Rikers Timeline

The same year that the British take control of New Amsterdam, Abraham Rycken adds an island in the East River to his growing domain of American real estate. Rycken hails from a Dutch family with a centuries-long legacy of wealth and prominence in Europe. He is one of several members of his family…
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Richard Riker, Abraham’s great grandson, has those fleeing from slavery brought before him day and night as City Recorder. This puts him at the center of a network of New York City police, politicians, lawyers, and judges, known to abolitionists as the “Kidnapping Club.” Ignoring legal protections…
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While a fourteen-year-old future abolitionist and minister Henry Highland Garnet is at sea working as a cabin boy to supplement his family’s meager income, slave catchers ransacked his family’s New York City home. His parents, who escaped enslavement in Maryland just five years earlier, are able…
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Four years after New York City acquires Blackwell Island (now known as Roosevelt Island) through an illegal foreclosure, its main penitentiary building is erected. The “gloomy and massive edifice” and the adjacent buildings house male and female detainees. The majority are younger than 25 and…
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New York City adopts the Municipal Police Act and creates the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in order to “preserve the public peace and good order throughout the city.” The formation of the NYPD is rife with conflict between two warring political factions divided on ethnic lines, often…
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As the Civil War approaches, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 requires the arrest of those suspected of escaping enslavement. Police officers are offered bonuses and promotions as incentives for capturing runaways. The accused are denied the right of habeas corpus and a jury trial. They are brought…
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In the secrecy of night, on July 9th, more than 300 spectators board chartered steamboats from lower Manhattan to Rikers Island to attend a prize fight between Barney Aaron, a then unknown Jewish boxer from London, and Johnny Robinson, known as “Robinson the Mulatto,” from Manchester. The match…
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On January 1st, in the third year of the Civil War, President Lincoln’s declaration of manumission permits African Americans to serve in the Union army. Distinguished abolitionists like Fredrick Douglass and Henry Highland Garnet encourage enlistment as a vehicle for black liberation. At the same…
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In the bitter February cold, the 20th regiment of the United States Colored Troops is sent to Rikers Island for training. Conditions on the island are abysmal. The Union League Club reports that recruits are packed into shabby tents without furniture and treated with “neglect and contempt” by…
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The Department of Charities and Correction buys Hart Island to build a workhouse for older boys. The island will later serve many other purposes: a training ground for Civil War troops, a quarantine station for Yellow Fever, the site of a psychiatric hospital, an industrial school, a drug…
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The New York Times celebrates the city’s plans for Rikers Island in 1886 with the headline “To Build a Bigger Jail.” City officials conduct research on carceral facilities in the United States and Europe as a part of their mission to create the “most perfect prison in the world.” To build this…
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While the city plans to build the ideal jail, they begin using the island as a penal farm. This begins with harvesting vegetables and raising hogs, which produce the pork products fed to detainees all over the city. Later, incarcerated workers raise poultry, operate a slaughterhouse, and maintain…
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In the spring of 1893, New York City begins dumping refuse on Rikers. Within a year, New York City residents report an unbearable stench. Doctors identify the odor as the cause of illness. Leading physicians and sanitation experts recommend cremation as a means of preserving public health.…
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A state-appointed committee authors an extensive report on the treatment of New Yorkers who seek public assistance for drug addiction. The New York City drug ordinances treat addiction as a crime. Men who come forward are detained on Rikers, which is described by the commissioners as “raw and…
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The State Commission of Correction condemns the city’s plans to build faciities on Rikers Island due to the use of the island as a landfill. The report describes piles of refuse towering over the construction site, the constant presence of burning trash prone to spontaneous combustion, swarms of…
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As the Rikers penitentiary is being constructed, the steamship Observation transports laborers to and from the island six times a day. On Friday, September 9th, just after Labor Day, the ship explodes moments after embarking on its early morning dispatch. Witnesses recall the horror of seeing…
