New York state closed down the last floating United States prison ship this week, with the ship’s 500 occupants temporarily transferred to Rikers Island, as part of a broader effort to replace the city’s correctional system with smaller jails.
The controversial 800-bed prison barge, named the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, arrived in New York more than three decades ago as a way to ease the overcrowding at Rikers Island. But through the past 30 years, the five-story ship has been criticized and mired in scandal.
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Latima Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, did not state what the city plans to do with the boat going forward, but it will remain with the Department of Corrections for now.
“The reason for this move is to centralize operations on the island to more efficiently manage people in custody and deploy staff and resources,” Johnson told the Associated Press.
Conditions on the boat have been harshly criticized by detainees and other advocates for years, with some labeling the prison as a “modern-day slave ship.” The most well-known incident on the ship was the death of 24-year-old Stephan Khadu, who died from a treatable infection of meningitis in 2021. The mother of Khadu claimed her son had described the ship as mold and rodent-infested and had stifling heat. Khadu’s cause of death was a form of meningitis that is typically transferred from rodents.
Stephan Khadu’s mom, Lezandre Khadu, blamed the boat’s “disgusting conditions” for the death of her son. And the state’s attorney general investigated Stephan Khadu’s death but found no evidence of improper care.
“How can they expect me to believe they care about these people when they treat them like cargo?” Lezandre Khadu said. “No human should have to live in this place.”
Lezandre Khadu said that she will celebrate the ship’s closure in a trip to see the boat after the closure is complete.
“I’m walking over that bridge with a bucket of mimosas, and I’m going to have the biggest party ever,” she said. “I want to see for myself that there will never be another soul on that boat.”
The planned closure is not the first time that the department attempted to shut down its operation. The ship was temporarily closed down in the mid-1990s after the Rikers housing crisis had died down. It reopened under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani as a juvenile justice center; however, it has since transitioned back to a regular jail.
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Using boats as a form of prison in the U.S. dates back to the Revolutionary War when thousands of rebels were housed on British ships in the New York harbor. It has since been used more sparingly, including during the California gold rush in the 19th century.
The occupants will now be housed on Rikers Island for the time being, but Rikers Island itself will be closed by 2027.
