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“ERVIN "EASY" HUNT: The worst part about going to jail is what we call bullpen therapy, where you go from a bullpen to another bull. pen, waiting area to waiting area to waiting area, from the precinc to the courts/central booking. Central booking, or just moving to court. If you don't get released from court, you go back down-stairs, and then the bus comes in.
I know a few people who copped out [pleaded guilty] because of bullpen therapy. And then, if your case was something that you decided you wanted to fight, you know, the bullpen therapy would happen every day. If you were on Rikers, you had to get up at the crack of dawn to go downstairs, eat, to wait in the bullpen for the bus to come to take you to the court, put you in a bullpen, put you in a bullpen, and put you in a bullpen, so it wasn't something I liked doing. The bullpen therapy would work on you.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
I know a few people who copped out [pleaded guilty] because of bullpen therapy. And then, if your case was something that you decided you wanted to fight, you know, the bullpen therapy would happen every day. If you were on Rikers, you had to get up at the crack of dawn to go downstairs, eat, to wait in the bullpen for the bus to come to take you to the court, put you in a bullpen, put you in a bullpen, and put you in a bullpen, so it wasn't something I liked doing. The bullpen therapy would work on you.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
“I was a rookie in 1989. There was an inmate when I was in GRVC [George R. Vierno Center] that got cut. They had sliced his throat. He was on the floor in the vestibule area. The probe team went inside the unit, and the captain told me to stay out and talk to him. He was lying on the floor in a puddle of blood. There was blood all around my boots. There was so much blood. He was asking, "Is it really bad? Am I going to die?" And I was saying, "It's not as bad as you think it is. You're going to be okay." But it was his throat and it was wide open on the side of his neck. I was trying to be strong for him. I had never seen a cut like that in my life. All because of (a fight over] the telephone. I was praying with him. I retired in 2015, but I'll never forget what he looked like. You never forget the traumatizing moments.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
― Rikers: An Oral History
“this old G told me right before I left... I'll remember it until the day I die. I could cry. He said, "Youngster, you go home crossing that bridge. Right?" He said, "IF you're in the back of that bus, there's one thing you don't do on your first time going home. Do not look back out the window, the back of the bus window, to the bridge. Don't do that." I said, "Okay, I got you." I got on the bus, and I fucking did it. There must have been some curse. I've been coming back and forth for the last thirty-something years. That's some strange shit. The temptation was too much. I looked back. I never saw that old dude again. That's some Twilight Zone shit.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
― Rikers: An Oral History
“Trust me, whatever the jail officers couldn't handle, an alarm went off, and we went over there gladiator-style, whatever needed to be done. We're going to get this back in order. Whether it was a borough facility, whether it was a court facility, no matter what. So we had so much shit to handle and we handled it.
Escapes, every fucking thing. But yet, you know, sometimes within our own ranks, you know, the fucking so-called upper echelon, they treated us fucked up equipment-wise and we were mostly minorities, but we were the fucking monsters out of the whole department. Some of the inmates even know us. They've grown up with us, our family members. So that's how we could defuse shit. But the upper echelon didn't want that. Fuck that.
Kick their ass. Fuck that. Send the gas in. Fuck that. Send the dogs in. But then when IG [inspector general] comes to us and our job's on the line, y'all don't know nothing. You don't know nothin', meaning, I never told you guys to go in and do that.
And it was usually from above, chiefs that gave these orders to the wardens and then tour wardens gave it to our commanding officer. This is just what they're saying at the top. Fuck the top. I was a defiant motherfucker. I was not insubordinate. Never. But come on. I got common sense. I grew up in the streets of New York. You understand? So yeah. We had that among ourselves. Just say, listen, we in this shit together. We like a family. Fuck what they say. We're going to do what we're going to do. But there's somebody standing way over there while we're in here with the fucking inmates, they're looking through fucking lots of Bubbles and shit, while we were in there, toe to toe with these guys.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
Escapes, every fucking thing. But yet, you know, sometimes within our own ranks, you know, the fucking so-called upper echelon, they treated us fucked up equipment-wise and we were mostly minorities, but we were the fucking monsters out of the whole department. Some of the inmates even know us. They've grown up with us, our family members. So that's how we could defuse shit. But the upper echelon didn't want that. Fuck that.
