Oral Histories

75 Items | Curated by Rikers Public Memory Project Archive

The primary aim of this oral history project is to document the experiences of those who have been directly impacted by Rikers Island. As such, the oral history project is accountable to those to whom the memory of Rikers belongs. This includes documenting the impact Rikers has had on communities; creating space for community healing and dialogue; and finally shifting racist criminalizing narratives about NYC neighborhoods and residents.

In our public memory work, we strive for the most inclusive possible community, where that full diversity of lived experiences are represented. That includes targeting our oral history efforts to reach not just more people, but also more people who are not already well represented among our narrators, and to ensure that we make it possible for them to participate.

Robert Williams grew up in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He was first sent to Rikers Island in 1994. He was released, but he returned to Rikers in 1996. He didn't partake in popular activities at Rikers such as chess, checkers, cards, and visiting the law library. He wasn't used to being…
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Joseph Griffin grew up in Harlem. He first arrived at Rikers as a 19 year old in the mid-2000s. He later served time in state prison. A lot of people in his community saw a stint at Rikers Island as a rite of passage, proof you could be aggressive and dominant. He remembers the "gang banging code"…
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Yolanda Johnson-Peterkin grew up in Brownsville in Brooklyn, New York. The first time Yolanda was sent to Rikers she was bailed out almost immediately. The second time, she was not granted bail and due to this was forced to stay at Rikers while being pregnant for the first time. When describing…
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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…
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Joseph Wilson grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He first arrived at Rikers as a 15 or 16 year old. He returned many times, including a stint from 2005 to 2007. Wilson discusses how incarcerated people are infantilized, stripped of all responsbility. "I don't think that a person is ever treated…
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Jairo Santos Pastoressa grew up in the East Village in Manhattan. When he was 25, he was sent to Rikers, where he was detained for six years. A graffiti and silkscreen artist, Pastoressa got pencils and paper from the Rikers law library and honed his craft, becoming a stronger artist during his…
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Originally from the Dominican Republic, Miguelina Bloise has lived in New York for two decades. She discusses the nine years she's spent visiting her incarcerated son at Rikers. She originally visited her son everyday, but now she visits him once a week, on Sundays. Throughout the interview, she…
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Emely grew up in Manhattan. Her brother, father, and uncles all served time at Rikers. She describes how painful, scary, and dehumanizing it was to visit her brother at Rikers, where the COs treated her with condescension and suspicion. She discusses systemic racism and the prison industrial…
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Pilar de Jesus was born and raised in East Harlem. In the late 1990s, she visited her incarcerated boyfriend at Rikers. Twenty years later, in 2019, she was detained there for two days. She recalls the long intake process, during which the medical staff took five vials of her blood and incorrectly…
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Born and raised in Ecuador, Mary Go has been residing in New York City for about 13 years. Mary's son was sent to Rikers around 3 years ago at the age of 18. When describing what her emotional state when visiting him at Rikers she says, "It always gives us anxiety to see him there, and at the same…
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Karren Jaime grew up in Puerto Rico and later moved to New York City. She was incarcerated multiple times at Rikers Island. She found comfort and felt most at home at the Rikers Island church. She also found community and hope through the jail's NA and AA meetings. While at Rikers, she felt like…
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Ivelisse Gilestra migrated to New York from Puerto Rico in 1992. Within two years, she was visiting Rikers Island to see friends and loved ones. Gilestra later served 13 years in another prison. "Rikers has been an extension of our communities," she notes. She was socialized to normalize the…
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Brandon Rodriguez grew up in Staten Island, New York. He was incarcerated at Rikers Island twice, including a one-month stint when COVID-19 first swept through the facility in 2020. He coped with stressful conditions inside the jail by writing, rapping, praying, cleaning, and sleeping as many as…
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Giselle Shortridge grew up in Queens, New York. As a transgender woman, she was housed with men during her first term at Rikers in 2017. She arrived at Rikers for her second term in mid-2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. For this term, she was housed with women. Shortridge avoided the virus by…
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Tahtianna Fermin lives in New Jersey and works as a recovery coach and group facilitator. While she was never incarcerated at Rikers, she is close to many individuals who were detained there: her brother; her husband, and many friends, including a close friend who died there. As a transgender…
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Jenna Mallett grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She arrived in New York City as a 20-year-old in 2013. She served two terms at Rikers, the first in 2019 and the second in 2020. She lived in Rikers' Rose M. Singer Center for female detainees, though she moved around the jail complex several times…
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Omar Alexander grew up in Crown Heights and Flatbush, Brooklyn. He served several terms at Rikers, where he worked in the barbershop. His mom worked on Rikers Island for 20 years, and she would walk over from her building to visit him. A practicing Muslim, he started his days in jail meditating,…
