Rikers Island has seen a century of decay, chaos and death.
Both those who work there and are held there are subject daily to violence and danger, according to the federal monitor who has been tracking conditions in the jail for the better part of a decade. The dysfunction within the jails and the agency that runs them is so knotty that addressing one issue often means first fixing a number of others.
Despite a steady stream of new mayors and new commissioners, no one has been able to meaningfully make Rikers Island safe…