Family Bonds
In the winter of 2018-2019, I developed a documentary photo and text project that explored the impact of incarceration on family relationships as part of my thesis work at Columbia Journalism School. At the time, advocates in New York City and across the country were rallying around pretrial detention and cash bail reform. I rode the bus to Rikers Island, the notorious New York City jail where people sometimes wait years for their day in court, and met formerly incarcerated people and families on their way to visit their loved ones. I photographed them on the bus, in their homes and on their way to court and followed protests outside of city jails and inside the New York State Capitol. My project consisted of 31 images and a 3,100-word narrative. Below are the images I made during that time.
Natonia Dutes, 40, at her home in East Harlem, New York, N.Y. on December 27, 2018.
Natonia Dutes messages her brother Wesley through the Upay app from her apartment in East Harlem, New York, N.Y. on December 27, 2018. Wesley, 39, is serving a life sentence in a Florida penitentiary. Natonia’s fiancée is also incarcerated at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in Queens, N.Y., where he has been awaiting trial since 2017.
Natonia Dutes speaks on the phone at home in East Harlem, New York, N.Y. on December 27, 2018.
Malachi Davidson speaks to criminal justice and education reform advocates at the New York State Capitol as part of the #FREEnewyork Advocacy Day in Albany, N.Y. on January 14, 2019. Activists and families impacted by mass incarceration travelled from the five boroughs and across New York State to demand an overhaul of the bail and pretrial detention system. The event was organized by Just Leadership USA and the Alliance for Quality Education.
Two men bail their cousin out at David Jakab Bail Bonds on 83 Baxter Street in New York, N.Y. on February 1, 2019. There are several bail bonds offices in this area, located across from the Manhattan Criminal Court and the Manhattan Detention Complex. The bail industry, which is dominated by 10 multinational insurance corporations, is estimated to be worth $2 billion.
Kyrie De Roche, 22, rides the Q100 bus back home from Rikers Island Correctional Facility in Queens, N.Y. on December 23, 2018, after returning to the jail to retrieve his belongings. De Roche spent three months at Rikers, where he was held on $25,000 bail. A judge later reduced his bail to $19,000 and Kyrie was bailed out by his family shortly before Christmas.
Kyrie De Roche smokes a cigarette outside of the Manhattan Criminal Court before his post-release court appearance on January 9, 2019. De Roche was released on $19,000 bail from Rikers Island Correctional Facility on December 18, 2018 after serving three months at the jail. His post-release requirements include a 10:00pm daily curfew and frequent check-ins with his case worker and bail bondsman, which will determine his future prospects.
The exterior of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. on February 3, 2019, after electricity was partially restored in some jail cells. People locked up inside had been banging on windows and waving flashlights to communicate with families and friends who were demonstrating outside of the jail for several days after learning that the jail had been without hot water and heat for at least two weeks.
Families, friends, activists, and elected officials join in prayer during a demonstration outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. on February 3, 2019. The federal jail came under national scrutiny when reports surfaced that the people inside had been without hot water and heat during frigid winter temperatures.
Protestors demonstrating outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. on February 3, 2019.
Families holding up hand-painted signs to communicate with their loved ones outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, N.Y. on February 3, 2019.
Cynthia Thomas sits in her bedroom in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, N.Y. on February 8, 2019. Her son, Charles "Poppy" Thomas has been incarcerated, awaiting trial, at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, since January 2016. Cynthia has been denied visits with her son since the summer of 2018. She has additional relatives incarcerated at MDC.
A Department of Corrections bus to Riker's Island Correctional Facility leaves its pick-up location at 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, N.Y. on March 6, 2019. The D.O.C. began providing this free bus service in April 2018 as an alternative to the MTA's Q100 bus to Rikers Island, which departs from Queens and, until the D.O.C. bus, was the only public transit to the jail. There is another D.O.C. Rikers bus pick-up location in downtown Brooklyn. There are 8 daily departure times from Harlem on Wednesdays through Sundays, which are the visitation days for friends and family of incarcerated loved ones. It takes the D.O.C. bus approximately 45 minutes to get to Rikers Island from Harlem.
A young woman boards the Department of Corrections bus to Rikers Island Correctional Facility at its pick-up location on Jay Street, between Fulton and Willoughby Streets in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y. on March 6, 2019. There is another D.O.C. Rikers bus pick-up location in East Harlem. From Brooklyn, it takes 1 hour to get to Rikers.
A woman and child board the Department of Corrections bus to Rikers Island Correctional Facility at its pick-up location in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y. on March 6, 2019.
Tommy Vandetta, 23, sits on his bed at home in East Harlem, New York, N.Y. on March 9, 2019. Tommy's father has been held on $50,000 bail at Rikers Island Correctional Facility since December 2017. He’s been incarcerated for most of Tommy’s life, beginning when he was three, when he was sentenced to 18 years in an upstate penitentiary.
Tommy Vandetta holds a bottle of Royal Bain De Caron Champagne Cologne at his home in East Harlem, New York, N.Y. on March 9, 2019. Though he doesn't have many memories of being with his dad, he remembers his father's scent, which sits in a bottle on his mother's bedside table. Tommy’s father has been locked up since he was three years old. He was released when Tommy was 21 but rearrested shortly after on a parole violation. He is detained at Rikers, where he is awaiting trial.
Marco Barrios, 52, reads a poem while seated on his bed at his home in Woodside, Queens, N.Y. on January 26, 2019. The poem is about him and was written by his daughter, who was conceived during Marcos’s incarceration. Marco served a consecutive 24-and-a-half-year-long sentence in New York State prisons. He has been out of prison since 2017.
Marco Barrios sits in his home in Woodside, Queens, N.Y. on January 26, 2019.
An old photograph displayed in Marco Barrios’s home in Woodside, Queens, N.Y. on January 26, 2019. The photograph depicts a young Marco Barrios (right) with his mother and father in the family's home in Red Hook, Brooklyn, N.Y. Marco's father left the family when Marco was a child. A painful childhood, combined with his experiences as a veteran during the Gulf War, left Marco with undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder. He turned to drugs to cope, which contributed to his eventual incarceration.
Polaroids of Marcos and his daughter displayed in his home in Woodside, Queens, N.Y. on January 26, 2019. The photographs were taken in upstate N.Y. prisons, years apart, during Marco's 24-and-a-half-year-long incarceration. He has been out of prison since 2017.
Chakira Fontana, 22, rides the Q100 bus to Rikers Island Correctional Facility to visit her boyfriend David on December 23, 2019. David is incarcerated at Rikers Island, where he is awaiting trial.
Left: Chakira Fontana in her apartment on the Lower East Side, New York, N.Y. on January 8, 2019. Right: A photograph of a young Chakira Fontana and her father displayed in her home on the Lower East Side, New York, N.Y. on January 8, 2019. The photograph was taken in an upstate New York prison, where Chakira's father served a 12-year-sentence.
Chakira Fontana and her one-and-a-half-year-old son Ryan inside of their apartment on the Lower East Side, New York, N.Y. on January 4, 2019.
Chakira Fontana scrolls through her phone while her son Ryan looks on at their home on the Lower East Side, New York, N.Y. on January 4, 2019. Shortly before, Chakira was trying to get on a call with David, her boyfriend who is incarcerated at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, but she was unsuccessful.
Chakira Fontana holds her son Ryan at their home in the Lower East Side, New York, N.Y. on January 4, 2019.