NEW YORK — By the time New York City lawmakers voted to close the notorious Rikers Island jail last fall, it had devolved for years into such a state of violence and disrepair that officials determined it could not be turned around. While presidential hopeful and former Mayor Mike Bloomberg has

John Legend’s reenactment of the “Spider-Man” smooch during Sunday’s “Lip Sync Battle” made it clear the singer knows how to have a good time, but when it comes to matters of mass incarceration, he ain’t fooling around.  On Monday, he sat down with #CLOSErikers campaign founder Glenn Martin and

The final episode of “Time: The Kalief Browder Story,” which followed the unjustified three-year incarceration of a teenager at the infamously troubled Rikers Island, aired last Wednesday. The series highlighted everything from the corrupt and abusive prison culture at Rikers to the flawed and

Mayor De Blasio announced a 10 year plan to close the notoriously violent New York prison facility Rikers Island on Friday afternoon. The decision comes after a year of aggressive crusading to shut down the prison from the #CLOSErikers campaign, which was founded by activist and former Rikers

For former inmate and current criminal justice reform advocate Glenn Martin, his journey over the bridge connecting New York City to the infamously violent Rikers Island was the longest ride of his life.  “There’s something about approaching Rikers and that penal colony that sucks the oxygen out of