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Dwayne Gardner grew up in the Marcy Housing Projects in Brooklyn, New York. He first served time at Rikers in 1984. He talks about Rikers' enduring "ruthless" culture, affecting guards and incarcerated people alike. He witnessed brutal violence during the day, including a fatal stabbing, and heard…
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Kevin Creary served several terms on Rikers Island. He discusses protests for racial justice, aggressive policing, and resource allocation, arguing that billions of dollars could be transferred from police budgets into communities that experience over-incarceration. He points out the need for…
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Paul Johnson was born in Brooklyn and raised in Harlem and the Bronx. He served several stints at Rikers, some lasting days and some lasting months. He was incarcerated at Rikers from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2020, when he was released amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson, who lives with…
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Lauren Valente grew up in the Bronx. She describes herself as "a good kid" who avoided trouble. In 2010, she was arrested, and she cycled in and out of jail for the next decade. In early 2020, she was incarcerated at Rikers Island when COVID-19 first swept through the facility. She describes being…
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Kevin Willis is from Queens, New York. He served multiple terms at Rikers, including in 2020 when COVID-19 first swept through the facility. He was released early during the pandemic because of his pre-existing condition of asthma. Before being incarcerated at Rikers, he heard stories of robberies…
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Orlando Irizarry is from Brooklyn, New York. He was first incarcerated at Rikers Island in 1993 as a teenager. During his recent term there in early 2020, COVID-19 swept through the facility. Living in an overcrowded dorm, with no masks and no way to social distance, he describes feeling like "a…
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Stanley Morris grew up in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He served his first term on Rikers Island in 1986 when he was 20 years old. Over the following decades, he served several more stints on Rikers, where he worked as a barber and in food service. He was incarcerated there…
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Iessha Lewis was born in Far Rockaway, Queens. As a child, she excelled at spelling bees, running track, and playing piano, but also struggled with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. After experiencing a miscarriage and subsequent depression as a young woman, her mother committed her to the…
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Lorenzo McLucas is from Newark, New Jersey. He moved to New York City in 2014 with dreams of becoming a journalist. He was incarcerated for a parole violation at Rikers; on the jail barge nicknamed "The Boat," when COVID-19 first hit the facility in early 2020. He describes his anxieties about…
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Michael Stephens grew up in North Carolina and moved to New York City when he was 21. He served two terms at Rikers Island, first in 2017 and again in late 2019 and early 2020. His second term ended two months early, when he was released because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While at Rikers, Stephens…
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Dawnn Miller grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Miller was incarcerated for five months at Rikers Island in late 2019 and early 2020. It was her first ever incarceration, and she cried everyday. During visits, she had to wear flip flops and an oversize suit with nothing underneath it. She was at…
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Michael Littles grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Littles is a self-described "frequent flier" at Rikers Island, having served multiple terms at Rikers over several decades, starting with his first stint in 1976. He was incarcerated at Rikers from October 2019 to April…
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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…
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Sergio Parrilla grew up in Manhattan. He was incarcerated at Rikers Island from December 2019 through April 2020, living through the first wave of COVID-19 at the facility. He describes overcrowded conditions, an inability to social distance, and a lack of masks and gloves. He lost close friends…
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Edwin Santana grew up in Jamaica, Queens. He experienced what he calls his "introduction to the streets" when he was nine or 10 years old, listening to family members, including his brother, discuss their time on Rikers Island and frame it as a rite of passage. Santana first spent time at Rikers…
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Natasha White grew up in Flushing, Queens. She first arrived at Rikers as a 16-year-old. On her first day there, her pregnant cellmate, also a teenager, died while detoxing from heroin. She carried that trauma with her and credits that young woman for keeping her away from certain drugs and saving…
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Tamika Graham is from Staten Island, New York. She was detained at Rikers as a teenager and as an adult. Growing up, she had "one side of the family who's on the good side of the law and ... another side of the family that's on the opposite side of the law." While one of her uncles was a top…
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Vidal Guzman spent three and a half years at Rikers Island when he was a teenager. Several of his family members also cycled through Rikers, including his brother and uncle. Guzman later served several years in state prison, including two and a half years in solitary confinement. He laments that…
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Marvin Mayfield grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in the 1960s and 70s. After serving in the Air Force, Mayfield returned to Brooklyn and was arrested for a crime he didn't commit at the age of 22. After waiting three days in central booking to see a judge, he was given a $10;000 bail and…
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Darren Mack was born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn where he and his family resided in the Borinquen Projects. Darren went to Rikers Island in 1992 at age 17, during a time when over 20,000 people were incarcerated there. Darren’s older brothers were also incarcerated at Rikers. When speaking…
