Rikers Island: Criminalized Survivor

Rikers Island: Criminalized Survivor PDF Author: Michele Evans
Publisher: Silver Screen Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
In the shadow of New York City's skyline, behind the looming walls of Rikers Island, a tale of resilience, hope, and the indomitable human spirit unfolds. Shalise Simmons' world is turned upside down when she finds herself incarcerated in the infamous Rikers Island jail. Trapped in a system designed to break her, Shalise discovers strength she never knew she had. As she navigates the complexities of prison life, she encounters a cast of characters that will change her life forever. From the gritty realities of life behind bars to moments of unexpected humor and warmth, "Rikers Island" is a rollercoaster ride through the human condition. Witness the bonds of friendship that form in the most unlikely of places and the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. "Rikers Island" is more than just Shalise's story. It's a gripping portrayal of a flawed justice system, a meditation on freedom and confinement, and a testament to the power of resilience. As Shalise battles against injustice, her journey will inspire, challenge, and ultimately uplift you. 🌟 Dive into a story where every page crackles with tension and emotion. Where hope shines even in the darkest corners. Where every character's journey speaks to the courage we all hold within. Rikers Island: A place where despair and hope walk hand in hand, where every day is a fight for survival, and where one woman's journey will leave you forever changed. 📘 Get your copy today and embark on an unforgettable journey through the heart of one of America's most notorious jails!

Rikers Island: Criminalized Survivor

Rikers Island: Criminalized Survivor PDF Author: Michele Evans
Publisher: Silver Screen Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 406

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the shadow of New York City's skyline, behind the looming walls of Rikers Island, a tale of resilience, hope, and the indomitable human spirit unfolds. Shalise Simmons' world is turned upside down when she finds herself incarcerated in the infamous Rikers Island jail. Trapped in a system designed to break her, Shalise discovers strength she never knew she had. As she navigates the complexities of prison life, she encounters a cast of characters that will change her life forever. From the gritty realities of life behind bars to moments of unexpected humor and warmth, "Rikers Island" is a rollercoaster ride through the human condition. Witness the bonds of friendship that form in the most unlikely of places and the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. "Rikers Island" is more than just Shalise's story. It's a gripping portrayal of a flawed justice system, a meditation on freedom and confinement, and a testament to the power of resilience. As Shalise battles against injustice, her journey will inspire, challenge, and ultimately uplift you. 🌟 Dive into a story where every page crackles with tension and emotion. Where hope shines even in the darkest corners. Where every character's journey speaks to the courage we all hold within. Rikers Island: A place where despair and hope walk hand in hand, where every day is a fight for survival, and where one woman's journey will leave you forever changed. 📘 Get your copy today and embark on an unforgettable journey through the heart of one of America's most notorious jails!

Across The Bridge a Rikers Island Story

Across The Bridge a Rikers Island Story PDF Author: Steven Dominguez
Publisher: Molding Messengers, LLC
ISBN: 0578826550
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
A harrowing insight into New York City's most notorious detention complex, Rikers Island. The narrative plays through multiple characters who possess a particular position of control and power within the jail, along with the inmates and civilians who witness the violence, drugs, sex, and corruption that occurs every day inside. The seclusion of the jail from the city's beautiful skyline can seem like an amazing inferno to outsiders, however, for those who make it to the other side whether to make a living, being detained for breaking the law or visiting someone accused of doing so, they all share that unshakable feeling. Each character intertwines with one another through desperation and aspiration, sharing the same main objective... survival. Fraternization between uniformed staff and those incarcerated, the drug and alcohol abuse they have in common, violence between the inner-city gangs who congregate under the same roof, and the political pressure of elected officials attempting to maintain order where over 40% of the population suffers from mental illness. Out of sight out of mind. WELCOME TO THE ISLAND.

