Lockdown on Rikers (2 page)

1

On a gray September morning in 1991, I stood in front of Bloomingdale's on Manhattan's Upper East Side, eagerly waiting for my ride. As a graduate student at Columbia University's School of Social Work, I was beginning a yearlong internship at Rikers Island. I would report to New York City's notorious correctional complex three days a week to provide emotional and psychiatric support to incarcerated women. While most people would balk at the mere thought of working with criminals, as soon as I learned about this assignment, I was intrigued. It incorporated my most important aspirations: to help the poor and underprivileged and to become a psychotherapist. The fact that the poor and underprivileged in this setting were also accused of crimes barely fazed me. Already in my mid-thirties, I had prior experience, not only with people in emotional distress, but with the incarcerated.

I grew up during the sixties in a middle-class family on suburban Long Island. My father was a lawyer, and my mother was a homemaker and, later, a high school English teacher. Altruism was encouraged, both at home and in the Catholic school I attended. Even though our primary exposure to crime and racial strife came by way of the evening news, we were taught that helping the less fortunate was our responsibility, an ideal I took to heart. But it wasn't only inner-city turmoil that flashed across the TV screen. The whole country was grappling with waves of change during the sixties, and I remember being drawn to the grainy images of the
civil rights marches. Even then, I felt strongly about justice and fairness, not yet realizing that years later, despite all the country's strides forward, I would discover a world beyond the reach of the six o'clock news, where inhumanity had found a whole new mode of ugly expression.

As the oldest of seven children in a family that was as loving as it was dysfunctional, I often found myself in the role of listener and peacemaker. Sometimes at the kitchen table my mother would take off her glasses and rub her eyes, and I would listen as she told me how overwhelmed she felt by the day-to-day demands of raising a large family. Then she would replace her glasses, smile, and pat my arm. But I knew she felt a little better for having been heard. Everyone needs to be heard.

In school, I was the one friends brought their troubles to. Whether it was anxiety over grades, fear for a parent battling cancer, or boyfriend woes, I quietly listened, noticing that as my pals talked things through, they usually felt better. Early on, I discovered that simply being heard is a great soother of life's intangible hurts and struggles.

After college, I volunteered at a Boston-based suicide prevention hotline called the Samaritans. No longer was I talking just with family and friends; now I was comforting total strangers. Whether it was an isolated elderly person who needed to talk or a distraught young man thinking about ending it all, I listened, allowing them to express their deepest levels of despair. And like a pipe releasing steam, more often than not their tears dried and their depression lifted. At least for the moment, they found the peace and relief that comes from being deeply heard by another. I couldn't imagine being part of something more important.

And then I decided to take things a step further. The Samaritans operated several outreach programs, one of them being a novel jailhouse program. The program had come about when a rash of suicides at Boston's Charles Street Jail prompted alarm among city officials, who turned to the Samaritans. The result was Lifeline, a program designed to teach a group of inmates the same suicide
prevention techniques we used on the hotline. In a setting better known for prisoners yelling “Jump!” to a despondent inmate posturing to end his life, it was hard to imagine incarcerated men coming together like this. But they did. Not only that, but after the Lifeline intervention, the annual suicide rate, which had been approaching double digits, dropped to zero.

I found this astonishing—proof positive of the power of the human connection! I also knew I had to be part of it. The Lifeline team went into the jail every Wednesday night to support the Samaritan inmates, and on a cold winter evening I joined my fellow volunteers on the jailhouse steps for the first time. At twenty-three, I was the youngest in the crew. Nervous but eager, I followed along as guards led us through barred gates until we reached a room where five inmates sat behind a long table. As we took our place across from them, they did not seem particularly threatening but rather ordinary, save for the elaborate tattoos that decorated their forearms. After introductions were made, the Lifeline leader asked the men about their week as “jailhouse Samaritans.” They unfolded their crossed arms, and their hard faces softened as they took turns describing how they'd tried to comfort the despairing and suicidal in their own ranks. Of particular concern was a newly arrested inmate named Johnny, who was crying and leaving his food tray untouched. Anthony and Lamar, the most extroverted of the five, had approached him. “We asked him if he wanted to talk a little,” said Anthony, “you know—about how he was feeling and stuff.”

