Rikers Island, sits in the East River just across from LaGuardia Airport and its 10 jail campus is the main carceral complex for New York City. For decades, advocates and journalists have documented the dysfunction, violence, and deteriorating conditions at Rikers. 

 Now, new photos obtained through a public information request by Gothamist, reveal just how bad the conditions are, and the extreme neglect of some of the defendants held there.

The disturbing photos were shown to hundreds of prosecutors in an August presentation prepared by the Board of Correction, which oversees and regulates the Department of Correction. According to a person who attended the presentation, it appears that the District Attorney’s Office requested this look inside the jail to make prosecutors consider the conditions at Rikers before making decisions on charges or requests for bail.

And it’s important to remember, that a majority of the people detained at Rikers are waiting for trial, and haven’t been convicted of a crime. Defendants wait months, and sometimes years, for their court hearings.We speak with Matt Katz, the reporter for WNYC and Gothamist who requested and wrote about these photos.