Battered naked in shower, gut-wrenching deaths & the ‘murder dorm’… our brutal life inside America’s most notorious jail

TO some it is known as ‘Gladiator School’ because of the sheer amount of blood-soaked brawls that stain the floors.

Others call it ‘Torture Island’, where freezing water pours through the ceiling in winter, inmates sleep with one-eye open in the notorious ‘murder dorm’ and pepper spray fills the air.

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America’s most notorious prison has seen a spate of deaths in recent weeks[/caption]

Special Report by the Nunez Independent Monitor

The complex has faced questions over its security, management and discipline[/caption]

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Even prison staff have been attacked by inmates in brutal assaults[/caption]

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Celebrities and infamous serial killer including David Berkowitz, known as the ‘Son of Sam’, have been housed there over the years[/caption]

Over the years, New York’s infamous decaying old jail has housed many high-profile prisoners – including the rapper Tupac Shakur, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, David Berkowitz, the serial killer known as “Son of Sam” and Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon.

But to former Rikers Island prisoner Michele Evans, it is simply “hell on Earth”.

Software engineer Michele, 53, spent 18 months incarcerated in the dilapidated penal colony after being charged with assault when she tried to flee a marriage she claims was plagued by domestic violence.

She says the harrowing experience left her scarred for life and backs a campaign to get the jail closed down for good.

Michele says: “I would describe it as hell on Earth. There are so many parts to Rikers, it is hard to put it into a few words. 

“It is where people go in and never come out the same – if they even come out of it all, there are so many deaths.

“I used to sometimes think I wouldn’t make it out alive, especially when Covid hit. There would be people on the phones screaming at their lawyers, ‘Get me out of here I don’t want to die!’ 

“We all thought we were going to die. It changed the course of my life, for sure.”

Michele is clearly not exaggerating. At least 11 people have died on Rikers Island this year, including three in the last three weeks alone.

Six years ago a federal judge ruled that because the conditions at Rikers were so brutal, and that city officials were failing to solve them, the jail must close by 2027.

In May this year Rikers was taken out of the control of the city of New York after another judge ruled that the jail’s crisis was so acute that an independent mediation manager would oversee its management.

But experts believe Rikers is likely to stay open for many years to come, despite a rising prison population, deteriorating conditions and calls from campaigners and politicians to shut it down.

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Rikers Island was ordered to shut down by 2027, though experts fear it could remain open[/caption]

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Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco is one of countless inmates to die behind bars at Rikers[/caption]

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Michele Evans says she is traumatised after her ordeal at Rikers[/caption]

Like 85 per cent of the 7,000-strong Rikers population, Michele had not been convicted of a crime. She was being held on remand awaiting trial.

“I was in a domestic violence situation and I was trying to get away,” she explains. 

“My husband jumped on the car and he was hurt, then I was charged with assault.

“It was very disturbing that in order for me to survive I had to be looked at as a criminal. It felt very unfair.”

‘Murder dorm’

Despite her fears, life on Rikers was even worse than Michele could have imagined.

She ended up fearing for her life, put on a wing known as the ‘murder dorm’.

“Nearly everybody in there was on a murder charge,” she says. “It is scary, I had a captain tell me you need to be very careful what you say to these girls and how you act to them because they will get you in the middle of the night.

“There was no protection. They could get you while you are sleeping. There is one officer in the dorm with 50 beds. 

“They are not going to be able to help you too much – if someone wants to get you, they are going to get you.

“It caused me lasting damage. Now I can only fall asleep if I’m in my bed with covers over my head, because I went for so long feeling unsafe.

“It does a trick on you psychologically.”

‘Inhumane’

But the thing she struggled with the most was the lack of privacy.

Michele says: “It was very uncomfortable. There were no doors on the bathroom, and just one great big communal shower. 

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Former inmates speak of having one officer in the dorm with 50 beds[/caption]

CBS News

The prison’s disgusting conditions have frequently come under fire[/caption]

Reuters

85 per cent of the 7,000-strong Rikers population are being held on remand awaiting trial[/caption]

“Your bed was within arms length of the next bed, so you literally had no privacy.

“When you shower you feel very exposed and vulnerable. As a woman you have to take care of your monthly cycle and you have to do that in front of everybody. 

“The lack of privacy was very traumatising. That is a very private moment, it was inhumane. There was no reason why they couldn’t put doors on the bathroom stalls.

As a woman you have to take care of your monthly cycle and you have to do that in front of everybody. The lack of privacy was very traumatising

Michele Evans

“It is very difficult to sleep. Most people are on some sort of sleep medication. I took Benadryl to help.

“The building itself was disgusting and old and decaying. There were mice, water bugs, cockroaches. 

“When it rains the ceiling pours water. It is really hot in summer, and cold in winter.

“There is lots of fighting. Lots of pepper spray – they would spray pepper spray when the fight started. That was really difficult on your system.”