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Commissioner of Correction Austin H. MacCormick enlists artist Ben Shahn to develop a mural for the city’s new carceral facility. In preparation, Shahn interviews corrections’ officials, detainees, and historians of penology. Finally, the artist proposes a series of paintings that juxtapose…
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Rikers Review is a serial magazine written and edited by Rikers detainees. The publication’s stated purpose is to give those inside “an opportunity of self expression, to provide them with a medium of discussion of public problems, and to add to their store of information and inspiration.” Each…
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On April 30th the New York World’s Fair opens in Queens. Entitled “The World of Tomorrow,” the fair will be visited by more than 44 million people from all over the world. The fair’s planning is plagued by fears that toxic fumes and odors wafting from Rikers Island (after 30 years of serving as…
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The first permanent facility on Rikers Island opens as Richard McGee is named the inaugural warden. The “ultra-modern penitentiary” is celebrated for its use of the latest carceral technology and its rehabilitative potential. McGee insists that what the men in custody need most is “to learn habits…
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On Thanksgiving day, the first production developed and performed by Rikers detainees is well received by an enthusiastic audience. The 25 acts include comedians, singers, tap dancers, pianists, dramatic actors, and several selections from the Rikers Orchestra and the Jubilee Singers from Block 2.…
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The realities of World War II permeate Rikers Island in spite of its remoteness. Men gather around the radio daily for updates. A war information center is created for detainees in the library. Many are incensed about the Selective Service’s ban on the enlistment of justice-involved persons. “Our…
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Though they are “stripped of honor and privileges of free citizens in their own land” and not eligible to enlist, officials begin preparing for an attack on U.S. soil by recruiting detainees for “Company A.” This includes regular air raid drills in collaboration with the Department of Defense and…
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In September, the Department of Education adds PS 616 to its roster. The school initially operates out of an improvised storehouse which is renovated to fit eleven classrooms. This limited classroom space along with budgetary constraints only allow for one third of the young men on the Island to…
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Following a raid by the Bronx District Attorney’s office, six guards and three civilian employees are charged with smuggling narcotics into Rikers and selling them to those incarcerated. During the trial, David Liben, an incarcerated man who admittedly suffers from addiction, testifies to their…
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Around dinnertime on February 1st, Rikers residents hear a loud explosion, feel the walls shake, and see a flash of light outside their cells. A plane from LaGuardia has crashed on Rikers Island less than a minute after taking off. “We stood at the windows,” one man recalls, “We saw the people…
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Released in June, Amazing Spider-Man issue #4, entitled “Nothing Can Stop the Sandman,” centers on an “escaped convict” from “Island Prison.” This high tech carceral facility, later named “Ryker’s Island Maximum Security Penitentiary,” is specifically designed for Marvel’s supervillains, which…
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After four years of construction, the Rikers Island Bridge opens with a dedication from Mayor John Lindsay, who declares it the “Bridge of Hope.” The bridge promises to shorten the commutes of officials and staff and increase access to visitors, lawyers, and researchers. It also opens the door for…
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Twenty-one members of the New York chapter of the Black Panthers are arrested and accused of conspiracy to bomb police stations. Exorbitant bail amounts ensure that they remain in jail while on trial. From Rikers, a 17-year-old Party member, Katara, asserts that as detainees, “we must be revoltent…
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After futile efforts to create a psychiatric evaluation unit on Rikers, Dr. Violet E. Stephenson steps down a few months into her tenure with the Department of Correction. Her exit is due to the department’s “disgracefully inadequate” mental health program. In interviews, she is adamant that…
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“Welcome to New York’s newest and perhaps best hotel,” Correction Commissioner George McGrath quips at the opening of the first women’s facility on Rikers. Officials and journalists rave about the aesthetics of the facilities and the rehabilitative possibilities. Detainees, however, disapprove of…
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Starting in 1973 and until 1977, Assata Shakur is detained in while on trial. She spends much of that time on Rikers, including 21 combined months in solitary. While there, she writes furiously. Assata describes the ways in which her movements are monitored and restricted because of her…
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A few years after being appointed federal monitor over the city’s jails, Judge Morris E. Lasker declares that conditions at Rikers, including the imposition of maximum security without due process, overcrowding, and time spent on lock down, violate the constitutional rights of pre-trial detainees.…
