Rikers Island - just six miles from the Empire State Building - is one of the largest, most complex and expensive penal institutions in the world, yet most New Yorkers couldn't find it on a map. Like many prisons, Rikers performs an expert magic trick: it disappears people, keeping in those who want to get out and keeping out those who want to get in.
For the first time, 'Convicted At Birth' takes readers over the Rikers Island bridge and into this most notorious of prisons. From the inmates to the guards to the violence to the drugs, Jennifer Wynn lays bare the inner workings of the jail, what is wrong with it, and what can be done to put it right.
With insight and in remarkable detail, Wynn describes the lives of both the prisoners and those who earn their living "on the Rock". She follows the moving stories of the inmates as they return to their communities, and their attempts to "go straight" and find respect in a city that fears them. She also explains why 75 per cent return to Rikers within a year of being released.
