Monday, February 4, 2019

Remembering the Prisoners who Built Rikers Island

Jayne Mooney and I have a new article in the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, entitled "New York City's Captive Workforce: Remembering the Prisoners who Built Rikers Island." In it we unearth the intricate institutional life of Rikers Island for the three decades prior to its traditionally acknowledged birth as a penal colony. In the process we examine the lived experiences of white supremacy and the criminalization of poverty in early twentieth century New York, and chart the resistances prisoners adopted to confinement on the Rikers Island penal colony in the years before the opening of the original Penitentiary. If you would like to read this article and are having a hard time accessing it, contact me ;)