Fordham A2J Initiative Gets Students Inside Infamous Rikers Island

Fordham University’s A2J Initiative engages law students in a variety of programs to expose them to the criminal justice system and help ensure greater access to justice. One of the initiative’s most recent programs was a Feb. 20 panel discussion moderated by 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley about the impending closure of Rikers.

The program featured several clips from a recent documentary, Rikers: An American Jail, by Bill Moyers in which detainees describe the dangers, the humiliation and fears of being incarcerated there.

Stanley Richards, senior vice president of the Fortune Society, was once incarcerated at Rikers and knows the culture of violence well. “The way you survive is through violence, and you learn that from day one,” he said during the panel discussion.