TO SAY THAT RIKERS ISLAND is an intense place is a gross understatement. Home to seven separate jail facilities, Rikers could be thought of as part hell realm and part emergency mental health clinic. Holding thousands of New York City’s most traumatized, under-resourced, and forgotten residents, it serves as a grotesque concrete and metal witness to an unfathomable amount of human pain and suffering.
I first stepped foot on Rikers in the summer of 2013 as a volunteer. After a few years, I became the first chaplain dedicated to the spiritual needs of Rikers Island staff. My background as a Buddhist teacher and trained Tibetan lama made my appointment even more unique. Later, I became executive director of the Chaplaincy and Staff Wellness division of the New York City Department of Correction, and my congregation became the city’s ten thousand correction officers. I began to understand the impact of working in correctional facilities, and the complex intersectionality that makes places like Rikers