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Rikers: An Oral History Spiral-Bound | January 17, 2023
Graham Rayman, Reuven Blau
★★★★☆+ from 101 to 500 ratings
$30.58
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Rikers: An Oral History
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A shocking, groundbreaking oral history of Rikers Island; a brutal portrait of violence, despair, and injustice told by the detainees and officers whose lives have been forever altered.
What happens when you jam almost a dozen jails, bulging at the seams with society's cast-offs, onto a spit of landfill, purposefully hidden from public view and named after the family of a judge who sent escaped slaves and free Black men to plantations in the South? Prize-winning journalists Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau have spent two years interviewing more than 130 people comprising a broad cross-section of lives Rikers has touched—from detainees and their relatives to officers, lawyers, and commissioners, with stories spanning from the 1970s to the present day.
The deeply personal accounts that emerge call into question the very nature of justice in America.
Offering a 360-degree view inside the country's largest detention complex for the first time, their voices take readers on a harrowing journey into every corner of Rikers—a failed society unto itself that reflects society’s failings as a whole.
Grace Price, on her way to jail in 2011, recalls the moment she found "a little crack head lady" asleep on her shoulder as they were crossing the Rikers Island Bridge: "She was nasty but I just let her sleep there, because it somehow made me feel like I was actually in control of my situation." Dr. Homer Venters was shocked by the screams on his first day working there: "They're in solitary, just yelling... the yelling literally never stops." After a few months though, your ears adjust to the sounds of Rikers.
Nestor Eversley recalls how detainees made weapons from bones. Ronald Tackmann details his ingenious escapes. Retired officer Tami Lee recounts how all the inmates wanted the late, great Tupac Shakur to listen to their raps. Sandy Sutton describes her revulsion at a lunch of pig tails and beans.
These are visceral stories of despair, brutality, resilience, humor and hope, told by the people who were marooned on the island over the course of decades. As calls to close jails and reduce the number of incarcerated people grow louder across the country, with the movement to close the island complex itself at the forefront, Rikers is a resounding lesson about the human consequences of the incarceration industry.
Story Locale:Rikers Island, New York
What happens when you jam almost a dozen jails, bulging at the seams with society's cast-offs, onto a spit of landfill, purposefully hidden from public view and named after the family of a judge who sent escaped slaves and free Black men to plantations in the South? Prize-winning journalists Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau have spent two years interviewing more than 130 people comprising a broad cross-section of lives Rikers has touched—from detainees and their relatives to officers, lawyers, and commissioners, with stories spanning from the 1970s to the present day.
The deeply personal accounts that emerge call into question the very nature of justice in America.
Offering a 360-degree view inside the country's largest detention complex for the first time, their voices take readers on a harrowing journey into every corner of Rikers—a failed society unto itself that reflects society’s failings as a whole.
Grace Price, on her way to jail in 2011, recalls the moment she found "a little crack head lady" asleep on her shoulder as they were crossing the Rikers Island Bridge: "She was nasty but I just let her sleep there, because it somehow made me feel like I was actually in control of my situation." Dr. Homer Venters was shocked by the screams on his first day working there: "They're in solitary, just yelling... the yelling literally never stops." After a few months though, your ears adjust to the sounds of Rikers.
Nestor Eversley recalls how detainees made weapons from bones. Ronald Tackmann details his ingenious escapes. Retired officer Tami Lee recounts how all the inmates wanted the late, great Tupac Shakur to listen to their raps. Sandy Sutton describes her revulsion at a lunch of pig tails and beans.
These are visceral stories of despair, brutality, resilience, humor and hope, told by the people who were marooned on the island over the course of decades. As calls to close jails and reduce the number of incarcerated people grow louder across the country, with the movement to close the island complex itself at the forefront, Rikers is a resounding lesson about the human consequences of the incarceration industry.