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Turquoise Martin grew up in the Bronx and in Harlem. While she was never detained at Rikers, she visited several loved ones there, including her fiance, whom she brought books and magazines to. She recalls taking two subway trains and a bus to Rikers. She could easily tell when they were…
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Jessica Vargas grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The daughter of a correctional officer, she first arrived at Rikers when she was 16. She later served a term in state prison and returned to Rikers as an adult. At Rikers; she learned "to make a meal out of nothing" in a hot pot, making…
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Eileen Maher grew up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and moved to New York City when she was 20. She first arrived at Rikers Island in 2013 when she was in her mid-30s. She worked in her housing unit as the "house feeder," preparing and serving breakfast and cleaning the bathroom. She describes a…
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Diane Rettino grew up in Brooklyn and lived most of her adult life in New Jersey. In her late 50s, with no previous experience of the criminal justice system, she was detained at Rikers for five weeks. She lived with 60 other women in a crowded dorm, sleeping on cots spaced less than three feet…
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Carole Eady-Porcher moved to New York City at age 18 from her hometown Charleston, South Carolina. She went in and out of the prison system throughout her adulthood, three of those times being at Rikers Island. At one point she had been sent to Rikers when she was homeless and pregnant with her…
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Carole Eady-Porcher was raised in Charleston, South Carolina. At 18, she moved to New York City to escape her abusive friends and family and to pursue a career in singing. Soon after, she started dating a man who was also abusive, ultimately leading them into depression and addiction. Carole has…
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Phillip White grew up in the Washington, DC area and moved to New York in 1976. He first arrived at Rikers Island in the mid-1980s as a teenager. Rikers Island, for many of White's friends, was a rite of passage that helped establish their street cred. White befriended some corrections officers at…
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Kandra Clark grew up in a small town in Illinois. She arrived in New York City in 2008 and lived in East Harlem. She spent several months on Rikers Island in 2010 before being sent to state prison. She describes her attempts to build community with other incarcerated women amidst Rikers' culture…
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James Williams was born in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn. He served almost three years at Rikers in the late 1980s. He remembers gangs being less prevalent at Rikers then, though people from the same boroughs stuck together. During his time at Rikers, incarcerated people were allowed to…
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Frank Goldstein grew up in the Bronx. He first arrived at Rikers Island in 1987 as a 16-year-old. The first thing he saw when he arrived in the intake area was an incarcerated person slashing another person's face. Goldstein served serveral terms at Rikers, including one in 2012 when his mother…
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Elizabeth Reyes grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Reyes spent about six months at Rikers before being sent to state prison. At Rikers, she worked in the mess hall, where she would report at 4:00 am in order to serve breakfast at 5:00 am. She remembers Rikers as a damp,…
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Eddie Cuadrado grew up in the South Bronx in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1987, when he was 24 years old, he was incarcerated at Rikers. He returned to Rikers 28 years later, in 2015. He noticed more violence, gangs, and drugs during his second stint than his first one. In total, Cuadrado spent 25…
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Diana Ortiz grew up in Chicago and arrived in New York City when she was 17. She was sent to Rikers Island in 1983 when she was 18 years old. She served almost two years at Rikers, where she earned her GED, and then spent the next 20 years at Bedford Hills, a state prison for women. She spent her…
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Curtis Walcott grew up in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He was first sent to Rikers as a 17-year-old. Before he arrived at Rikers, Walcott affiliated with the Crips gang. His family and friends visited him while he was incarcerated at Rikers. He discusses the stressful nature of the Rikers…
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Cheryl Carrington grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. She was first incarcerated in her 20s in the 1980s in a federal prison in West Virginia. She also served time in New York State's Albion and Taconic correctional facilities. She served several stints at Rikers, which…
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Moses Tejada grew up in Long Island, NY, and currently resides in New York City. They have been sent to Rikers Island twice, 20 years apart from one another–recounting the conditions as ”condemnable” and that “it’s a garbage can with [a] roof.” When describing the behavior of staff at Rikers,…
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Kenneth Inniss grew up in Brooklyn and Queens. When he first arrived at Rikers in 1987, he was a married 27-year-old with two children. He remembers the overwhelming noise of the mess hall on his first day at Rikers. He had heard that Rikers was a violent, predatory place, so he avoided…
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Tyrone Jackson grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He first arrived at Rikers Island as a teenager in 1986, when he served a week before being bailed out. He returned to Rikers again in the 1990s and 2000s, and later served time in state prison. His grandmother died during one of his…
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Kevin Johnson grew up in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn. When he first arrived at Rikers, he noticed how dirty it was. The next thing he observed was how he was stripped of his clothes, his belongings, and his identity. "It’s like you're not even a person anymore, just a number," he…
