“Rat hole”, “house of horror”: former inmates of the sinister New York prison evoke this gigantic prison complex where Harvey Weinstein or Dominique Strauss-Kahn stayed
“Cancer”, “rat hole”, “house of horror”: former inmates of the sinister New York prison of Rikers Island still tremble when they evoke the gigantic prison complex where the American Harvey Weinstein stayed and Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and where nine prisoners died this year.
Prison conditions on Rikers Island, hidden on the East River between the Bronx and Queens, have been known to be appalling for decades. But today, local authorities are alarmed by a “humanitarian crisis” aggravated by the coronavirus epidemic, which has ravaged New York, its public services and in particular its prisons.
As this week the city and state of New York – which have authority over Rikers Island – seized the case, three former inmates told AFP their terrible memories.
« Far West »
“It’s really the Wild West over there,” says Johnny Perez, who was imprisoned there several times between 1996 and 2001 for armed robberies. Glenn Martin was only 16 in the late 1980s when he spent three days there for shoplifting. He was beaten there four times and spoke of it more than 30 years later as a “rat hole”.
Rikers Island is also “garbage everywhere, food infested with maggots, cockroaches, worms in the showers, excrement and piss”, rebelled on Twitter Emily Gallagher, parliamentarian of the State of New York after a visit this week. The elected representative denounced “a humanitarian crisis, a house of horror, attacks and ill-treatment”. In fact, recalls Glenn Martin, acts of violence and “torture” are rife there.
« Torture »
For another former inmate, Marvin Mayfield, “everyone is losing a bit of their soul.” He spent a total of 22 months there between the 1980s and 2007 for burglaries.
The prison opened in 1932 and earned a reputation as the cradle of violence. In the 1990s, Rikers Island had up to 20,000 inmates, just under a third of the total prison population in France. They are 6,000 today. Most are blacks and Hispanics awaiting trial.
Celebrities are also sometimes locked up there before their possible trials. Former Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn was dramatically jailed in May 2011 on charges of raping a Manhattan Sofitel maid, Nafissatou Diallo. The case ended in a financial transaction.
Former almighty film producer Harvey Weinstein also stayed on the East River Island. He has been serving 23 years in prison for rape since 2020 in New York and is appearing in Los Angeles on other rape charges.
British Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and American rapper Tupac Shakur, both since deceased, also crossed the gates of Rikers Island.
Suicides
But for former prisoners and specialists of the American penitentiary system, the “people” of Rikers Island have seen nothing of the reality of today’s prison: the insecurity and the health situation are “ten times worse. »Than in the years 1980-1990 and out of control for a few months.
New York Prison Services have acknowledged that nine people were killed there this year – ten according to local media – compared to seven in 2020 and three in 2019. Half of the deaths since January have been suicides, authorities said.
Like other public services in the city, Rikers Island prison has been hit hard by the Covid-19 epidemic. According to unions, 2,700 prison guards – a third of all New York prison staff – are on sick leave. Either because of the coronavirus, or for violence of detainees.
Outgoing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio this week brandished an emergency renovation plan and spoke again of a closure in 2026. With its replacement by four smaller prisons for $ 8.7 billion. But nothing says that the next mayor, elected at the end of the year, will comply.
For her part, the Governor of the State of New York Kathy Hochul announced this Friday, September 17 the early release of 191 detainees. For the elders of Rikers Island, who now work in associations, the prison must close. “It’s cancer […] which must be eradicated, ”argues Mr. Mayfield.
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