On Life and Death in Rikers with Dr. Homer Venters

This is a past event

“The closing of Rikers is absolutely necessary. It’s not sufficient to transform the criminal justice system in New York City to become more humane, but it’s necessary.” – Dr. Homer Venters

Description

Following the Harvard Law Review Symposium on Prison Abolition and the first annual Harvard Law School Critical Race Theory Conference, participants in this event discussed:

  • the coming closure of Rikers Island Jail;
  • the type of transparency and accountability needed to address deaths, injuries, and sexual assault in jail;
  • the importance of a human rights framework in providing health care to incarcerated individuals; and
  • the unaddressed racial disparities in solitary confinement and other health risks of jail.

Dr. Homer Venters, former head of Correctional Health Services for New York City Health + Hospitals, led the discussion. As the former head of health care for 9,000 people incarcerated in Rikers Island, he sought to end the inhumane health conditions and practices that led to disease and death. In his recent book, Life and Death in Rikers Island, Dr. Venters documented the many institutional barriers that limit access to adequate health care inside the jail as well as punitive practices like solitary confinement that harm health. Discussion addressed these systemic issues, as well as strategies to create transparency and accountability for deaths, injuries, and sexual assault in jail through organizing, policy advocacy, and litigation in New York and around the nation.

This event was free and open to the public.

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Cosponsored by the Harvard Health Law Society; the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics; the Center for Health Law & Policy Innovation; the Harvard Prison Legal Assistance Project; and the Harvard Defenders at Harvard Law School.