Rikers Island inmates receive job training
Rows on rows of razor barbed wire around the GMDC building on Rikers Island say "jail" bigger than any sign. Fox 5 got an exclusive look inside the jail that is the temporary home to about 400 men, ages 18 to 21. They've all been arrested but the vast majority of them have not yet had their day in court. For some detainees, time served on Rikers is their initiation into the prison pipeline. For a growing number of others, it is a wakeup call before it is too late. Inside this high-security facility over the last two years, the Department of Correction has been arming inmates with a variety of career skills so they won't succumb to the negative influence of the streets once they get out. So far, about 1,500 former inmates left Rikers with job training.