John Lennon

Vidal Guzman was 16 years old, When he was in Rikers Island jail for the First Time . As he crossed The Bridge to The Island , a prison guard told him, "get ready for the Gladiator school".

Vidal In The First week, he says, he saw two young people hang.

"and shaped That to my mind," he says. "You say that Rikers is everywhere in some form. Rikers does not leave You . "

housed high-profile inmates, including Tupac Shakur , Sid Vicious , and Mark David Chapman The Man who killed John Lennon .

Council speaker Corey Johnson described the prison as "a symbol of brutality and inhumanity".

"As a city we must do everything we can, from the failed policy of mass incarceration," he told Council members.

The detention facility due to the proximity of 2026 and will be replaced by four new prisons under a $8. 7 billion (£6. 7bn) proposal by New York mayor Bill de Blasio.

Johnny Perez is also Riker's first came When he was 16 - arrested for weapons possession. In and out of prison until he was 21, Johnny was, finally, a 13-year sentence for robbery. He was imprisoned in nine different prisons throughout New York state.

it Was Riker's worst? He laughs. "Yes. "

"In Rikers, the officers give You a knife. They will sell You a razor," he explains. "I got my drugs from the correction officers who have turned around and said to me that they are going to me in solitary, if My Mother doesn't, they meet in a Parking lot, to You to pay. "

And solitary, he says, is a "second-by-second assault on the soul".

"There's only one person You come in contact with and talk to, and this person is also responsible for locking You in and out of your cage," he says. "If this person does not even look You in The Eye or speak to them, it kind of chips in them. "

Glenn Martin for the First Time in Rikers, as a 16-year-old, When he was charged with shoplifting. In The Last year, Rikers his recent prisoners moved out after a change, the end of the detention of under 18-year-olds in adult prisons.

"It is old, run down, rusty," he says. "It was scary. It was a place where I had to learn quickly. If You use people, You can't live there. "

he says that He was stabbed four times during his time in Rikers.

"It is a place where You have a choice: predator or prey. "

Like 90% of the prisoners in Rikers, Vidal , Glenn and Johnny are black or Hispanic. All three are now anti-prison activists.

One of Vidal 's Early Childhood memories is the sound of his mother's stomach grumbling, she gave him their last remaining food.

the Talk of his fellow inmates, he says: "We all had the same story: a Father Figure who was imprisoned or was in your life. "

When he was five, Vidal homeless for a year. Not much later, he was on The Streets with gangs. At the age of 12, he was dealing drugs.

Johnny's story is similar. He came from New York to Cuba 10 months old.

"When I was 16 years old, I was not trying to decide if I would go to band camp, or karate-school - I was not even thinking about college," he says. "I help My Mother , who is alone, to help feed my brothers. "

He says that in his community, which has very little trust in The Police , the people carry knives or firearms as a means of protection. Detention is inevitable, he says.

He says, "there is a deeper understanding of needs to come, as people to break The Law ".

"are You actually respond in your life and most of the time it is a Public Health Problem," he argues, citing poverty, Mental Health and food security as important factors.

"If You steal a coat to stay warm, You go to jail for that. "

Vidal , if he was not released from Rikers, and that he "knew How To get back home".

"I was not talking to anyone, Waking Up in the early hours of The Morning very defensive, I thought I would be in a fight," he says.

"If You treat people like an animal, what do You think, You go so? An Animal. "

With a criminal record, he found it impossible to get a job. Within a few years he was back in prison.

Glenn says that everything is on detention "sends The Message that they have no value. If people are treated like they have no value, You begin to have faith in other people has no value either. "

Glenn said that for The Last 20 years, the closing of Rikers is everything, what he was thinking.

He says his joy over Rikers' closure to "cushion" The Devil is in The Detail .

"It's one thing to lock just as important, however, is what happens next. "

His life after the arrest was not smooth sailing.

In the year 2014, he has the representation of the interests of JustLeadershipUSA, which he left last year amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he denies.

He believes that the detention abolished, should, with the argument that it doesn't work.

"There is no version of imprisonment is humane and fair," he says.

Johnny's reaction to The Announcement is equally reticent - he says he is not popping the champagne.

"We are still in a position where people are locked up in New York . People with Mental Health concerns, people who have committed non-violent crimes, they impose really a threat to society?"

But Johnny also believes that the lifting of the detention can not happen overnight and the closure of Rikers marked Progress - a position that is not take as a black man, says he, easily.

"But the path of the 12 city jails four - even if we have to these four - I have almost a responsibility to support the.

"From the clean is definitely a step in The Right direction. "

Source of news: bbc.com