Inside the Notorious, Terrifying Rikers Island

There’s only one way to get on Rikers Island and one way to get off—a narrow, forty-two-hundred-foot-long bridge spanning a part of the East River. At the ribbon cutting in 1966, Mayor John Lindsay called it the “Bridge of Hope.” Forty years later, in 2006, the rapper Flavor Flav dubbed it the “Bridge of Pain.” For some of the hundreds of thousands of souls who have made the passage over the past five decades, a trip to Rikers may be the first time they will sleep somewhere away from home. For others, it’s their only chance for a bed and a warm meal. For some, it might be the place where they find themselves fighting for their lives. And still others may never make it out. The memories of their first day on Rikers are ingrained in the minds of the people who worked, visited, and served time there. It’s an experience no one forgets.   [View in Browser]( [Esquire]( [SHOP]( EXCLUSIVE [SUBSCRIBE]( [Day One at Rikers Island]( [Day One at Rikers Island]( There’s only one way to get on Rikers Island and one way to get off—a narrow, forty-two-hundred-foot-long bridge spanning a part of the East River. At the ribbon cutting in 1966, Mayor John Lindsay called it the “Bridge of Hope.” Forty years later, in 2006, the rapper Flavor Flav dubbed it the “Bridge of Pain.” For some of the hundreds of thousands of souls who have made the passage over the past five decades, a trip to Rikers may be the first time they will sleep somewhere away from home. For others, it’s their only chance for a bed and a warm meal. For some, it might be the place where they find themselves fighting for their lives. And still others may never make it out. The memories of their first day on Rikers are ingrained in the minds of the people who worked, visited, and served time there. It’s an experience no one forgets. [Read More](   [The 8 Best Bluetooth Speakers to Bring Your Tunes Anywhere]( [The 8 Best Bluetooth Speakers to Bring Your Tunes Anywhere]( So chill vibes are never more than an arm’s reach away. [Read More]( [What's the Best Order to Watch Netflix's Randomized Kaleidoscope Episodes?]( [What's the Best Order to Watch Netflix's Randomized Kaleidoscope Episodes?]( Netflix's gimmicky heist series betrays its own intriguing idea. [Read More](     [With One Pearl Necklace, Vivienne Westwood Revolutionized Men's Fashion for Gen-Z]( [With One Pearl Necklace, Vivienne Westwood Revolutionized Men's Fashion for Gen-Z]( The name Vivienne Westwood is synonymous with iconoclasm, with rebellion, with the subversion of norms and the bold, brash intrusion of punk. Her legacy is well known—and well deserved. But upon hearing the news of her passing, my thoughts didn't immediately turn to SEX, the infamous London boutique she opened in 1971 with Malcom McLaren, the equally infamous manager of the Sex Pistols (who, yeah, she dressed). Nor did I find myself pondering her activist work, her later collections, or her vast and undeniable influence on fashion over the last half a century. Instead, I found myself thinking of a pearl necklace adorned with Westwood's Orb logo, and how that one necklace exploded the trappings of traditional masculinity for the young men of Gen-Z, leaving in their place a new and exciting approach to fashion that will (hopefully) guide them for years to come. [Read More](   [The 15 Warmest Socks For Winter Will Keep Your Feet Cozy All Season Long]( [The 15 Warmest Socks For Winter Will Keep Your Feet Cozy All Season Long]( These durable, insulating options will get you through the colder months with ease. [Read More]( [Nothing Good Happens When You Lose an Entire Lake]( [Nothing Good Happens When You Lose an Entire Lake]( Researchers are calling for unprecedented intervention to save the Great Salt Lake. [Read More](     [Madoff: Monster of Wall Street is True-Crime Cliché]( [Madoff: Monster of Wall Street is True-Crime Cliché]( When it comes to Netflix docuseries, it sometimes feels as if there are only two types of people in the world: scammers and true crime villains. But in the streaming giant’s latest release, Madoff: Monster of Wall Street (streaming now), director Joe Berlinger attempts to package Bernie Madoff as both—a scamillain, if you will. Madoff affixes the worst touchstones of the true crime industrial complex to the Bernie Madoff scam, which, in our mind-numbing era of IP content, has already been told by HBO (Wizard of Lies), ABC (Madoff), PBS (The Madoff Affair), a handful of documentaries (In God We Trust, Chasing Madoff), and too many podcast episodes to count. How much scam content do we have to watch until we realize the content itself might be a scam? [Read More](   [RUN 2023 Wall Calendar]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019