“Compared to what we saw last visit, it’s even increased a little bit better. But there are still some things that are problematic, like the violence that you see here. Like the deaths." — Public Advocate Jumaane Williams New York City officials toured the jail at Rikers Island on Wednesday to offer a status update. PIX11’s Jay Dow reports on some of the specific problems the pair identified and reactions from family members of those incarcerated. Read more at: https://pix11.com/news/local-news/

Rikers Island is one of the world’s most notorious jails. Incarcerated workers built it on a foundation of garbage, and New York City packs it with about 6,000 people, most of whom are awaiting trial. The illustrator Medar de la Cruz worked there as a library assistant for the Brooklyn Public Library. “Phones and cameras aren’t allowed on Rikers,” he writes, but “sometimes I saw things that I felt compelled to draw from memory later.” See his full comic here: http://nyer.cm/QIjmpxr | The New Yor