Children’s Museum of Manhattan Revamps Rikers Island Visitation Room for Mother’s Day

NEW YORK (AP) – It may be the last place a mother wants to spend Mother’s Day with her children. But a family visiting space at New York City’s notorious Rikers Island jail is a little more kid-friendly after a colorful redesign by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

The prison opened the new pre-school play and learning room for the children and grandchildren of female prisoners on Tuesday, a few days before the Sunday holiday.

“Mother’s Day means everything to me,” said Rikers inmate Nadine Leach, 43, as she watched her three-year-old granddaughter, Queen, examine the sound devices, coloring books and toys.

An interactive wall display shows a map of the five villages in the city. Buttons below trigger city sounds, like subway screeches.

Leach’s daughter, Lashawna Jones, 27, said the play is beautiful compared to her last trip. Before that, it was mostly a bare room, with a few books. Jones said the design focused her children’s attention on imaginative play, instead of their grandmother being in jail awaiting trial on a felony drug charge.

“It makes me sad that she’s not really home with us for Mother’s Day. Because I feel a bit sad coming here to visit her here because I’m used to having her physically home with us. Like, right now, I’m a big girl; I’m holding back tears,” Jones said.

To get to the facility, families take a bus, go through security and drug screening, and pass walls with six layers of razor wire. Outside the new playground, a sign on a blue barrier reads, “Prisoners are allowed to keep their children during the visit.”

The visitor center was designed and installed by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and replicates exhibits at the museum’s home on the Upper West Side.

The exhibits teach preschool skills: communication, sharing, literacy and action, said Leslie Bushara, the museum’s chief program officer.

Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, commissioner of the New York City Department of Corrections, cut a large green ceremonial ribbon to open the room.

“We want mothers to interact with their children,” Maginley-Liddie said. “You know, being in prison can be very difficult. It can be difficult for children. It can be hard on moms. And it’s important that they have those connections even while they’re in our care, so that that connection can be maintained during incarceration when they’re released.”

Rikers Island is mostly made up of male prison facilities that are home to them around 6,000 people. Child-friendly exhibits will be added to these facilities over the next year, the museum said in a statement. Funding for the exhibits will allow approved inmates to travel to the Children’s Museum in Manhattan twice a month.

People incarcerated at Rikers are either charged with crimes pending trial in court or serving short sentences. City officials voted to close them full plant in 2026 and replace it with smaller neighborhood facilities that would be easier for relatives to visit, but the date was pushed back. Bad conditions have raised the prospect of a federal takeover.

The women’s prison, known as the Rose M. Singer Center, houses about 370 people, according to the Department of Corrections. State officials hundreds of women moved in state facilities in 2021 in an effort to improve safety.

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Associate news writer Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report.