Lockdown on Rikers: Shocking Stories of Abuse and Injustice at New York’s Notorious Jail

Buser’s intimate portrayal of life working at the Rikers Island jail complex is eye-opening. Buser, a social worker who began her career as an intern in the complex’s women’s ward, was drawn to helping the neediest inmates. She ended up learning far more than she ever expected about the jail system, such as how poverty and drug addiction keep people imprisoned and how lengthy waits for sentencing lead even those who maintain their innocence to make plea deals. She focuses on several individual inmates: Daphne, who found jail a respite from brutality at home; Tiffany, a drug addict held captive by dependency; and Daisy, a genuine sociopath. Buser also witnessed the plight of mentally ill inmates, observed and heard of dehumanization and brutality being meted out by corrections officers, and gauged the psychological devastation caused by solitary confinement. Ultimately, she left because she realized she was losing herself, but continued, as she writes here, to be an advocate for prisoners. Buser’s writing style is direct and knowledgeable, and readers will be drawn into her story right away. Though her work lacks the sensationalist elements many have come to expect from prison exposés, it’s nonetheless both enlightening and troubling. (Sept.)