Victoria Bell

Victoria Bell is a trans woman who was born and raised in the Bronx and has been residing in Harlem for the past 19 years. Prior to being sent to Rikers Island, her first impression of it was, “hurtful, harmful, because…I went to visit my father…they treated you like you was a criminal. You had to go through the search…you have to be very uncomfortable…it was very hard…to visit your parent inside a place like that…” When speaking about what it was like to be an incarcerated trans woman at Rikers Island she says, “they really treated us differently in there especially the correctional officers. You know, they wanted to put us into harm's way…they don’t call you by your proper pronouns, so it was very humiliating...it’s just the abuse that we had to endure while we was in there.” Today Victoria is an activist working for the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. (Summary written by: Anne Lacy)