, never mind 15,000.

The Wiki for Twin Towers Correctional Facility quotes a Mother Jones article that says it has 6,000 inmates in there. So it's clearly not even close to the largest jail in America, never mind the world. The other source it gets for the "world's largest jail" is a website called "Los Angeles Almanac" which is run by a single person. In other words, both references aren't exactly that close to the source of the stats I hunted down, which were from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

CA does have the highest incarceration rate and LA County has the largest number of incarcerated as a US jurisdiction. It may have once been true. The ten jail buildings on Rikers have been built since the 1930s but some are from the 1970s so it's not always been this big.

Worldwide jail sizes? In Israel, there are military prisons which average 14,500 inmates, but that's still still not more than Rikers. Remember, the US has 5 times the incarceration rate (ie. per capita) of China, and even the billion strong population of China doesn't have as many people in jail. We've got 1 in 100 according to the Pew Research Center.

In short, I think Jennifer Wynn's book title is legitimate--even if it were being used as a straight up descriptive phrase in the Wiki dictionary itself. Flyingmonkeyairlines (talk) 07:03, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Wikiproject Prisons
If anyone is interested, I have proposed a new Wikiproject concerning prisons here.--Cdogsimmons (talk) 22:43, 13 June 2008 (UTC)

History: Airplane incident
"Shortly after lifting off from La Guardia Airport in a snowstorm, the plane rolled sharply to the left and crashed on Rikers Island. Several inmates from the Rikers Island Prison made some heroic rescues and were later pardoned."

http://www.planecrashinfo.com/unusual.htm

Is this worth researching?

94.193.93.109 (talk) 17:58, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

Almost as many officers as inmates?
That ratio doesn't sound right.  Tisane  talk/stalk 16:20, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

Why Mention Names of Inmates, etc.
The blurb about Lil Wayne having been incarcerated there is superfluous. It certainly doesn't add anything useful about Rikers Island and moreover, it opens the door to listing the names of the thousands of other celebrities, popularly known people, etc.   co94 (talk) 21:24, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Any horses?
Hello. An enquiring mind from the old continent wants to know if there are, by chance, any horses living on the island? If not horses, then maybe any other pets? This thought came to me while I scanned intently the hi-res aerial photo. And if nobody here can or wants to answer this, then who should I ask, or better yet, where should I ask? -- Thinkcat No the New York City Department of Corrections does not have have any horses on Rikers Island. --Cre8peace13 (talk) 01:40, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

prison or jail?
Is Rikers a jail or a prison? Jail refers to county jail or metropolitan jail where they house pre-trial inmates and inmates on sentences of a year or less. Prison refers to state prison or federal prison where that is for inmates on sentences of more than a year.

Which is it? KING OF WIKIPEDIA - GRIM LITTLEZ (talk) 02:00, 10 September 2011 (UTC)

Answer: Rikers Island is both a jail and a prison. The island has one male facility that houses prisoners called the Eric M. Taylor Center (EMTC, C-76). EMTC houses inmates that have been sentenced for misdemeanor crimes only. The Rose M. Singer Center (RMSC) on Rikers Island is the only female facility on the island. RMSC houses both detainees awaiting trial and prisoners who have been sentenced to misdemeanor crimes. Both EMTC and RMSC houses both adults and adolescents. When a pre-trial inmate on Rikers Island is found guilty of a felony crime, they are now classified as a State prisoner and will be sent to the New York State Department of Corrections. Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doc/html/facilities/locate_facility.shtml --Cre8peace13 (talk) 01:45, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Sandy Superstorm breaking news
[http://www.salon.com/2012/10/29/bloombergs_scant_regard_for_prisoners_in_the_storm/ New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg tellingly misinterpreted a reporter’s question during a pre-Sandy press conference Sunday. When asked about what would happen on Rikers Island — New York’s main prison complex – during the storm, Bloomberg responded, “Jails are secure … Don’t worry about anyone getting out.”] --Pawyilee (talk) 12:34, 2 November 2012 (UTC)

New York Post Incorrect Information
The New York Post tabloid wrote an article that stated it costs $167,000 per year to hold each inmate. This information is incorrect. Other sources in the article already provide the correct math, which makes it closer to $67,000 per year / per inmate. Someone also inserted a citation for the New York Post regarding other information that was already properly cited. In other words, someone really wants the New York Post to have links in this article at any cost. — Preceding unsigned comment added by APatcher (talk • contribs) 13:18, 8 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20140330022201/http://transgenderlawcenter.org/new/index.php/updates/press-releases/meeting-to-highlight-issues-faced-by-lgbt-people-in-california-prisons/108 to http://transgenderlawcenter.org/new/index.php/updates/press-releases/meeting-to-highlight-issues-faced-by-lgbt-people-in-california-prisons/108

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NPOV problem
I think it is troubling that the contributions of the student editor were simply reverted with no feedback on their talk page or on this page as to how they could improve their edits. Even I am unclear as to where specifically their edits violate wiki NPOV policy.

