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Life and death in Rikers Island
- Author
- Venters, Homer, 1967- author.
- Title
- Life and death in Rikers Island / Homer Venters, former Chief Medical Officer of NYC jails.
- Format
- Book
- Published
- Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.
- Description
- x, 188 pages ; 23 cm
- Notes
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-180) and index.
- Contents
-
- Dying in jail : Carlos Mercado and Angel Ramirez
- Injury and violence
- Solitary confinement
- Serious mental illness in jail
- Human rights and correctional health
- Race : Keleif Browder
- Sexual assault in Rikers : Maria and Brianna
- Correctional health
- Transparency and governance
- What to do with Rikers.
- Summary
- 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 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.
- Subject headings
- New York (N.Y.). Department of Correction.
- Medical subjects
- New York (N.Y.). Department of Correction.
- Subject headings
- Jails--New York (State)--New York. Public health--New York (State)--New York. Prisoners--Health and hygiene--New York (State)--New York. Prisoners--Medical care--New York (State)--New York.
- Medical subjects
- Prisons. Delivery of Health Care. Prisoners. Health Status. Health Risk Behaviors. Human Rights Abuses. New York (N.Y.)
- ISBN
- 9781421427355 paperback alkaline paper 1421427354 paperback alkaline paper 9781421427362 electronic book 1421427362 (electronic)