Overview
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āThis mesmerizing and gut-wrenching book shows the brutal realities that tens of thousands of people have been forced to navigate, and survive, in Americaās most notorious jail.āāPiper Kerman, New York Times bestselling author of Orange is the New Black
What happens when you pack almost a dozen jails, bulging at the seams with societyās cast-offs, onto a spit of landfill purposefully hidden from public view? Prize-winning journalists Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau have spent two years interviewing more than 130 people comprising a broad cross section of lives touched by New York City's Rikers Island prison complexāfrom incarcerated people and their relatives, to officers, lawyers, and commissioners, with stories spanning the 1970s to the present day. The portrait that emerges calls into question the very nature of justice in America.
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Offering a 360-degree view inside the countryās largest detention complex, the deeply personal accountsāfeatured here for the first timeātake readers on a harrowing journey into every corner of Rikers, a failed society unto itself that reflects societyās failings as a whole.
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Dr. Homer Venters was shocked by the screams on his first day working at Rikers: āTheyāre in solitary, just yellingĀ .Ā .Ā . the yelling literally never stops.ā After a few months, though, Dr. Venters notes, one's ears adjust to the sounds. Nestor Eversley recalls how detainees made weapons from bones. Barry Campbell recalls hiding a razor blade in his mouthāājust in caseā.
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These are visceral stories of despair, brutality, resilience, humor, and hope, told by the people who were marooned on the island over the course of decades. As calls to shutter jails and reduce the number of incarcerated people grow louder across the country, with the movement to close the island complex itself at the forefront, Rikers is a resounding lesson about the human consequences of the incarceration industry.
This book title, Rikers (An Oral History), ISBN: 9780593134214, by Graham Rayman, Reuven Blau, published by Random House Publishing Group (January 17, 2023) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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