Rikers Island

View of Rikers Island

Rikers Island is the name of New York City's largest jail facility, as well as the name of the 413.17-acre (1.672 km²) island on which it sits, in the East River between the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx (40°47′28″N 73°52′58″W), adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The jail complex, operated by the New York City Department of Correction, has a budget of $860 million a year, a staff of 10,000 officers and 1,500 civilians to control a yearly inmate population of up to 130,000. The official permanent population of the island, as reported by the United States Census Bureau, was 12,780 as of the 2000 census.

The facility generally holds about 15,000 inmates at a time, although the daytime population (including staff) can be 20,000 or more.

The facility, which consists of ten jails, holds local offenders who are awaiting trial and cannot afford or cannot obtain bail, those serving sentences of one year or less, and those temporarily placed there pending transfer to another facility which does not have space.

The only access to the facility is from Queens, over the unmarked 4,200-foot (1.28 km) three-lane Rikers Island Bridge, built in 1966. Before the bridge was constructed, the only access to the island was by ferry. Transportation is also provided by the Q101R Limited stop bus service, also serving the Riker's Island Parking Lot, the 21st Street-Queensbridge F and <F> subway station, and the Queensboro Plaza 7 and <7>​ N and ​W subway station at Queensboro Plaza, providing around-the-clock service. There are also privately-operated shuttles that connect the parking lot at the south end to the island. Bus service within the island for visitors visiting inmates is provided by the New York City Dept. of Correction.

During Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's term as mayor of New York, the jail filled to overflowing, and an 800-bed barge was installed on the East River to accommodate the extra inmates. The barge is called the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, or V.C.B.C./ VCBC, and was formerly known as MTF3 (for Maritime Facility #3). VCBC is located at 1 Halleck St, Bronx, NY 10474, at the end of Hunts Point, near the recently relocated Fulton Fish Market.

The island is named after Abraham Rycken, a Dutch settler who moved to Long Island in 1638 and whose descendants owned Rikers Island until 1884, when it was sold to the city for $180,000 ($3,561,512.75 2005 money) and has been used as a jail in one form or another ever since.

A drawing by artist Salvador Dalí, done as an apology because he was unable to attend a talk about art for the prisoners at Rikers Island, hung in the inmate dining room from 1965 to 1981, when it was moved to the prison lobby for safekeeping. The drawing was stolen in March 2003 and replaced with a fake: four prison guards were arrested and charged, and though three later pled guilty and one was acquitted, the drawing has not been recovered.

References

• Rikers Island: Blocks 9000 and 9001, Block Group 9, Census Tract 1, Bronx County, New York United States Census Bureau

External links

• Department of Correction Facilities on Rikers Island: 1 of 2
• Department of Correction Facilities on Rikers Island: 2 of 2
• Link to map of Rikers Island.
• "Guards charged in Dali theft" - (BBC)
• " History of New York City Department of Corrections"
• "Rikers Island guards beat inmates for years" - (CNN, 1998)