THESE WALLS

A study of how jails perpetuate injustice and a host of possible solutions.

In this brief but insightful debut book, investigative journalist Fedderly explores the history of the Rikers Island jails and reflects on what it tells us about the cruelty and senselessness of the criminal justice system in the U.S. The author’s commentary on the conditions at the jails is informed by the input of a broad range of people who have encountered the institution in different roles, from prisoners to police officers, judges, psychologists, and the families of the incarcerated. A rough consensus can be discerned among all parties: The decision to close Rikers and replace it with a new jail system does not address deep-seated problems, rooted in systemic inequity, racism, and a broader social indifference to the fate of those accused of criminal behavior. In making her case, Fedderly vividly catalogs some of the worst problems at Rikers: overcrowding, unsanitary environments, routine violence, rampant and unaddressed mental health problems, and extraordinarily long wait times before court dates. (For further eye-popping details on the inhumane conditions at Rikers, see Graham Rayman and Reuven Blau’s Rikers.) The author describes several cases in wrenching detail, such as that of Kalief Browder, a teenager who committed suicide after being held at Rikers for three years, more than half of which was spent in solitary confinement. Also striking is Fedderly’s examination of the racist ideology informing the treatment of the incarcerated. “Both reformists and abolitionists agree that incarceration picked up where slavery left off,” she writes, “fortifying and enabling racism and discrimination in a new way, using the architecture of prisons and jails to conceal it.” The author concludes convincingly that versions of restorative justice, the expansion of community policing, and broader efforts to reduce poverty and promote social equity are essential to making the penal system more just and humane.

A bracing look at how the nation’s jails—and the nation itself—ought to be reformed.