Escaping Rikers Island in the time of Covid19

On April 4, 2020 Jose Diaz a masters student in NYU’s social and cultural analysis program and student services coordinator for the NYU prison education program was released from Rikers Island after being put there on a technicality. It was through an epic effort lead by the director of NYU’s prison education program Dr. Kaitlin Noss worked to bring together a number of organizations who joined in the effort to get Jose Diaz released. 

Jose was incarcerated at Rikers on the same day NYC’s Mayor De Blasio publicly stated there would be no more people sent to Rikers. Rikers Island has long been under scrutiny and calls from the public for its shuttering. Rikers is also infamous for being a warehouse for black and brown folk who are there in one of the US’s most notorious prisons because they are unable to pay their bond.

Join myself, Drs. Kaitlin Noss and Zoe Hammer, along with Jose Diaz for a far ranging conversation about the conditions inside Rikers Island, the far reaching implications of quarantine for Black and Brown communities and what Latino Studies brings the table in terms of understanding and making sense of the era of Covid19.

 

For another excellent discussion from Jose Diaz check out this podcast by the Beyond-Prisons.com crew.

https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/released-from-rikers-island-nyu-student-speaks-out-about-covid-19