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Tremayne Youngblood grew up in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. In 2000, he was arrested for an assault and robbery he didn't commit and sent to Rikers Island, where he lived in "Tent City," also called "the Sprungs," in temporary housing. He describes an informal rule at Rikers that helped…
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Dimonekwa Miller was born and raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn–but has spent most of her life staying from place-to-place dealing with hardship and societal constraints along the way. When informed by the judge overseeing her case that she would be sent to Rikers, she notes “I wasn't really…
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David Smith grew up in Queens, New York. He was held at the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, a jail barge in the Bronx nicknamed "The Boat," for one week before being sent to Rikers for three weeks. While at Rikers, he worked in the kitchen at night. Smith befriended the other men in his…
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Clemese Jack is from Brooklyn, New York. A self-described "church girl," she ended up at Rikers as an 18-year-old after being framed for a crime. Re-incarcerated at Rikers when she was 20, she found out she was pregnant and gave birth at the facility. Jail officials removed her son from her care,…
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Walter Colon grew up in Washington, DC, and ran away to New York City as a teenager. He was sent to Rikers in 1986 as a 16-year-old. He survived a lot at Rikers, including getting stabbed with an ice pick. He remembers being sent to "the box" (solitary confinement) at Rikers in cold weather.…
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Kimberly Campbell grew up in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. She first arrived at Rikers as a 16-year-old, and she was confined for six months in solitary confinement. She had to navigate a range of difficult emotions at Rikers, including intense anger and panic attacks. She got into…
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Elizabeth Harrison grew up in the Bronx. She first arrived at Rikers in 2015 for a weapons charge. At Rikers, Harrison worked in the tailoring shop, making sheets and towels. She also worked the suicide watch and did janitorial labor. She recalls how guards would pay her in sugar to clean the…
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Lorenzo Blakeney grew up in Brooklyn. He cycled in and out of Rikers Island in the late 1970s and 1980s; doing his first stint as a 15-year-old. He later served time in state prison. While at Rikers; he worked in the mess hall; on the paint gang; and in sanitation. Of his time at Rikers he says:…
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Gary Gordon was born in Harlem and grew up in the Bronx. As a young man he was sent to Rikers for 90 days by a judge who hoped a short stint on the island would help him turn his life around. It did, and Gordon stayed away from Rikers for 20 years. During a later term at Rikers, a man attacked him…
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Ervin "Easy" Leon Hunt grew up in the Bronx. He heard stories of incarceration from his father, who survived the prison uprising at Attica in 1971. Hunt first arrived at Rikers as an 18-year-old in 1972. He recalls Rikers smelling like dried blood and death, and he remembers the looks of despair…
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Fernando Alvarez grew up in Harlem and the Bronx. His father, two uncles, and two cousins were incarcerated at Rikers, so he grew up visiting the jail complex. He was first detained at Rikers as a teenager in the late 1980s before being sent to state prison. His advice to young people who want to…
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Yvette Beatty grew up in Park Slope and Crown Heights, Brooklyn. When her son was incarcerated at Rikers, she went through a five to six hour intake process in order to visit him for one hour. She spent an hour and a half traveling to Rikers. After that, it took another two to three hours to get…
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Thomas Angel Porter, nicknamed A-Rocks, grew up in Harlem. He first arrived at Rikers as an 18-year-old. His son was born while he was locked up, mirroring his own childhood: Porter was born shortly after his father began a 32-year prison sentence. Porter served another term at Rikers before being…
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Micaeili Rourke grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and came to New York City in 2013 after college. She spent 72 hours at Rikers Island in the fall of 2015. Before arriving at the jail complex, she had only heard about Rikers through TV shows like Law and Order, and she imagined it as "the bad…
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Harvey Murphy grew up in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx. He first arrived at Rikers in 2001 when he was 16 years old. On his first day there, he witnessed a man stab another man in the neck in a dispute about Frosted Flakes cereal. During the intake process, he saw people cycling through…
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Davon "The Champ" Woodley is a prison reform advocate in New York City. Woodley spent 25 days at Rikers Island in the Fall of 2013 when he was 24 years old. Born and raised in Harlem, Woodley has worked as a job developer and a reentry counselor. He has also supported JLUSA's (JustLeadershipUSA)…
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DeWayne John Roe was born in East Orange, New Jersey, and moved to New York City in 1994. He served several terms at Rikers, where he was brutalized mentally and physically. Roe notes he was "ready, willing, and able to survive by all means necessary" in such a chaotic, violent, and humiliating…
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Gianina Cruz was first incarcerated at Rikers Island when she was 18 years old. After serving three terms "upstate" in state prisons, she found herself back at Rikers when COVID-19 first swept through the facility in early 2020. All 36 women in her dorm, including her, contracted the virus. She…
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Angel Tueros was born in New York City and grew up in the Dominican Republic. During his yearlong incarceration at Rikers Island, he affiliated with the Ñetas gang. To pass the time, he played soccer and dominoes. He describes the difficulties he faced as a Spanish-speaking detainee. He eventually…
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