CBH Talk: David Campbell + Jarrod Shanahan discuss ‘City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island’

David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan both served sentences at Rikers. In their book City Time they offer an unvarnished account of the banality and brutality of incarceration at New York City’s notorious jail.

Campbell and Shanahan reconstruct the daily realities of hygiene, nourishment, recreation, and work. They paint a grim and urgent picture of structural racism, class violence, and the disastrous lack of mental health and substance abuse resources for poor New Yorkers who are shuttled in and out of Rikers as “frequent flyers.”

As the infamous jail moves towards closing, join them for this view from the inside. The discussion is moderated by Donald Washington, Jr., a member of Brooklyn Public Library’s Welcome Home team providing support for formerly incarcerated people.