Bruce Strechen

Bruce Stretchen was born and raised in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Raised in a middle class household, he started rebelling in his early teens, and his first felony came at the age of 17. In the 1990s, he affiliated with the Bloods gang inside and outside of Rikers. In this interview, he compares his time at Rikers to his time in state prison, which felt more like a camp or a group home, with ping pong tournaments, chess, educational opportunities, and athletics. After serving a 15-year sentence in another prison, he was incarcerated at Rikers in late 2019 and early 2020. He witnessed the first wave of COVID-19 sweep through the jail complex in early 2020 and was released several months early due to the pandemic. (Summary written by: Annie Anderson)