I have made changes to their contribution. The Lippman Commission is significant, the CLOSErikers campaign and the alternate uses for the island.

The movement to close rikers has received significant media coverage and deserves significant coverage in the article.

Please discuss before reverting again, as per wiki policy. --JumpLike23 (talk) 05:32, 15 May 2017 (UTC)
 * No, POV is POV, and does not require intense discussion. Reorganize the same information and present it without an agenda, that would be fine, but there's no "us" and "them" in a Wikipedia article. Beyond My Ken (talk) 21:29, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

I agree with that. I was just frustrated because I thought the student was being constructive on the whole and not POV pushing. --JumpLike23 (talk) 04:49, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

Lead is terrible
I think the lead is terrible for this article. Not well organized or reflective of the article's body. I attempted to improve it and was reverted by Ken too--with no discussion as to why he prefers the status quo.--JumpLike23 (talk) 05:56, 15 May 2017 (UTC)
 * You can certainly have the opinion that the lede as it stands is not as good as it should be (although to say that it is "terrible" is hyperbole), but your improvements were not improvements. It's as simple as that. Beyond My Ken (talk) 21:27, 15 May 2017 (UTC)

Good work. Thanks --JumpLike23 (talk) 04:49, 16 May 2017 (UTC)

"Beyond My Ken" keeps reverting my readability improvement
e.g.. Third-party input please. Equinox ◑ 19:50, 31 August 2017 (UTC)
 * There's really no issue here, the problem is quite simple. Equinox's sentence: "It is also notorious for numerous assaults by inmates on uniformed and civilian staff, resulting in often serious injuries and making Rikers Island one of the most dangerous places to work. (emphasis added)" is not as well structured as the original, "It is also notorious for numerous assaults by inmates on uniformed and civilian staff, resulting in often serious injuries, making Rikers Island one of the most dangerous places to work." "And" is not appropriate in the context of the sentence. "Which makes..." would work, but the comma is better. Beyond My Ken (talk) 20:29, 31 August 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060908021620/http://www.nyc24.org/2003/islands/zone2/rikershistory.html to http://www.nyc24.org/2003/islands/zone2/rikershistory.html
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060908021620/http://www.nyc24.org/2003/islands/zone2/rikershistory.html to http://www.nyc24.org/2003/islands/zone2/rikershistory.html

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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140819125609/http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/operations_rikers.shtml to http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/compost/operations_rikers.shtml
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Ramsey Orta and Rat Poison
Hello, I'm not an editor, but I noticed something that I thought should be included in this page. During a 2015 lock down at the prison, the staff running it fed 19 of the inmates rat poison. Like, this seems like a very important thing to mention about it, and the only mention of the rat poison incident on wikipedia is under the page about the Killing of Eric Garner and on the page for rat poison.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/13/18253848/eric-garner-footage-ramsey-orta-police-brutality-killing-safety https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Eric_Garner#Ramsey_Orta https://abcnews.go.com/Health/22-rikers-island-prisoners-sickened-rat-poison-meatloaf/story?id=30676137 192.149.13.21 (talk) 15:35, 24 October 2023 (UTC)


 * SaveTheRats #SayNoToPoison #WorldPeace #ShareSomeLove #2024-Sebastiaaan-from-Baarn-The-Netherlands-February-18-2024-ValentinesDay
 * 2A02:A446:B676:1:818:53D7:11C7:F387 (talk) 08:10, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Budget
The numbers quoted in the 3rd partagraph of this article do not come close to adding up. The prison budget is given as £860 million, which for 10,000 inmates equates to $86,000 per year. The same paragraph says that "According to a 2021 analysis by New York City Comptroller, it costs the city approximately $556,539 to detain one person for one year at Rikers Island".

That would be a budget of $5.56 billion dollars. Tim.sneller (talk) 10:07, 1 June 2024 (UTC)