This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson. Many of us look at the

nation's jails and prisons as dangerous places for those who are helped there. But advocates

say conditions at New York's Rikers Island are literally killing prisoners, even those

who are guilty of nothing. Rikers is a war zone. Rikers is a place where PTSD goes to

thrive because all of the people being incarcerated there, they are going through violence, just

pure violence, and not just from incarcerated people, but often from the corrections officers

themselves. The crisis at Rikers Island coming up on a word with me, Jason Johnson. Stay

with us. Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else. I'm

your host, Jason Johnson. The Rikers Island jail complex in New York is notorious for

brutality and danger for inmates. Just this year, at least 18 people have died at Rikers.

Some killed at the hands of other inmates, some by suicide, and others from medical neglect.

Years of promises to improve conditions have gone unfulfilled, and advocates are pressing

the city officials to follow through on plans to close the facility. But how do the crisis

at Rikers Island get so bad? And why of political efforts to fix it failed? Joining us to talk

about it is Aliamey Oluhrin. She's a public defender with the Legal Aid Society and a frequent

commentator on judicial issues. Aliamey, welcome to a word.

I thank you for having me. What's actually going on at Rikers right now? Like, why are

people dying there? Because of depraved indifference and mismanagement, that's honestly the truth.

Rikers is a place that's reputation precedes it, and honestly, I think to its detriment. Because

its reputation precedes it, people think it's this really infamous, terrible jail for terrible,

convicted criminals. But in actuality, Rikers is a pre-trial detention center. And that shocks

most people to find out, and you wouldn't think that a place has been open since 1932. People

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