Talk:Rikers Island

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flag of New York City
NYC Portal

This article is part of WikiProject New York City, an effort to create, expand, and improve New York City-related articles to Wikipedia feature-quality standard.

Bulletin: The next New York City meetup is Sunday June 1st.
Start This article has been rated as start-Class on the quality scale.
Mid This article has been rated as mid-importance on the importance scale.

Contents

[edit] Escapes, History

Can anyone add any interesting about the history of the islandy?

[edit] Subway

Why is Subway service included in this article? The stations listed don't even seem to be relatively close to the prison at all. The article makes it sound like the stations are located on the island. J.reed 02:42, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Borough Location

According to some Internet website including the NYDOC website the addresses for the various complexes at Rikers Island is Elmhust, New York which is in the Borough of Queens so I have to disagree that Rikers Island is part of Bronx County when it is clearly part of Queens County. 151.198.130.177 04:03, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

  • Mailing address is a rather poor means to determine borough; the ZIP Code and post office assignments are made for the convenience of the United States Postal Service, and have no obligation to hew to or respect municipal boundaries. The USPS has decided, quite logically, that it's easier to deliver mail to Rikers Island via Queens. See Tax Block & Tax Lot Base Map Files on CD-ROM at the New York City web site addresses the fact that Rikers Island is part of the Bronx, despite the fact that it is included as part of Queens Community Board 1, and also addresses the oft-contentious "Marble Hill, Manhattan is part of the Bronx" issue (another case where geography, ZIP Codes and Community Board representation can make it seem to belong elsewhere). Alansohn 04:13, 27 July 2007 (UTC)
    • Riker's Island is in The Bronx. The bridge crosses the Queens-Bronx line into Steinway, which is why you might think it's in Queens. I've made the same mistake of thinking it was in Queens before myself, so you're not alone in making that mistake. ----DanTD (talk) 23:21, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Largest what?

The phrase "world's largest penal colony" may need to be parsed a bit. Rikers is definitely not the biggest jail -- That is the combination of LA County Central Jail/Twin Towers Corrections that generally runs a population of slightly over 20,000, on a much smaller piece of land tucked between freeways and rail lines. Rikers also does not seem to fit the definition set out in the article Penal colony: "a settlement used to detain prisoners and generally use them for penal labor in an economically underdeveloped part of the state's (usually colonial) territories, and on a far larger scale than a prison farm." One issue is that Rikers seems to exist primarily for incarceration, as opposed to being a prison farm such as Angola, Louisiana.ClaudeMuncey (talk) 19:24, 6 May 2008 (UTC)a

[edit] Wikiproject Prisons

If anyone is interested, I have proposed a new Wikiproject concerning prisons here.--Cdogsimmons (talk) 22:43, 13 June 2008 (UTC)