Kick their ass. Fuck that. Send the gas in. Fuck that. Send the dogs in. But then when IG [inspector general] comes to us and our job's on the line, y'all don't know nothing. You don't know nothin', meaning, I never told you guys to go in and do that.
And it was usually from above, chiefs that gave these orders to the wardens and then tour wardens gave it to our commanding officer. This is just what they're saying at the top. Fuck the top. I was a defiant motherfucker. I was not insubordinate. Never. But come on. I got common sense. I grew up in the streets of New York. You understand? So yeah. We had that among ourselves. Just say, listen, we in this shit together. We like a family. Fuck what they say. We're going to do what we're going to do. But there's somebody standing way over there while we're in here with the fucking inmates, they're looking through fucking lots of Bubbles and shit, while we were in there, toe to toe with these guys.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
“They needed the power. So the generator was running right under the guy's window. [It was as if they were saying,] "He's crazier than hell. He won't mind." And here's this generator running so loud, you couldn't hear yourself. That level of sound is almost like the ass end of a jet, right? And it was hot. You throw somebody in there with mental illness, with that constant din, hot but they can't get out of that heat, no matter what they do... that is indifference to me.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
― Rikers: An Oral History
“Bullpen therapy is, think of it this way, you torture people until they say exactly what you want them to say. Okay, so the experience of going to Rikers is a nightmare, right? A nightmare in real time and you don't have the power to wake up and make that nightmare go away. And your very survival day in and day out is figuring out how to navigate that nightmare, from not being harmed by other residents and not being harmed by the staff.
And so you are brought to court every six to eight weeks. And then your case gets adjourned for another six to eight weeks, and another six to eight weeks, and another six to eight weeks. Eventually, you figure it out that if you're being offered, say, a plea to time served, or even a plea if it's going to require state prison time. That means you'll get off Rikers Island and go upstate, where you kind of roll the dice to see if you get a better setting instead of a very loose area.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
And so you are brought to court every six to eight weeks. And then your case gets adjourned for another six to eight weeks, and another six to eight weeks, and another six to eight weeks. Eventually, you figure it out that if you're being offered, say, a plea to time served, or even a plea if it's going to require state prison time. That means you'll get off Rikers Island and go upstate, where you kind of roll the dice to see if you get a better setting instead of a very loose area.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
“What I initiated [in a jail he commanded] was if you test positive for drugs, then you are confined to a booth visit. And it was pretty good because most of the drugs were coming in through the visit. They would kiss, swallow a balloon, go back to the housing area, it would come out in their excrement. They would open it up and have the drugs or whatever. So it was working very well. And all the inmates that were high on drugs were in a booth visit, no more contact visits. It became very difficult to get drugs in there.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
― Rikers: An Oral History
“The offense was nothing, like a criminal trespass, let's say. But the prosecutor said, "He got five days last time. And so he has to get ten days this time, or ten last time and fifteen this time." It was like some sort of formulaic approach to prosecution.
It was just ludicrous. And he said to me, "Well, what's the difference to you, between ten and fifteen days?" I said, "Why don't you spend an extra five days on Rikers Island and see if you come up with that same question?”
― Rikers: An Oral History
It was just ludicrous. And he said to me, "Well, what's the difference to you, between ten and fifteen days?" I said, "Why don't you spend an extra five days on Rikers Island and see if you come up with that same question?”
― Rikers: An Oral History
“The funniest thing I saw was a dude had a beef with the guy in the cell next to him. They were arguing all night. One of them somehow popped open his cell door. Then he took a shit in a cup. Then he had popped the other guy's cell and he just started throwing shit at him. And then they started fighting.
So then the dude runs out the cell and the other dude's still throwing shit while he's running away from him. The guard didn't really notice, because they were all in the Bubble, just conversing, laugh-ing, and joking around until he seen two dudes running in the hallway throwing shit everywhere.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
So then the dude runs out the cell and the other dude's still throwing shit while he's running away from him. The guard didn't really notice, because they were all in the Bubble, just conversing, laugh-ing, and joking around until he seen two dudes running in the hallway throwing shit everywhere.”
― Rikers: An Oral History
