Rikers Island - NYC DOC (New York City, New York)

New York City Correctional Facility.
60 Hazen Street
East Elmhurst, NY 11370
(718) 546-1500
www1.nyc.gov/site/doc/index.page

Rikers Island is the name of New York City's largest jail facility, as well as the name of the 415-acre (1.7 km²) island on which it sits, in the East River between the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx (40°47′28″N, 73°52′58″W), adjacent to the runways of LaGuardia Airport. The jail complex, operated by the New York City Department of Correction, has a budget of $860 million a year, a staff of 10,000 officers and 1,500 civilians to control a yearly inmate population of up to 130,000.

The facility generally holds about 15,000 inmates at a time, although the daytime population (including staff) can be 20,000 or more.

The facility, which consists of ten jails, holds local offenders who are awaiting trial and cannot afford or cannot obtain bail, those serving sentences of one year or less, and those temporarily placed there pending transfer to another facility which does not have space.

While the island is located in the borough of the Bronx, the only access to the facility is from Queens, over the unmarked 4,200-foot (1.28 km) three-lane Rikers Island Bridge, built in 1966. Before the bridge was constructed, the only access to the island was by ferry. Transportation is also provided by the Q101R limited stop bus service, from Queensboro Plaza, providing around the clock service.

During Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's term as mayor of New York, the prison filled to overflowing, and an 800-bed barge was installed on the East River to accommodate the extra inmates.

The island is named after Abraham Rycken, a Dutch settler who moved to Long Island in 1638 and whose descendants owned Rikers Island until 1884, when it was sold to the city for $180,000 and has been used as a jail in one form or another ever since.

A drawing by artist Salvador Dalí, done as an apology because he was unable to attend a talk about art for the prisoners at Rikers Island, hung in the inmate dining room from 1965 to 1981, when it was moved to the prison lobby for safekeeping. The drawing was stolen in March 2003 and replaced with a fake. Four prison guards were arrested and charged, and though three later pleaded guilty and one was acquitted; the drawing has not been recovered.

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