Terrifying attack

Michele was the victim of a violent assault when she was at her most vulnerable.

“I got attacked in the shower and somebody wanted to get in there,” she recalls.

“It was my job to clean the shower and the shower was closed, and they got really mad. Then another girl came in, I tried to block myself into the shower and it just turned into a mess. 

“I would clean the shower and take a shower myself so when that happened I was naked. To have them come at me when I had no clothes on, I was very vulnerable.”

In the end Michele says she took a plea deal in a bid to minimise her jail time and get out of Rikers.

“I took a plea because there is no self-defence in New York,” she explains. “They had what they called justification instead of self-defence, but in a reckless charge, which mine was reckless assault, you can’t plead justification either, so your right to self-defence is non-existent. 

“So because of that and the high sentence framework, I was facing five to 25 years, so there is no way I was going to expose myself to that. 

“So they basically coerced a plea out of me and I didn’t take it to trial. I served 14 months in prison up state.”

It is very difficult to sleep. Most people are on some sort of sleep medication. I took Benadryl to help

Michele Evans

Michele left prison with nothing and had to rebuild her life from scratch.

During her time on Rikers she started writing a screenplay, which turned into a book. 

Now a full-time writer, Michele says: “Writing gave me something to focus on and that saved me.”

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The jail is said to overheat in the summer, while rain pours through the ceiling in winter[/caption]

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The jail has been described as the ‘Gladiator school’ due to its violent incidents[/caption]

She dedicated her book to transgender prisoner Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco, who died in solitary confinement at Rikers in 2019 after suffering a seizure and not receiving adequate medical care.

Her family claimed Layleen, 27, had been placed in solitary in part because the authorities did not know how to house a transgender woman. 

New York City paid a $5.9million settlement to her family in August 2020 to resolve a wrongful death lawsuit.

Inequality

Many of the detainees in Rikers are Black or Hispanic. Many are poor and can’t afford to post bail or even hire a lawyer.

The inequalities are something another former inmate David Campbell is keen to highlight.

Political activist David was sent to Rikers in 2018 after being arrested at an anti-fascist protest in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighbourhood.

“I had heard all about [Rikers],” he says. “It is crowded, dirty… I probably didn’t sleep more than a few hours a night for the first few weeks. 

“Most people serve their time in dormitories with 50-plus beds and there was always something happening. 

“There is always noise, there are smells, there is always stuff going on, doors banging, people yelling, people listening to music. It is really disorientating, it takes some getting used to. 

“When you first arrive all the sensory stuff sort of screams at you that you have been relegated to the margins of society. 

“You don’t have any agency, you can’t control things, you don’t have any comfort, you don’t know where you are socially in the pecking order. All this stuff is going through your head.”

‘Negligent’ deaths

And just as Michele experienced the death of Layleen during her time on Rikers, David saw one of his cellmates, Herminio Villanueva, die – and says negligence contributed to his death, too.

“It is important to understand that the guards demographically are pretty much identical to the prisoners,” he explains. 

“Ninety per cent black and brown, and mostly from working class communities in New York, so they are locals. 

“And a lot of the time the guards know the prisoners, either from the street, or family, or there are gang-ties. It is a little different to the dynamic that you tend to see in movies.

“But they are so apathetic. There was a guy who died while I was in there, an old guy with respiratory complications, and it was purely because of negligence on the DOC’s (Department of Correction’s) part. 

“He was clearly a little old man who had health issues. His family sued and won. 

“I lived with this guy for a few months until he died, and it was so clear to everyone he should be in a medical unit. But it was like talking to a brick wall. It wasn’t anything malicious, it was apathy.” 

Villanueva, 61, died of an asthma attack after contracting Covid-19. On the last day of his life, prison staff failed to respond to his medical emergency or provide life-saving interventions. 

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Inmates also call Rikers ‘Torture Island’[/caption]

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The jail has seen three deaths in the past three weeks[/caption]

Prisoners even tried to save him by attempting to carry him to the medical clinic.  

The New York State Commission of Corrections reviewed Villanueva’s death and issued a Final Report identifying a litany of failures, including inadequate monitoring and assessment of his health while he was at Rikers.

In 2023 The City of New York agreed to pay a $2.25million settlement to Villanueva’s family.

David, who has also written a book about his experiences, is in agreement with Michele and other campaigners that Rikers needs to close.

“Rikers is not fit for any of the purposes that it claims,” he says. “Unless you maybe argue that it is fit for keeping dangerous people away from the rest of us. 

“But the overwhelming majority of people at Rikers are pretty normal New Yorkers. They are not dangerous people, they don’t need to be kept away from the rest of us.”

In statements regarding the three recent deaths at Rikers Island, NYC Correction Commissioner Lynelle Maginley-Liddie extended their “deepest sympathies” to loved ones of the deceased and said the incidents will be thoroughly investigated.