Aug 17, 2026
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Add us on GoogleRiker’s Island has a reputation as one of the most notorious prisons in the United States, having been described as “an ongoing human rights crisis“ and “hell, plain and simple.” Now a group of former inmates is suing the correctional facility, saying it failed to provide them with outdoor recreation for weeks at a time.
That was one of two class action lawsuits filed in early August against Rikers. Pre-trial detainees, it alleged, “went weeks without feeling the sun touch their face.” That would run against rules at the jail that require inmates to spend at least one hour outside per day.
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One of the plaintiffs, Peter Perna, alleged he was deprived of outdoor recreation time for 33 days in the timespan running from June 11 to July 20, 2025.
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“They’re depriving you of basically what you do to cope with stress or cope with trauma,” he told WNBC in New York City. “I remember some days where I was just like very deep in depression, crying, kind of going through mood swings.”
A high cost prison
Riker’s Island is an extraordinarily expensive prison to operate. It’s a facility that spans more than 400 acres and is situated in the East River in the Bronx. The city’s fiscal 2027 preliminary budget has earmarked $3 billion for jail operations, bringing per-person costs to nearly half a million dollars.
Despite that, there are multiple deaths reported at the facility each year, and the jail’s population continues to swell, in part because of longer court processing times.
There were 5,954 uniformed officers working at NYC jails at the end of 2024, watching just over 6,200 inmates, according to the city’s Office of the Comptroller. The last time it was so close to a 1:1 ratio was 2016. (Guards have outnumbered inmates since then.)
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A known issue?
The NYC Board of Correction, an oversight body that set minimum standards for the city’s jails, has raised the issue of inmates not having enough outdoor time in the past. In 2024, the former executive director chastised jail administrators for violating the one-hour-per-day outdoor rule.
“There are people who have not had outdoor recreation in over one year,” she told them, according to WNBC.
Even the comptroller has acknowledged the prison system’s troubles, writing “the inhumane and violent conditions in New York City jails have long been a moral stain on the city.”
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed to close Riker’s Island, taking the first step towards that in June with the closure of the North Infirmary Command, a vacant jail that first opened in 1932.
“For decades, Rikers Island has represented one of the deepest failures of our City government,” said Mamdani in a statement. “It has failed people in custody, correction officers and every New Yorker who believes our justice system should live up to its name … We are replacing a system built around neglect with one centered on rehabilitation and accountability because public safety and human dignity are not competing values.”
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Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