Life and Death in Rikers Island

Life and Death in Rikers Island PDF Author: Homer Venters
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421427354
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Shining a light on the deadly health consequences of incarceration. Finalist in the PROSE Award for Best Book in Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology by the Association of American Publishers Kalief Browder was 16 when he was arrested in the Bronx for allegedly stealing a backpack. Unable to raise bail and unwilling to plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit, Browder spent three years in New York's infamous Rikers Island jail—two in solitary confinement—while awaiting trial. After his case was dismissed in 2013, Browder returned to his family, haunted by his ordeal. Suffering through the lonely hell of solitary, Browder had been violently attacked by fellow prisoners and corrections officers throughout his incarceration. Consumed with depression, Browder committed suicide in 2015. He was just 22 years old. In Life and Death in Rikers Island, Homer Venters, the former chief medical officer for New York City's jails, explains the profound health risks associated with incarceration. From neglect and sexual abuse to blocked access to care and exposure to brutality, Venters details how jails are designed and run to create new health risks for prisoners—all while forcing doctors and nurses into complicity or silence. Pairing prisoner experiences with cutting-edge research into prison risk, Venters reveals the disproportionate extent to which the health risks of jail are meted out to those with behavioral health problems and people of color. He also presents compelling data on alternative strategies that can reduce health risks. This revelatory and groundbreaking book concludes with the author's analysis of the case for closing Rikers Island jails and his advice on how to do it for the good of the incarcerated.

Life on the Outside

Life on the Outside PDF Author: Jennifer Gonnerman
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312424572
Category : Women drug dealers
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Chronicles the life of Elaine Bartlett, a woman who spent sixteen years in prison for selling cocaine, tracing her steps as she is released from prison and tries to reconstruct her life.

All Day

All Day PDF Author: Liza Jessie Peterson
Publisher: Center Street
ISBN: 1455570907
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
ALL DAY is a behind-the-bars, personal glimpse into the issue of mass incarceration via an unpredictable, insightful and ultimately hopeful reflection on teaching teens while they await sentencing. Told with equal parts raw honesty and unbridled compassion, ALL DAY recounts a year in Liza Jessie Peterson's classroom at Island Academy, the high school for inmates detained at New York City's Rikers Island. A poet and actress who had done occasional workshops at the correctional facility, Peterson was ill-prepared for a full-time stint teaching in the GED program for the incarcerated youths. For the first time faced with full days teaching the rambunctious, hyper, and fragile adolescent inmates, "Ms. P" comes to understand the essence of her predominantly Black and Latino students as she attempts not only to educate them, but to instill them with a sense of self-worth long stripped from their lives. "I have quite a spirited group of drama kings, court jesters, flyboy gangsters, tricksters, and wannabe pimps all in my charge, all up in my face, to educate," Peterson discovers. "Corralling this motley crew of bad-news bears to do any lesson is like running boot camp for hyperactive gremlins. I have to be consistent, alert, firm, witty, fearless, and demanding, and most important, I have to have strong command of the subject I'm teaching." Discipline is always a challenge, with the students spouting street-infused backtalk and often bouncing off the walls with pent-up testosterone. Peterson learns quickly that she must keep the upper hand-set the rules and enforce them with rigor, even when her sympathetic heart starts to waver. Despite their relentless bravura and antics-and in part because of it-Peterson becomes a fierce advocate for her students. She works to instill the young men, mostly black, with a sense of pride about their history and culture: from their African roots to Langston Hughes and Malcolm X. She encourages them to explore and express their true feelings by writing their own poems and essays. When the boys push her buttons (on an almost daily basis) she pushes back, demanding that they meet not only her expectations or the standards of the curriculum, but set expectations for themselves-something most of them have never before been asked to do. She witnesses some amazing successes as some of the boys come into their own under her tutelage. Peterson vividly captures the prison milieu and the exuberance of the kids who have been handed a raw deal by society and have become lost within the system. Her time in the classroom teaches her something, too-that these boys want to be rescued. They want normalcy and love and opportunity.

