Summary: <p>Starting on January 7th, about <a href="https://pix11.com/news/local-news/hundreds-of-rikers-inmates-refuse-doc-food-in-protest-over-jail-conditions/">200 of those detained</a> at one jail facility at Rikers Island went on a partial hunger strike in hopes to draw attention to the poor conditions at the jail, and also a lack of basic services.</p> <p>You’ve probably heard of the infamous Rikers Island, which is the main jail complex for New York City. And because it’s a jail complex, most people there, about <a href="https://greaterjusticeny.vera.org/nycjail/">eighty percent</a> of the near 6,000 detainees, are waiting for trial and haven’t been convicted of a crime. And although the jail has long been characterized by dysfunction, brutal conditions, and violence, detainees and advocates say that Rikers is in its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/nyregion/rikers-island-correction-officers.html">worst crisis since the 1990’s</a>. Along with poor conditions at the jail complex, rising Covid, and issues with correctional officers not showing up for work, violence is also increasing in the jail with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/nyregion/rikers-jail-videos.html">reports of detainees hosting fights</a> for entertainment with little intervention from guards. Last year, 16 people died in custody at Rikers — and at least <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/nyregion/rikers-island-jail.html">five died</a> by suicide – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/nyregion/rikers-island-deaths.html">making 2021 the deadliest year since 2013</a>.</p> <p>The Takeaway spoke with <a href="https://twitter.com/Jan_Ransom">Jan Ransom</a>, a Metro investigative reporter with the New York Times, who has been following what’s happening at Rikers.</p>
