Rikers Island is a 413.17-acre island in the East River between Queens and the Bronx that is home to New York City's main jail complex. In May 2013, Rikers Island ranked as one of the ten worst correctional facilities in the United States. Violence on Rikers Island has been increasing in recent years. In 2015 there were 9,424 assaults, the highest number in five years. A lawsuit has landed a decisive blow to Bill de Blasio’s plan to replace Rikers Island with a smaller network of borough-based jails. New York City lawmakers voted to close the notorious Rikers Island jail complex and is scheduled to shutter by 2026, ending a decades-long run as one of the world's largest jails. Some of our crew members joined a meeting based on these facts and charged their opinions on the meeting. It’s very essential to be aware of what’s going on in our Country and they have the opportunity to do so.

During this zoom meeting we had some new people so we did some icebreakers. We just introduce ourselves and talk about what we do and the group we are a part of. They then asked us what animal we would be. I said a cheetah because I have a lot of energy and I am always running around. We then started to talk about how Rikers Island was going to close. They then ask us why we think Rikers should be close. People said how the environment was not good and people were not being treated well. They wanted to reduce the number of people at Rikers. We had Sarita Daftary-steel tell us about what was happening there. She said everyone had to share a bathroom and that the place was not clean. People in there could easily catch covid from being in there. We then started to watch a video about people's experience in Rikers. The people in the video talk about the fact that they were treated unfairly and compared it to a dungeon. They then start to talk about their plan to try to change that. There is a campaign to try to close Rikers and to try to have a community center to help people that are going through this kind of thing. They then ask us what we thought of the video. I said that the people in Rikers were treated poorly and how we need to get more people to be aware of what is happening there. I also said that we need to change how Rikers are and to make it better. We then tried to think of a name for the campaign.

—By: Gabriel Moreau

During the Stay Woke meeting, we talked mainly about Rikers Island and us as young black teens to know our rights. There are plans to shut down Rikers Island due to its unfair treatment to its inmates. The first goal was to reduce the number of people actually incarcerated in Rikers Island from 10,000 and cut that in half. This goal was met but mostly due to Covid-19. Rikers Island now only holds about 3,000-4,000 people as of right now. People are still concerned for the people still incarcerated in Rikers Island because of the mistreatment they are receiving. They want to make sure that these inmates are being treated fairly enough to survive there. The second goal was to open up the prisons in Brooklyn and Queens so that the inmates families would be able to see them more often. As you know Rikers Island is... exactly in its name an island. It’s miles away from the city and makes it difficult for most families to come and visit their families that are incarcerated. The only problem with the prisons in Brooklyn and Queens is that they are filled with dust and mold. That wouldn’t be a very good living situation for prisoners because that could end up leading to health problems since dust and mold carry lots of bacteria. They want to try and clean the prisons so that they could have a more comfortable living situation. We as a community have to come together to address the problems at hand. We need to keep speaking out, marching and making sure our voices are heard.

—By: Brandon Lino

In this meeting we first introduced ourselves to new members and did a little icebreaker. They asked us the usual things, like to put in the chat your group name but today they decided to also have us talk about animals. They asked us if we had to choose an animal to be, or an animal that represented us, what would that animal be. At first I was just going to say a cool and popular animal like a lion, but then I actually put some thought into it and decided something else. When it was my turn to say what animal represents me I decided to say an eagle for me. This is because they can fly and they are free. Which also symbolizes freedom and relief for all of your problems which is a point where I dream to achieve in life. After that we watched a video about Rikers Island. People should be aware of the conditions in Rikers. We need to think about investment in mental health, investment in housing. We need to create a better system that secures our safety. We also talked about camping names and group names. We had to come up with something attention grabbing. Someone suggested Rights are right / wrong is wrong. They also talked about how it is easier for people in these prisons to catch COVID. Living in Rikers was compared to a dungeon and it was said to be dangerous living there, some of the inmates were treated inhumanely and a lot of them started developing mental health issues. There is a campaign to close Rikers down and to also start to build a community center to help people that are going through this kind of thing.

—By: Raphael Moreau