Compelled to Crime

Compelled to Crime PDF Author: Beth Richie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317325427
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Corruption Officer

Corruption Officer PDF Author: Gary L. Heyward
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476794324
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
In this shocking memoir from a former corrections officer, Gary Heyward shares an eye-opening, gritty, and devastating account of his descent into criminal life, smuggling contraband inside the infamous Rikers Island jails. Gary Heyward’s life changed forever when he received a letter from the New York City Department of Corrections announcing he was accepted into the academy for new recruits. For the Harlem-born ex-Marine, being an officer of the law was the ticket he’d been waiting for to move up from a low-wage security job and out of the Polo Ground Projects in New York City—and take his mother with him. Heyward was warned of the temptations he’d encounter as a new officer, but when faced with financial hardship, he suddenly found himself unable to resist the income generated from selling contraband to inmates. In his distinctive voice, Heyward takes you on a journey inside the walls of Rikers Island, showing how he teamed up with various inmates and other officers to develop a system that allowed him to profit from selling drugs inside the jail. Corruption Officer is a jarring exposé of a man having lived on both sides of the law, a rare insider’s look at a corrupt city jail, and a testament to the lengths we’ll go when our backs are against the wall.

Killer Looks

Killer Looks PDF Author: Zara Stone
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1633886735
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Killer Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man. From the 1920s up to the mid-1990s, half a million prison inmates across America, Canada, and the U.K willingly went under the knife, their tab picked up by the government. In the beginning, this was a haphazard affair -- applied inconsistently and unfairly to inmates, but entering the 1960s, a movement to scientifically quantify the long-term effect of such programs took hold. And, strange as it may sound, the criminologists were right: recidivism rates plummeted. In 1967, a three-year cosmetic surgery program set on Rikers Island saw recidivism rates drop 36% for surgically altered offenders. The program, funded by a $240,000 grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was led by Dr. Michael Lewin, who ran a similar program at Sing-Sing prison in 1953. Killer Looks draws on the intersectionality of socioeconomic success, racial bias, the prison industry complex and the fallacy of attractiveness to get to the heart of how appearance and societal approval creates self-worth, and uncovers deeper truths of beauty bias, inherited racism, effective recidivism programs, and inequality. ,

Lockdown on Rikers

Lockdown on Rikers PDF Author: Mary E. Buser
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1466890169
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Mary Buser began her career at Rikers Island as a social work intern, brimming with ideas and eager to help incarcerated women find a better path. Her reassignment to a men's jail coincided with the dawn of the city's "stop-and-frisk" policy, a flood of unprecedented arrests, and the biggest jailhouse build-up in New York City history. Committed to the possibility of growth for the scarred and tattooed masses who filed into her session booth, Buser was suddenly faced with black eyes, punched-out teeth, and frantic whispers of beatings by officers. Recognizing the greater danger of pointing a finger at one's captors, Buser attempted to help them, while also keeping them as well as herself, safe. Following her promotion to assistant chief, she was transferred to different jails, working in the Mental Health Center, and finally, at Rikers's notorious "jail within jail," the dreaded solitary confinement unit, where she saw horrors she'd never imagined. Finally, it became too much to bear, forcing Buser to flee Rikers and never look back - until now. Lockdown on Rikers shines a light into the deepest and most horrific recesses of the criminal justice system, and shows how far it has really drifted from the ideals we espouse.

All Our Trials

All Our Trials PDF Author: Emily L. Thuma
Publisher: Haymarket Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A vital history of organizing within and beyond the walls of women’s prisons in the 1970s, illuminating a crucial chapter in today’s abolition feminist struggles. This new edition of an award-winning book features a foreword from acclaimed scholar-activist Sarah Haley and an afterword by Thuma. During the 1970s, grassroots activists within and beyond the walls of women’s prisons forged a radical politics against gender violence and incarceration. Scholar-activist Emily L. Thuma traces the making of this anticarceral feminism at the intersections of struggles for racial and economic justice, imprisoned and institutionalized people’s rights, and gender and sexual liberation. All Our Trials chronicles the organizing, ideas, and influence of those who placed criminalized and marginalized women at the heart of their antiviolence mobilizations. This activism confronted a "tough on crime" political agenda and clashed with the mainstream women’s movement’s strategy of resorting to the criminal legal system as a solution to sexual and domestic violence. Drawing on extensive research, Thuma weaves together the stories of mass defense campaigns, prisoner uprisings, coalition organizing, and activist publications that cut through prison walls. In the process, All Our Trials reveals a vibrant culture of opposition to interpersonal and state violence that both transforms our understanding of 1970s social movements and illuminates the history of present struggles for transformative justice. Winner of the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Studies Shortlisted for the Organization of American Historians’ Nickliss Prize and the American Studies Association’s Romero Prize