“He looked kinda surprised,” the ponytailed Lamar deadpanned.

“Yeah,” Anthony laughed, “to say the least. But he took us up on it, he talked, all right. Flat out told us he was thinking about stringing up a sheet. Then he lost it—cried like a baby. Told us he'd never been arrested before, that he'd lose his job, didn't know how his family was going to get by, and was scared to death. And we just let him talk. We didn't interrupt him.”

“And when he was done,” said Lamar, “we told him we'd be with him. And he kept on saying, ‘Thank you, Thank you.' Later
on, he called his wife and looked a little calmer when he got off. He may have even eaten a little. But we're going to keep an eye on him.”

“Well done!” said the Lifeline leader. As the rest of us joined in, acknowledging their fine efforts, Anthony and Lamar were beaming. As the evening wore on, I melded into the conversation, and by the time the session ended, I'd almost forgotten where I was. After that night I became a Lifeline regular, and those Wednesday evening jailhouse visits were a cherished part of my week. Although I never did learn why those five men had been arrested, in terms of our particular mission, it didn't matter. But what did matter to me was that I was supporting the goodness and humanity in the world—even in this unlikeliest of places.

My Samaritans experience was so profound that I moved back to New York and cofounded the Samaritans of New York. Without forms to fill out or payment to be negotiated, New Yorkers in emotional distress could call our hotline for a caring human connection. I became the hotline's first executive director and expanded the operation to include a speakers' bureau on suicide prevention and Safe Place, a group forum for those who'd lost a loved one to suicide. I was especially pleased to have assisted the NYPD in producing a suicide prevention film that was shown to all incoming cadets. Yet as fulfilled as I was, six years later I had grown weary of fund-raising, budgets, and board issues. From my paper-strewn desk, I watched our volunteers taking calls from phones that I hadn't answered in years. Hard as it was to leave something I'd helped to create, I needed to get back to what made me feel most alive—working directly with people. But this time, instead of fleeting encounters with hotline callers, I wanted continuity with those in emotional distress. I wanted to see if I might facilitate lasting change.

It was on the heels of my departure from the hotline that I enrolled in the clinical track at Columbia's School of Social Work. In preparation for our first field assignment, we were asked to rank our top three picks among a number of options. As I scanned the
predictable list of settings, I spotted “Correctional Facility.” As soon as I saw it, I smiled, recalling those Wednesday nights in the Charles Street Jail. The years had done little to dim my memory of the Samaritan inmates. Had they been released? I wondered. If so, how were they faring? What if I was able to help inmates like them in a deeper way? While they may have committed crimes, the incarcerated were still people—people capable of growth and compassion—as the Samaritan inmates had demonstrated. What if I could sit down with them and really listen to their stories? Insightful therapy sessions could lead to change—change that would translate to happier, jail-free lives following release. A win-win for all!

I didn't really need to think about it for long. In the box next to “Correctional Facility,” I inked in the number 1.

* * *

I was lost in thought, trying to imagine what the year ahead would bring, when a white Bonneville pulled up. Inside were three of my fellow students, all of whom I'd met during a series of orientations for this unusual assignment. Unlike me, they were none too pleased. In the back was Allison, freshly graduated from college. Allison had battled unsuccessfully for a transfer to a more conventional setting, and as I hopped in next to her, she stared ahead through steel-rimmed glasses, barely managing a smile. In the front was Maureen, a middle-aged woman with short, dark hair who'd raised her family and was fulfilling a lifelong dream of helping the impoverished. Although initially apprehensive about Rikers, once she learned her clientele would be female, Maureen was content. But our driver, Wendy, with a ginger-colored bob and a smattering of freckles, was not. “I never said anything about wanting to work in a jail!”

