Rikers Island has been notorious for violence and neglect for decades. But detainees, corrections officers and officials tell us the New York City jail complex has plunged into a new state of emergency.

While Corey Devon Arthur was quarantining, people in the unit got tablets equipped with telephone apps. “If we all had the option to use a phone app, the value of violence would plunge,” he writes.

Our running joke: ‘You may go crazy in here, but at least you won’t get corona.’

“My family is my family. I am used to our little quirks. But I am still getting used to what's going on outside.”

“Anyone not touched by the system was unlikely to understand: Going to jail actually marks a story’s beginning.”