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Deputy Mayor of Correction, Herb Sturtz, proposes a plan to sell Rikers to the state and open borough-based facilities. The plan is supported by stakeholders and the chairman of the Board of Correction. At one of several public hearings, Legal Aid Society representative Archibald Murray testifies,…
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Five years after the new facility’s celebrated opening, the Rikers Review begins printing a platform on the inside cover entitled “We Seek.” This brief list of demands centers on the need for more comprehensive educational and vocational programs with adequate facilities. Beyond this, the authors…
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New York City saves millions of dollars from the free labor of incarcerated workers. For decades they have been employed as launderers, farmers, cooks, tailors and seamstresses, auto mechanics, and numerous other occupations that benefit the city’s operations. For the first time, starting in July,…
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The third floor of the infirmary now houses what its residents, who are detainees living with AIDS, call a “new death row.” The cracks in the walls make the building cold and damp. The ceiling leaks. The ward is infested with rodents. Rikers medical personnel refuse to provide life-saving care to…
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On a late Sunday evening in November, in response to the continued denial of their constitutional rights, residents of the House of Detention for Men seize control of two cell blocks and detain five correction officers. After several hours, a team of four journalists converse with twelve…
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On August 12th, 205 detainees, more than 500 correction officers, and 150 members of the press gather to see Public Enemy, the first hip hop group to perform at Rikers. Chuck D wants to make sure their message of racial uplift reaches people inside. The performance opens with Professor Griff…
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As a part of the city’s jail expansion program, a new women’s facility, the Rose M. Singer Center, is opened. It had been proposed by officials years earlier in response to Judge Lasker ordering the release of Rikers’ detainees due to overcrowding. Speaking at the opening ceremony, the jail’s…
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In response to racially-motivated mob violence in Brooklyn and Queens, civil rights activist and reverend Al Sharpton participates in a series of nonviolent “Day of Outrage'' demonstrations. For this, Sharpton is convicted of disorderly conduct and sentenced to 45 days on Rikers. While there, he…
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Rapper Tupac Shakur, who is detained on Rikers, invites Vibe Magazine to interview him. Early one January morning, journalist Kevin Powell meets with Tupac in a Rikers conference room for Vibe’s April cover story. “If I get killed,” he tells Powell, “I want people to have the real story.” During…
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In response to pleas from the Giuliani administration, a federal judge limits court oversight of jails by eliminating protections established two decades before. According to John Boston, of Legal Aid, the decision undoes “years of work aimed at ensuring the humane treatment of inmates in city…
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Attorney General Eric Holder and District Attorney Preet Bharara undertake a multi-year investigation into the excessive use of force and punitive segregation at Rikers. Their findings uncover a culture “where brute force is the first impulse rather than the last resort.” The Department of Justice…
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On June 6th, Venida Browder finds her son, Kalief, dead outside her home just minutes after his suicide. He had been released from Rikers two years earlier, after being detained for three years (including 800 days in solitary confinement) for a grand larceny charge that would eventually be…
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City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito convenes an independent commission made up of a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including Herb Sturtz, who championed the 70s-era closure plan. The 27-member delegation, chaired by Judge Jonathan Lippman, is tasked with examining the city’s justice system…
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Led by directly-impacted New Yorkers, the #CLOSErikers campaign assembles more than 100 community-based organizations to raise the public consciousness about the longstanding and traumatic history of Rikers Island. The campaign mobilizes residents of the city to call for permanent closure of…
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In response to a male-centered discourse about Rikers and decarceration, the Women’s Community Justice Association (WCJA) launches the #BEYONDrosies campaign. The campaign advocates for closing Rosie’s before the slated deadline to close all facilities on Rikers Island. Its title signifies what…
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More than a century after the island became a landfill, city council passes the Renewable Rikers Act. This legislation transfers control of Rikers from the Department of Correction to agencies that specialize in sustainability and outlines a plan for repurposing the island in the interest of…
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