Wendy was outraged. “And those supervisors! I mean, come on! It's one thing to be forced into this for school, but to
choose it!
Either they're out of their minds or they're
loo–sers!
”

“Yes,” Allison agreed, “losers!” Maureen chuckled, and I said nothing.

The supervisors they referred to were members of the Rikers Mental Health staff who had come up to school to meet us. Each of us had been paired off with one of these veterans who would oversee our work in the year ahead. My supervisor was a tall Black woman named Janet Waters. With a stately bearing and a quiet dignity, she smiled shyly when we shook hands. “I think you got yourself a good assignment, Mary,” she said in a soft drawl that hinted at her Alabama roots. I liked Janet immediately. Anything but a loser, here was someone with a sense of purpose—exactly what I'd hoped for in a supervisor! I didn't really know what I was getting into, but meeting Janet felt like an affirmation that I was on the right track.

With the Manhattan skyline fading behind us, we crossed the Queensboro Bridge and drove through the tree-lined streets of Queens and its neat brick houses, a rather unlikely route to what was then the largest correctional facility in the nation. Yet not one sign hinted that the massive complex was nearby. With maps to guide us, we found our way to an intersection in the quiet neighborhood of East Elmhurst, where a billboard jutted out, announcing the Rikers entryway. Shields and emblems shaded in the Department of Correction's colors of orange and royal blue flanked either side of the huge sign. Prominent city officials were listed at the top, and underneath were the names of ten jails—nine for men, one for women. Scrolled across the bottom was the Department of Correction's proud motto: “New York's Boldest!”

Around a corner, a long, narrow bridge stretched out over the gray water, guarded by a couple of security booths. A man in a navy blue uniform stepped out as we pulled up. “Good morning, Officer,” we chimed, holding up silver beaded chains with our newly issued ID badges attached. We were under strict orders to address correctional personnel as “Officer,” or “CO,” referring to their title of Correction Officer. Operating in the shadows of the touted NYPD, the jails' keepers bristle at the word
guard
and
gripe that they aren't accorded due respect for patrolling New York City's “toughest precinct,” especially since they don't carry guns inside the jails. “Remember,” we were cautioned at the orientation, “You are guests in
their
house!”

The man did not respond to our friendliness; instead, he leaned into the car window, studying the IDs, carefully comparing our photos to our faces. There would be nothing cursory about this inspection. Without smiling, he stepped back and waved us on.

The narrow span rose up as we drove over the dark waters of the East River. Choppy waves slopped against the pilings, and seagulls cawed and hovered about the lampposts. In the heavy mist, the blinking lights of the runways at nearby LaGuardia Airport were so close that jets hurtling for takeoff appeared to be gunning right for us before angling up sharply and thundering overhead. As we pressed on, the car filled with a rank odor from a sewage treatment plant on the Queens shoreline. We gasped and ran up the windows, fast. “Geez,” said Maureen. “If the city was looking for a crummy place to put criminals, they sure found it!”

At the crest of the bridge, we fell silent as the island unfolded like a bland industrial plant. Municipal-type buildings were scattered about, connected by a maze of roadways, each one encircled with chain-link fencing topped with rolls of barbed wire. A belt-type road skirted the perimeter, where security jeeps, throwing off long yellow beams, patrolled the river's edge.

Rikers Island was originally purchased by the city in 1884 from the Ryker family, descendants of seventeenth-century Dutch settlers. For most of its history, the island was little more than an overgrown forest. During the Civil War, it served as a training compound for African American regiments. After that, the island sat empty until 1933, when someone thought it would make an ideal spot to tuck away accused criminals, and the first jail, the House of Detention for Men, was built. For the next twenty years, the accused were ferried across the river to city courts to face their charges. In 1954, landfill enlarged the island from 87 to its present 415 acres. This expansion marked the beginning of Rikers'
development into a full correctional complex. In 1966, the three-lane, mile-long bridge was built, eliminating the need for ferries.