Getting Off Rikers Island

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2020

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Across the United States, jails and prisons have become petri dishes for the coronavirus — dangerously cramped, unsanitary quarters where residents lack the resources to keep safe. This has prompted local governments to release thousands of inmates. But who got to go, and who had to stay? And how was that decision made? Today, we hear the story of one inmate trying to get out of the second-largest jail in the country, the Rikers Island prison complex in New York. Guests: Alan Feuer, who covers criminal justice for The New York Times, and Mitch Pomerance, a resident of Rikers Island. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: For weeks, public defenders warned of a public health catastrophe if inmates weren't released and prisons weren’t sanitized to guard against the coronavirus. Now, the pandemic is hitting jail systems across the country.

Transcript

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0:25.6	From the New York Times, unlike Ovalborro, this is the Daily.
0:32.6	Well, some call it the most dangerous place on the planet when it comes to facing a coronavirus
0:46.6	outbreak.
0:47.6	A packed county jail could be a disaster waiting to happen.
0:51.6	Across the US.
0:52.6	The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Chicago, the Cook County jail has their
0:57.2	New York calls for quick action now growing louder.
1:00.6	Jails and prisons with their cramped quarters and communal living have become hot beds for
1:07.3	the spread of the coronavirus.
1:09.3	Prisoners are sounding the alarm on the ballooning outbreak, writing messages on windows
1:13.8	reading help.
1:15.2	We matter and we're dying.
1:17.7	Everybody is losing their minds, not just the detainees, but also people that are working
1:21.9	out.
1:22.9	We cannot change the fundamental nature of jail.
	...

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