Activists, politicians and former prisoners are divided over how to close the notorious Rikers Island complex and what should replace it – if anything
On clear days, Kevin Steele would peek through the cracked window of his six-by-eight foot solitary confinement cell on Rikers Island to get a glimpse of his Bronx neighbourhood and mentally escape.
Steele was just 17 years old in June 2010 when he was brought to Rikers Island, arguably America’s most notorious prison and the nation’s largest penal colony. He had been arrested for his involvement in a fight and had no means to pay an assigned $85,000 bail. He spent three years at Rikers awaiting trial, 13 months of that in solitary confinement.
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