Story Locale:Rikers Island, New York
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 464 pages
ISBN-10: 0593134214
Item Weight: 1.7 lbs
Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.4 x 9.5 inches
Customer Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars 101 to 500 ratings
“These pages, in their purposeful lack of objectivity and their specificity, become, through the sheer number of maddeningly similar tales, more honest than a piece of scholarship might ever be. . . . Rayman and Blau begin each chapter with some of the most informative and wide-ranging writing on the kaleidoscopic effects of incarceration. . . . Each page demands that you ask: What do I do with this knowledge?”—The Washington Post
“This impressive book throws a lot at you. . . . The authors are apparently excellent interviewers. They get people to say extraordinary things. . . . Reading Rikers, you begin to understand those who have called for closing the prison entirely. . . . The final chapters of this book are intensely moving.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“In Rikers, Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau shatter a century-old code of silence by skillfully amplifying the words of the people who have been there—those who have been detained in horrific conditions, those who work there in desperate circumstances, and those who are responsible for an institution where it costs more than half a million dollars a year to incarcerate one person. This mesmerizing and gut-wrenching book shows the brutal realities that tens of thousands of people have been forced to navigate, and survive, in America’s most notorious jail.”—Piper Kerman, New York Times bestselling author of Orange Is the New Black
“I read Rikers like a wildly disturbing novel too mesmerizing to put down. As a journalist, I’m awed that such a book is even possible. How could anyone capture this detailed a view from inside the beast? Somehow, Rayman and Blau have pulled it off. This is one of the most impressive pieces of journalism I’ve ever read.”—Sebastian Junger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of War, Tribe, and The Perfect Storm
“Rikers is a profound examination of a storied facility. It is simply a must-read for anyone interested in ending mass incarceration or the history of prisons and jails. The stories within highlight the sheer cruelty of the corrections system, the resounding hope of the people trapped within, and the possibilities of something altogether new and better. A stunning work.”—DeRay Mckesson, activist and author of On the Other Side of Freedom
“A multivocal tour of hell on Earth . . . If there were ever an argument for prison reform, it’s in these pages.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“This impressive book throws a lot at you. . . . The authors are apparently excellent interviewers. They get people to say extraordinary things. . . . Reading Rikers, you begin to understand those who have called for closing the prison entirely. . . . The final chapters of this book are intensely moving.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“In Rikers, Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau shatter a century-old code of silence by skillfully amplifying the words of the people who have been there—those who have been detained in horrific conditions, those who work there in desperate circumstances, and those who are responsible for an institution where it costs more than half a million dollars a year to incarcerate one person. This mesmerizing and gut-wrenching book shows the brutal realities that tens of thousands of people have been forced to navigate, and survive, in America’s most notorious jail.”—Piper Kerman, New York Times bestselling author of Orange Is the New Black
“I read Rikers like a wildly disturbing novel too mesmerizing to put down. As a journalist, I’m awed that such a book is even possible. How could anyone capture this detailed a view from inside the beast? Somehow, Rayman and Blau have pulled it off. This is one of the most impressive pieces of journalism I’ve ever read.”—Sebastian Junger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of War, Tribe, and The Perfect Storm
“Rikers is a profound examination of a storied facility. It is simply a must-read for anyone interested in ending mass incarceration or the history of prisons and jails. The stories within highlight the sheer cruelty of the corrections system, the resounding hope of the people trapped within, and the possibilities of something altogether new and better. A stunning work.”—DeRay Mckesson, activist and author of On the Other Side of Freedom
“A multivocal tour of hell on Earth . . . If there were ever an argument for prison reform, it’s in these pages.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Graham Rayman covers criminal justice and policing for the New York Daily News. He has won multiple journalism prizes over his thirty-year career. He has previously worked at New York Newsday, Newsday, and the Village Voice. He is also the author of The NYPD Tapes.
Reuven Blau is a senior reporter at The City. He has previously worked at the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and the Chief-Leader. He is known as the dean of Rikers reporters.
Author Residence: New York, NY
Author Hometown: New York, NY
Reuven Blau is a senior reporter at The City. He has previously worked at the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and the Chief-Leader. He is known as the dean of Rikers reporters.
Author Residence: New York, NY
Author Hometown: New York, NY