Description
Book SynopsisShining a light on the deadly health consequences of incarceration. Finalist in the PROSE Award for Best Book in Anthropology, Criminology, and Sociology by the Association of American PublishersKalief 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 jailtwo in solitary confinementwhile 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. F
Trade ReviewReporters have virtually no access to the jails on Rikers Island, but, for many years, Venters had a rare vantage point from which to observe its inner workings . . . He left the city's jail-health service in 2017, and now he has written a crucially important book,
Life and Death in Rikers Island, in which he examines one of the most overlooked aspects of mass incarceration: the health risks of being locked up . . . Venters reveals the true human cost of these colossal management failures.
—Jennifer Gonnerman,
The New YorkerVenters is a role model for using data as a tool for both epidemiology and human rights. In his book, he describes rigorous case reviews and epidemiological studies that demonstrate causes of harm . . . Venters's book impressively demonstrates that too little has been done at Rikers to prevent suffering, violence, and death.
—Hans Wolff MD, MPH, and Robert Greifinger MD,
American Journal of Public HealthHomer Venter's prescient
Life and Death in Rikers Island explains why improving carceral health is important and deserving of more attention. In the COVID-19 era, this argument gains even greater significance . . . The book is also a searing exposé that powerfully illustrates the health risks of incarceration in New York City, as well as those risks that lead to incarceration in the first place . . . This book will be of interest to readers who follow health, medicine, and the carceral system, as well as activists and policy makers working to improve conditions for incarcerated people.
—Ezelle Sanford III,
The Gotham Center for New York City HistoryTable of ContentsForeword, by Preet Bharara
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Dying in Jail: Carlos Mercado and Angel Ramirez
Chapter 2. Injury and Violence
Chapter 3. Solitary Confinement
Chapter 4. Serious Mental Illness in Jail
Chapter 5. Human Rights and Correctional Health
Chapter 6. Race: Kalief Browder
Chapter 7. Sexual Assault in Rikers: Maria and Brianna
Chapter 8. Correctional Health
Chapter 9. Transparency and Governance
Conclusion. What to Do with Rikers
Appendix
Notes
Index
